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How to configure a Failover/High Availability installation of GFI FaxMaker

Author: Luis Fernandes

Answer

Applies to:
  • GFI FaxMaker 2013 and higher

You can achieve fax load balancing and high fax availability by using multiple installations of GFI FaxMaker servers. You will need to choose one of the following procedures in order to accomplish this: 
 
  • Note: If using Microsoft Exchange 2007, you need to use the second procedure below – ‘Using 2 IP’s in the SMTP Connector used for GFI FaxMaker’. Microsoft Exchange 2007 does not allow routing via DNS if custom address spaces are present in the ‘Send Connector’. 

Using MX records
 
In this setup, MX records will be configured so that e-mails addressed to the ‘faxmaker.com’ domain can be forwarded to one of the GFI FaxMaker installations. This setup can be used when GFI FaxMaker is installed with any SMTP server, including Microsoft Exchange server. 
 
Configure MX records for the faxmaker.com domain 
 
  1. Create a Mail exchange (MX) record for the ‘faxmaker.com’ domain in the DNS server which is being used by your mail server.
  2. Add an entry for each GFI FaxMaker server. 
  3. If you need a high fax availability, set the priority for each MX record entry as shown below:
    • faxmaker.com       MX       10         10.0.0.5
    • faxmaker.com       MX       100       10.0.0.6
    • In this case all outbound faxes will first be sent to 10.0.0.5. Should this not be available, the faxes will be routed to 10.0.0.6
  4. If you need a load balanced environment, set the same priority for each MX record entry as shown below:
    • faxmaker.com       MX       10       10.0.0.5
    • faxmaker.com       MX       10       10.0.0.6
    • In this example the load of outbound faxes will be shared equally between 10.0.0.5 and 10.0.0.6
 
 
Configure the SMTP Connector used for GFI FaxMaker to route using DNS 
 
IF you are using Microsoft Exchange server, you can configure the SMTP connector as shown below.
 
  1. Open Exchange System Manager
  2. Expand ‘Connectors’ and locate the SMTP Connector used for GFI FaxMaker
  3. Right click on the SMTP Connector used for GFI FaxMaker -> Properties
  4. In the ‘General’ tab select the option ‘Use DNS to route to each address space in this connector.’
  5. Repeat step 1 to step 4 for each Microsoft Exchange server.   If you are using another mail server, please consult your mail server’s documentation. You will need to configure your mail server to accept emails for faxmaker.com and forward these emails using DNS
 
Using 2 IP’s in the SMTP Connector used for GFI FaxMaker 
 
The SMTP Connector used for GFI FaxMaker in Microsoft Exchange can be configured to use one of multiple IP addresses. Should Microsoft Exchange server not manage to forward the emails addressed to the faxmaker.com domain to the first IP address, it will try to send the emails to the other IP addresses. When multiple IP addresses are specified as smarthosts in the SMTP connector, the connector uses each smarthost in a rotating order so that emails are forwarded to each smart host equally. 
Use the following procedure to configure your Microsoft Exchange SMTP connector to use this method: 
 
Microsoft Exchange 2007
  1. Open Exchange Management Console
  2. Expand ‘Organization Configuration’ -> ‘Hub Transport’ 
  3. Locate the Microsoft Exchange Send Connector used for GFI FaxMaker
  4. Right click on the Send Connector used for GFI FaxMaker and select Properties 
  5. In the ‘Network’ tab select the option ‘Route mail through the following smart hosts:'
  6. In the field below, add the IP addresses of all FaxMaker servers. This will ensure that Microsoft Exchange distributes faxes equally on all the IP addresses in the list. Should the SMTP server on one of the IP addresses be unavailable, the other IP addresses will be used 
 
Microsoft Exchange 2003 
  1. Open Exchange System Manager
  2. Expand ‘Connectors’ and locate the Microsoft Exchange SMTP Connector used for GFI FaxMaker
  3. Right click on the SMTP Connector used for GFI FaxMaker and select Properties
  4. In the ‘General’ tab select the option ‘Forward all mail through this connector to the following smart hosts:'
  5. In the field below, place the IP addresses of both servers as follows:
[IP];[IP]
 
Example:
[10.0.0.5];[10.0.0.6]
In this example, Microsoft Exchange will distribute faxes equally on both the IP addresses. Should the SMTP server on one of the IP addresses be unavailable, the other ip address will be used 
 
Notes: For these procedures to work correctly, all installations of GFI FaxMaker have to be installed on a different machine than Microsoft Exchange.