Using OS X Server as a backup nameserver and mail relay

Hi there
I manage websites and email on behalf of a number of clients, and until now have just used basic shared hosting for all their needs. However, I have had issues with the hosts, and have recently moved over to a VPS at my webhost to give me more scope and control.
I have roughly got my head around everything I need to do to make it work from a theory point of view with DNS, email etc, but now the technical part of setting up backups on my OS X server is challenging me. There are two main services I want to offer backup for using my little home server on a static IP: backuo mail-relay and nameserver. The key is that these are pure backup for the 0.01% of the time that any webhost has a problem, so I am comfortable that they can be done from home.
There are two specific areas I hope to use the Mac backup for:
1) I want to ensure that should the VPS go down (or need to be restarted/maintained) I have a backup mail server to catch and queue mail until my server is back up. I think this is straightforward(ish) for a single domain, but I need to be able to do this for multiple users over multiple domains. Can anyone point me in the right direction for setting this up?
2) As part of this, to be a bit more professional, I am using the VPS as a nameserver, so my clients see my domain as their nameserver. While I have multiple IPs, I only have one VPS, so if this goes down then the mail backup I set up above won't be contactable as the nameserver will also be down. Therefore I also need to be able to set up OS X as a secondary (slave) nameserver for all the domains. Again, can anyone point me in the right direction for this?
Many thanks
Richard

You would setup your backup mail server as a secondary MX server. But you have to ask yourself is it worth the effort. What is the SLA you have with your hosting provider. If they guarantee 99.9% uptime then a mail server may only ever go down for 1 or 2 hours max. Mail would not be lost during this time it would just get queued.
What front end is your VPS using is it CPANEL or Plesk?
Here is an interesting document that relates to cPanel.
How To Setup Backup or Secondary MX in CPanel

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I have indexing turned off for all my drives
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Message Edited by cascao on 08-16-2005 08:42 PM
Message Edited by cascao on 08-16-2005 08:42 PM
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SubVI_1.vi ‏19 KB

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What is NAS?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage
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Using OS X Server as a backup nameserver and mail relay

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