Topic: Urgent Help regarding mails

[pabby_s]

HI,

I have backed up and restored the SME server on new machine. Even though it restored from USB stick it still asked me fro the configuration. I had to recreate all accounts. Now that i have done that the issue is with emails. when i try outlook it says server rejected logon.

Please help as i cannot access emails.

[mercyh]

when i try outlook it says server rejected logon.

Did you reset the password on the accounts when you built them? They are locked when you build them and must have a password set before you can access.

If you have changed the password and are using your old outlook mail account settings with saved password from the old server, it will of course not work as it is supplying an incorrect password.

Even though it restored from USB stick it still asked me fro the configuration. I had to recreate all accounts.

I wonder if your backup and restore actually worked. This should have recreated the accounts and brought over the user's mail folders and home directories.

[mercyh]

If you have that stick formatted as FAT32 you can put it in a windows machine. You can then open the .tgz file with something like 7-zip, then open the .tar file and see what is in there.

you should have three folders

etc
home
root

Your mail is in

\home\e-smith\files\users\"your_user_name"\Maildir\

[pfloor]

HI,

I have backed up and restored the SME server on new machine.

What backup/restore method did you use?

Even though it restored from USB stick it still asked me fro the configuration.

Please explain what "it still asked me for the configuration" means and exactly when in the process this occurred?

what  I had to recreate all accounts.

You should not have had to recreate the accounts if you used an approved backup/restore method, it appears you used a non-standard method or something went wrong.

[pabby_s]

Backup Method:
Backup to USB

Restore:
Restore from USB

the system went through the whole process of restore and then it said activating settings, when it restarted it asked for administrator password
then i had to reconfigure everything

[pabby_s]

Hi,

I have found MailDir folder, and all files in it. Now i have copied them on usb stick. i do not know what to do next. This is a dumb question however i am newbie to linux, Please help.

Regards
Pabby

[mercyh]

I have found MailDir folder, and all files in it. Now i have copied them on usb stick.

Are you seeing these on the old drive or in the USB backup? If you are seeing the three folders I mentioned in the previous post in the .tgz file on the usb stick, and the last file in etc/ is smbpasswd, You should have a valid backup and we can work with the restore process.


Are you still able to boot the old server? If the answer is yes, I would suggest another try at backing up the server.

How much data is on the server? If you have less then 2gb you should be able to use the server manager backup and restore option.

How many users do you have on this machine?

It is possible to manually copy the files into the maildirs on the new machine, however it is not a job for somebody who is unfamiliar with linux as you will more then likely have to change all the user:group ownerships and rights on the files.

[CharlieBrady]

I wonder if your backup and restore actually worked.

Clearly one of them didn't. The OP should open a bug report, and should also repeat the process, rather than try to restore files piecemeal.

[pabby_s]

Hi

The old server is totally dead now. The files i can see from USB backup. When i try to unpack using winzip it gives me error in one user. So i suppose the backup was not done properly. total users 10 need to get email.

Please help me with one user and i will replicate for others.

[pabby_s]

Just an update i have unpacked Maildir folder on USB now i am looking for next steps please.

[mercyh]

Charlie and pabby_s,

This is a bit complicated and starts with this post: http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=42220.0

OP had a machine installed as 7.2 that died and now is trying to restore to 7.3 <I just figured this out now>. If I follow these two threads, he got the 7.2 machine up again for a short time and did a backup. Should he install another 7.2, attempt the restore, and then upgrade to 7.3?

The reason for my question about the USB files is at this time we have no way of knowing if the problem is that the "undead" server is not doing a correct backup or if the new server is not doing a correct restore.

[pabby_s]

Hi Mercy,

The old server is totally dead. The hard drive is faulty.

[mercyh]

pabby,

I am very reluctant to try and walk you through manually restoring the MailDir's. I have done it myself one time and it is a very tedious process. I do not feel competent to do it long distance on somebody else's machine. 

If your backup will not build the users, I think manually restoring maildir's is going to be your only option. I was hoping that CharlieBrady would answer the 7.2>7.3 restore question as this may be the problem. I would not say that the winzip file error is conclusive as I am not sure that winzip can manipulate .gtz and .tar files correctly.

[pabby_s]

Hi Mercy,

If you could tell me the steps please that will be great help. Now the old server is dead so i have nothing to loose but my job. Please help.

[mercyh]

I am working on a PM to you.

You can still receive mail at your yahoo address?