Redundant smarthosts can be configured via MX records, however if the netapp just looks at an A record, you are relying on one host (that A record) to always be up.
--- Chris Thompson cet1@cus.cam.ac.uk wrote:
juanino@yahoo.com writes:
doh. Bug 104202 already exists. I would tend to
think
it's more than a level 5 "suggestion", but as long
as
it's logged I suppose.
Actually, 102402 seems to be based on a misapprehension.
ONTAP is acting a a dumb client when sending e-mail; it's relying on a "smarthost" to do the RFC2821 routing for it. This is a perfectly familiar configuration, used by MUAs on PCs all over the place. Finding out where the smarthost is, as specified by autosupport.mailhost, is a host lookup issue not having anything to do with RFC2821. It might come from a DNS A record, but it could equally well come from /etc/hosts.
If ONTAP did full RFC2821 routing, it wouldn't need the autosupport.mailhost specification at all. It would analyse the recipient addresses and look everything up in the DNS, doing the full job with MX and A records and the rest of it. The copy for autosupport@netapp.com would go straight from the filer to mx02.netapp.com (this week).
Lots of installations will have filers on networks well insulated from the Internet, and will absolutely need e-mail to go through a specified gateway, so that option has to be retained. Who would actually benefit from ONTAP providing the option of full RFC2821 routing? Only those having no machine _capable_ of functioning as a smarthost.
Autosupport messages _are_ getting bigger, but I don't think the total volume of e-mail having to be relayed by a smarthost is likely to be an issue for anyone!
Chris Thompson Email: cet1@cam.ac.uk
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