Hi
I replaced my crashed mail server(i.e sendmail on Redhat 9.0) machine (lets say machine A) with new machnine(say it machine B) and configured all mail accounts from scratch. Now machine B is working fine. After a month of time I fixed the hardware problem and also upgraded mail server of machine A and now I want to plug it again in my existing network and use it as the default mail server. Now I want to transfer all mail accounts and mails from B to A without discontinueing the mail service. What is the best way to do it?
Regards, Bilal Ahmed Mazhar.
On Wednesday 12 Jan 2005 9:50 am, Bilal Ahmed Mazhar wrote:
Hi
I replaced my crashed mail server(i.e sendmail on Redhat 9.0) machine (lets say machine A) with new machnine(say it machine B) and configured all mail accounts from scratch. Now machine B is working fine. After a month of time I fixed the hardware problem and also upgraded mail server of machine A and now I want to plug it again in my existing network and use it as the default mail server. Now I want to transfer all mail accounts and mails from B to A without discontinueing the mail service. What is the best way to do it?
are the mail accounts the same as the user accounts? If so webmin has a handy batch adduser utility. You can create the file for the batch entry by suitably editing copies of the /etc/passwd,shadow and group files on machine B and then recreating the accounts on A. After that copy /var/spool/mail from B to A.
Evening Mazhar,
Now I want to transfer all mail accounts and mails from B to A without discontinueing the mail service. What is the best way to do it?
<snip> I will just put in brief. 1. Copy all the user databses from "passwd & shadow" file. ( Assuming you are using same for authentication. If not then shift the user base database to Server A. 2. Copy Users "$USER_HOME", if in case you are storing mails in users home. 3. Copy "/var/spool/mail/" from B to A. 4. Copy all the latest changes for any mailing list "/etc/alias" or any other configuration changes.
PS: Make sure while doing this, you set up temp. Queue server, where in you accepts mail for your domain ( holding in queue. ). and most important, copy "/var/spool/mqueue" folder also, so that you don't miss your existing queue.
Do all this after taking your sendmail server down. Regards, Animesh.
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I replaced my crashed mail server(i.e sendmail on Redhat 9.0) machine (lets say machine A) with new machnine(say it machine B) and configured all mail accounts from scratch. Now machine B is working fine. After a month of time I fixed the hardware problem and also upgraded mail server of machine A and now I want to plug it again in my existing network and use it as the default mail server. Now I want to transfer all mail accounts and mails from B to A without discontinueing the mail service. What is the best way to do it?
At a time when the mail server load is minimal, a) Get both machines up and running on the network.
b) Rsync B to A all Relevant folders or simply copy the relevant stuff.
c) Switch the IP address/name of machine B to a placeholder temporary ip/name.
d) Change the IP address and name of machine A to what B was when it was running as the primary mail server.
e) If your two machines are identical in terms of software and content, users should not notice the difference.
A few mails may be lost though, if you do not have soft bounce enabled and they were received when the switch or rsyncing was going on.
hope this helps.
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Abhishek Daga -
Animesh Singh -
Bilal Ahmed Mazhar -
Kenneth Gonsalves