Topic: Mailbox backup before upgrade on 4.1

[Terje Romen]

Hallo there!
I'd like to back up all user mailboxes before upgrading E-Smith 4.1 to 5.1.2, but it doesn't seem like mailboxes are included in "backup to desktop" and I'm experiencing trouble backing up to DAT.
Can anyone confirm if mailboxes are included in "backup to desktop" or if there's a way around this?
Also, is it considered safe to upgrade "directly" from 4.1 to 5.1.2?
Best regards,
Terje Romen

[Nathan Fowler]

You could use a manual backup using tar:

tar --create --gzip --file=/root/users.tgz /home/e-smith/files/users

This would backup and gzip all user directories, saving the gzipped tarball to /root/users.tgz.  This would include the /Maildir folder and subfolders.

[Charlie Brady]

Terje Romen wrote:

> I'd like to back up all user mailboxes before upgrading
> E-Smith 4.1 to 5.1.2, but it doesn't seem like mailboxes are
> included in "backup to desktop"

I'm curious as to what makes you say that.

> and I'm experiencing trouble
> backing up to DAT.
> Can anyone confirm if mailboxes are included in "backup to
> desktop" or if there's a way around this?

They are included.

> Also, is it considered safe to upgrade "directly" from 4.1 to
> 5.1.2?

It's safe, but of course you'll make and verify a backup first. Any problems we're aware of should be detailed on the bugs page.

Regards

Charlie

[Terje Romen]

Charlie Brady wrote:
>
> Terje Romen wrote:
>
> > I'd like to back up all user mailboxes before upgrading
> > E-Smith 4.1 to 5.1.2, but it doesn't seem like mailboxes are
> > included in "backup to desktop"
>
> I'm curious as to what makes you say that.

I'm probably wrong here, but the reason I anticipated this, is that the content of the ibays is the same as the total backup (in MB). I therefore thought that perhaps mailboxes, for some reason, were excluded from "backup to desktop".

>
> > and I'm experiencing trouble
> > backing up to DAT.
> > Can anyone confirm if mailboxes are included in "backup to
> > desktop" or if there's a way around this?
>
> They are included.

I'll try to do a "backup to desktop" on another OS, accepting files up tp 22GB, which is my total volume, or move the ibay content to another machine and then backup. Is it considered safe to do the backup suggested above by NF? if I cannot fit everything into a "backup to desktop" because of what seems to be a file size limit (4-5GB?), this looks like my best solution before upgrading.

>
> > Also, is it considered safe to upgrade "directly" from 4.1 to
> > 5.1.2?
>
> It's safe, but of course you'll make and verify a backup
> first. Any problems we're aware of should be detailed on the
> bugs page.
>
> Regards
>
> Charlie

Thanks to both of you!
Terje