Topic: Email migration from old unix dinosaur to SME

[markehle]

Hello, Folks -

I have been given the task of upgrading our email server to a new machine and software. Of course, the software will be SME. The machine will be a new HP proliant of some sort.

Our old email server is an ancient Sun Sparcstation 5. It also is running our DNS. It must be 8 years old, and we want to change it out this summer before it dies. I want to use SME, but my boss is a real chicken about change, and I need to pull this off smoothly, or she will not allow me to linux for anything but our proxy server. I would love to  use SME for everything in one box (firewall, web, dns, email, fileserver, etc.) but she would have a cow, screaming something about all our eggs in one basket.

My questions are:

How do I migrate the email from the old server to the new? Are there any relevant documents on the web?

Can an SME box perform DNS if it is not acting as the firewall? We are using a separate firewall.  

Thanks for your help!

Mark Ehle
Computer Support Librarian
Willard Public Library
Battle Creek, MI

[tape]

i guess the mailboxes are saved in mbox format (sendmailish). You can convrt them to maildir using different tools (mbox2maildir). Have  a look at www.qmail.org for example.

SME doesn´t have a full featured DNS server but should be enough for many uses, SME act as a gateway to your router/firewall for example if you are using two network interfaces.

hth
Anton

[markehle]

OK - I need to be clearer.

In our current setup, the email server is in the DMZ of our firewall. It serves email and is our DNS server. I would love to replace the firewall with SME, but my boss is a tech dynosaur, and cannot wrap her mind around that much change , even though our life would be easier.

I would like to replace our current email/DNS server in the same position relative to our network (DMZ)with an SME box. I think that the email part is easy enough, but DNS? Will it serve DNS requests from our inside network if it is in the DMZ?

Thanks again -  

Mark

[dmac]

Sounds like your proposed new solution would be identical to your existing solution with the exception of the Server being SME vs Solaris.

How is your DNS handled now?  Are you hosting a private company DNS Zone inside?  Based on your comments about the DNS Server being in the DMZ i suspect not.  

As long as your client have the correct IP for the DNS server and can reach that server via the current firewall/router configuration, you should be able to use the SME Server as the DNS Server.  As pointed out, SME does not have alot of the DNS features you may be used to with Solaris, but should work OK as a proxy.

Darin

[macduck]

Almost still on topic I would like to know if anyone can suggest options for migrating mail from one mail server to another. The short story is that I have a hosted server running qmail/courier etc and I want to move everything to my own SME server at home. Moving the web sites is easy but it turns out moving mail is not quite cut and paste like the web sites.

[macduck]

Almost still on topic I would like to know if anyone can suggest options for migrating mail from one mail server to another. The short story is that I have a hosted server running qmail/courier etc and I want to move everything to my own SME server at home. Moving the web sites is easy but it turns out moving mail is not quite cut and paste like the web sites.

[macduck]

Almost still on topic I would like to know if anyone can suggest options for migrating mail from one mail server to another. The short story is that I have a hosted server running qmail/courier etc and I want to move everything to my own SME server at home. Moving the web sites is easy but it turns out moving mail is not quite cut and paste like the web sites.

[tape]

so if your hosted server also runs on qmail it is not that complicated.

Also SME server runs parst of qmail and stires its user mail in a Maildir structure. The only bad part is, on SME server the IMAP folders are named different than on a default courier install.

I am not sure yet, have no SME server right here now, but have a look at /home/e-smith/files/users/[username]/[Mail|Maildir]

The imap folders are named with a preceding ; as far i remember. For regular mails it should work if you create the same usernames using the Server-Manager panel, then copy the mail files from the old servers user dir to the new one and change the file attributes as needed.
For imap folders you have to check the folder structure under the old server, then check where to store them underthe users dir on the new server with a renamed foldername and copy the files from the old server to the new one.
Of course, this can be done with a bash script and shouldn´t that complicated. For the file transfer i recommend using rsync.

hth
Anton

[macduck]

Thanks Anton,

A little too labour intensive for my liking but it does work so long as you are really careful and pay attention to what you are doing. I will be doing this for users who are not that comfortable with advanced features but for experienced users I found another option. I have both servers running (MX record pointing to the new server) and I have the users set up IMAP accounts for both servers using Thunderbird (Mozilla) and all they have to do is drag and drop their mail and folders from the old server to the new server. I have also had limited success with Fetchmail but that can get out of control.

Anyway that's my ten cents, hey whatever works.

PS I have no idea why my last post appeared three times.

[wickedImp]

Great thread ppl!

I've just upgraded from 5.6 to 6.0.1 - now to say 'upgrade' is stretching the truth but I did a backup to desktop then swapped out the tiny HDD on the server for a bigger one, installed 6.0.1 and tried a restore.. nope.. that didn't work.. so back to the drawing board...

What I have now is a series of archive files (consisting of the users emails) and a very frustrated face trying to get the mails to go in the right places and actually show up.. it wasn't just a case of dumping the files across! I think I'm having problems due to the GUID UID settings on each of the qmail files..

I am proposing to build another 5.6 box, hook it up to the network and let the users drag and drop their old email's over to the new box... Of course I'll make sure that the planets are in the correct alignment, that my left leg is raised 42deg from the ground throughout and that I'm standing in a circle of salt.. lol!

Anyway.. until then I'm open to suggestions...

[wickedImp]

I just wanted to come back and report that I followed my plan.. well sort of.. and it all went well.

For some reason the newly installed 5.6 box wouldn't take the restore and crashed the browser continually but I copied the whole tgz file over to the server and upacked it in the right place, restarted etc..

It all seemed to work fine, although I did have to reset all the users passwords again to get the mail clients to be able to log into the two boxes simultaniously. Copying over was a breeze too.. and I used thunderbird for the task!