Topic: Cyrus Imap for sme7 and sme8

[mudtoe]

Yes, I'm going to use Toltec.  I've got an SME 7.1 installation that I wanted to upgrade, but for whatever reason the upgrade always fails, so I'm going to have to start with a fresh 7.3 installation and then move my Toltec clients to the new installation. 

Fortunately, this particular Toltec installation is for just my personal use and I have 3 computers with the calendar, tasks, contacts and notes synched with Toltec (I'm using some other method to synch the other users).  I don't synch the emails themselves with Toltec; I just let IMAP do the emails.  I know that this is going to involve some issues; so my thought was that I'd take just one of the three computers first, switch it to the new SME server, which should cause the data from that copy of Outlook to be uploaded to the new Toltec.  Then I was going to completely erase all the Outlook data from the other two computers and then let them synch to the new SMEServer which should cause the data to be downloaded without causing duplicates.  Both the SMEServer and the first computer I'm going to test with are running as VMs, so I can make snapshots before I try this and if I screw it up I can just revert to the snapshot and try again. 

Do you have a better idea of how to go about this?  I know if I had lots of machines to do my method would probably be too labor intensive, but for just three machines I figured it was probably the most straightforward way.
 
mudtoe

[soprom]

First, it is important to keep in mind that Toltec syncs using the UUID of an account. In order to transfer shared stuff, we have to start by disconnecting from Toltec (detach store). The shared items are kept in each local "personal folder". Be carefull not to flush workstation content if they hold items shared to others!

What I do is detach all workstation, then transfer all imap content to the new server with imapcopy. Finally I re-attach to Toltec (you may have to use cyradm to reconstruct mbox after the copy).

On re-attaching, Toltec will resync to the new server with the new UUID. All items in personal folder shared to others will be publish. You will find folders marked as "UNSHARED" corresponding to content received from Toltec before the switch.

Once, I did not detach and got myself with all items twice!


other sync methods?

Out of curiosity, you mentioned "(I'm using some other method to synch the other users)"...
could you tell what you use for that?

[soprom]

just a note to readers...

cyrus-imap is often associated with proprietary software like Toltec (as in this thread).

Some will discard cyrus-imap too quickly in my view. It is an excellent solution, works fine with egroupware and thunderbird.

No need to use any proprietary software to make use of it. proprietary software is needed to link Outlook clients one to the other (calendar, notes, etc..)

[mudtoe]

How do you prevent duplicates when you reconnect the other clients if you don't clear their outlook pst files first?   Based on what you posted it looks to me like your approach is to copy the Toltec data from one Cyrus installation to another, and then let the clients reconnect, whereas I was planning to just keep one client with all it's data and let it repopulate the Cyrus database on the new machine, and then reconnect the other clients after having cleared their pst files.  Also, what is imapcopy?  I haven't heard of it.

With regard to the other synch program, some of my users are using 4team sync2 and keeping the central store on one of the windows machine.  Some of them do it for all their stuff and just do their emails as POP3, and a few others are connected to an SMEServer for IMAP email, and just use sync2 to synchronize the non-email stuff, much as I'm doing with Toltec.  I got into this project after some users were already using sync2, and I started using Toltec for myself to verify that it worked before deploying it to others.  Sync2 is more expensive per seat, which was the chief complaint about it, and is why I started playing with Toltec in the first place, but because of the fact I can't get SMEServer to upgrade from 7.1 to 7.3 without a reinstall it's become a bit more of a maintenance drag than the sync2 product.  The other thing better about Toltec is that the data is backed up with the email server backup whereas a special procedure has to be used to backup the sync2 store off of one of the client windows machines.  If you haven't heard of sync2 here's the link to it:

http://www.sync2.com/

mudtoe

[soprom]

Imapcopy is explained here:
http://sonoracomm.com/support/19-inet-support/60-imapcopy

It's a very interesting and effective tool to transfer imap accounts to an other server.

Concerning Toltec, you have a look to their manual and email them. They answer in a couple of days.

The last 2 migrations I did were using Affa. So I didn't have to worry about nothing at all.

I don't think it is necessary to clear any Outlook content. Just detach from server1, and attach to server2. If all clients are using POP, they will keep their content. If they share items, they will be published on the new server.

The problem arise when there are IMAP contents to transfer.

When a client detaches from a server, its contents are kept localy.

[mudtoe]

So, if I use imapcopy to transfer the data from the 7.1 SME Cyrus to the 7.3 SME Cyrus I can just detach each client from the 7.1 Toltec and reattach it to the 7.3 Toltec and I won't create duplicates, even though the outlook clients still have a copy of the information in their local PST file?  When you reattach Toltec is smart enough to look at the items in the local PST file, compare them to the stuff already copied into SME 7.3, and not create duplicates in the SMEServer Cyrus IMAP database?  Remember that I'm only using Toltec for the PIM stuff (e.g. calendar, tasks, contacts, etc.) and I'm leaving all the regular email data as generic IMAP.
 
mudtoe

[soprom]

Toltec staff will confirm to you the correct procedure.
It is best to valideate with them...

[_alex]

Hello,

I am very interressed in this solution and have been trying to reach
http://www.logiciel-libre.org/downloads/cyrus-imap-sme-howto/
for few days with no luck (http timeout).

Any chance to get the host back up, or maybe just the needed files?

Cheers,
--
alex

[soprom]

Hi,

My pages are being reorganized. See http://www.logiciel-libre.org/Howto-Cyrus. Use 'search' with 'cyrus'...

I don't use cyrus anymore but there is enough info there for you to get going.

Please note that I stopped using cyrus since mobility and synching became more important in my setups. This cyrus implementation allows for lan access, not wan.

It worked fine for quite some time on my side. With the Toltec Outlook Connector, it is super!

I should add that for a non-dev, it was somewhat more stressfull to use since I was on my own with no other support that what's on the web (and a kind watchfull eye from Charlie once in a while)...

It is worth the experience. It's a completly new world!!!

Good luck,

Sophie

[_alex]

Hello Sophie,

My intention is to use cyrus with SOGo (dovecot version shipped with SME doesn't support shared folders).
Well, it looks like your host www.logiciel-libre.org is still down...

Code: [Select]

$ ping -c5 www.logiciel-libre.org
PING www.logiciel-libre.org (209.62.36.4) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- www.logiciel-libre.org ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 3999ms

Merci encore,
--
Alex

[soprom]

Ok I see. Wait until www resolves to 184.154.228.4
DNS has been just fixed (hosting changed)...

[_alex]

Thanks a lot Sophie, it works now.

--
Alex