Multiple instances and mail config

Question

Maybe I dont understand the right concept of multiple
instances but what I did was the following:
Setup up an instance for each domain I have running as a
VHost on apache.
What I was trying to accomplish is the failover of any one
domain and also to use separate mail settings for each domain.
But this is where I seem to have misunderstood the concept of
multiple instances, is it not possible to use a different smtp
server for each domain? When my forms for each domain generates an
email I want the email to originate from that domain not the main
one setup in CF...
Thanks

Answer 1

Your on the right track.
Set up say 4 websites (virtual hosts) eg www.mydomain1.com,
www.mydomain2.com etc
Set up 4 cf instances if you have 4 domains, maybe call them
mydomain1, mydomain2 etc
Using the Web Server configuration tool, config the cf
instance mydomain1 to virtual host mydomain1, cf instance mydomain2
to VH mydomain2 etc
The website should now be working using their own Cf
instances.
Go into the CF Admin, scroll to the bottom of the left menu
and you should see Instance Manager
Clicking on this should either reveal the 4 cf instances or
you may have to add them (should be a button)
Once you see all 4, you should be able to click on the admin
for each individual instance and change the smtp server as
appropriate.
This won't give you failover though, if a CF instance goes
down, that site is gone. Clustering is the way to give failover and
you can achieve this fairly easily.
Expanding on the above example, you would create 8 CF
instances eg mydomain1-1 mydomain1-2, mydomain2-1 mydomain2-2.
Create 4 clusters eg mydomain1cluster, mydomain2cluster etc
In the CF Administrator Add mydomain1-1, mydomain1-2
instances to mydomain1cluster etc
Using the Web Server configuration tool, config the cluster
mydomain1cluster to virtual host mydomain1 etc
each domain should now be using 2 cf instances, you will be
able to down on of those instances the the site will continue
working.
Back in the instance manager under CF Admin, you should now
have 8 instances - config mydomain1-1, mydomain1-2 to the
appropriate smtp server etc
The above is for CF MX 6 onwards too, not sure about previous
versions.
I think thats what your after? I've skimmed over some parts
above in relation to the clustering, but there's a handy doc
floating around on the web by Herrlich & Ramuschkat that will
guide you through it.
BTW, those instances can sit on multiple physical servers for
hardware redundancy. Depending on how many domains you have and the
power of your machines, this is a preferred way to go although
expensive due to multiple CF licences