Koozali.org: home of the SME Server

Legacy Forums => General Discussion (Legacy) => Topic started by: pcdoc on March 06, 2006, 09:01:54 AM

Title: import Maildir items. backup tape and hdd failed
Post by: pcdoc on March 06, 2006, 09:01:54 AM

Hi, typical problem for service people

Customer had 6.01 installed on a server a year or so back. They liked (past tense now :)) to do things on the cheap, so used an old compaq (P233) with backups done over we to desktop, then to tape on the client machine.

Well, as most things go, the machine died. We built them a new server using 7pre3 as I believe the Mairdir formats are the same, and they use IMAP mail readers.

Guess what, the tape backup didn't. ie. old tapes, hadn't been replaced in two years, and never had the data verified. Therefore, no backup data. The hard drive being used in the old server was u/s, but we could retrieve data from it, just not boot from it.

So now I have 2.5 Gb of email in Maildir format, and the client wants his mail back. I have had a look around google, tried copying the data back to the correct users folders, checked file permissions etc.. I get a lot of files listed in their IMAP client, but no data, headers etc.

Anyone want to point me in the correct direction to start looking for a solutions, or just email me a script to do the job if you have one in your tool box :)

Thanks in advance.

pc_doc

Title: import Maildir items. backup tape and hdd failed
Post by: mdo on March 06, 2006, 11:00:14 AM

I have not done that before but here is what I would try:

The folder names will be different under SME7. Under 6 if it was for example 'mailfolder;subfolder-level1;subfolder-level2' you will have to rename it under SME 7 to be 'mailfolder.subfolder-level1.subfolder.level2'.

If that's still not working, my next step would be to focus on the mail files only and to remove all files like '.imap.xxx' or even '.customflags' (would try for 1 user first!). Those files should be recreated once you open the mailfolder from  the email client. You might also want to try with different imap mail clients (Thunderbird and Outlook Express seem both to work very well).

Of course this might only be suitable for a limited amount of users, not if you have hundreds of them.

Michael

Title: import Maildir items. backup tape and hdd failed
Post by: CharlieBrady on March 06, 2006, 04:45:38 PM

Quote from: "mdo"

rent under SME7. Under 6 if it was for example 'mailfolder;subfolder-level1;subfolder-level2' you will have to rename it under SME 7 to be 'mailfolder.subfolder-level1.subfolder.level2'.

Running:

signal-event post-upgrade
signal-event reboot

will do any folder renaming which is required.

Title: import Maildir items. backup tape and hdd failed
Post by: pcdoc on March 07, 2006, 01:20:43 PM

Thanks MDO and Charlie.

Didnt get a chance to do it today, another client killed their asterisk server - one of their 'IT experts' thought it would be good to install XP on a machine that was just running linux, because they could use make a dual boot machine out of it....  Don't think he will be working there tomorrow :)

Anyhow... will get back to the mail problem tomorrow. Will let you know then.

Thanks again for the tips.