VPS and mail servers? What if the VPS is down?

[fsd]

So I use google apps to power my email and so use their mx records in my domain name. The domain name itself points to my server domain name and on my server (in kloxo) I set my other domain name (the one I am using for email) to have google's mx records there.

So what happened if I someone / something sends me an email at that domain name and my VPS is down? Like what if I was resetting it at that moment and it wasn't back up yet or something else? Is the email lost forever? Do they get cued somewhere and it will try again in a bit? Or will the sender be notified that it was an invalid address?


Curious as I am kinda using those email for some more important stuff now.


Thanks!

 

[wswd]

Since Google's MX servers shouldn't be down if/when the VPS is, it should send basically an "undeliverable" message back to the sending server. The sending server should then attempt to resend the emails at some given interval. Some will retry ever hour for 24-48 hours, some will retry every 4-5 hours, just depends. But the mail should not be lost assuming your VPS isn't down for days.

 

[Technut]

We use a Gmail backup email address and this in turn sends and receives to both emails just in case one email address failed. Redundant, yes but if you have ever tried to run a web hosting company with out emails... its ugly!

 

[fsd]

Hmm ok. Thanks!