Migration Test

soxfan · Post by **soxfan** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 12:42 pm

I am a Systems / Email Administrator for a relatively small user base (300-400 users). We currently have a pretty basic setup for email. We have a Linux server running Postfix, and all the users have regular UNIX accounts on the server. All our clients use Outlook, but we are only doing POP3 email. We do not have any shared calendars, or group address lists. I have been pushing the company to move towards a more server-centric solution that will give us some of these "Exchange-like" features, but I definitely want it to be Linux-based software. I think Zimbra may be a good fit for our needs.
I'm planning on installing the Open Source Edition on a new server. Initially I would like to test just the email portion of Zimbra with one user. Ideally it would be user in our current email domain, and email would still come into our existing email server, but then forwarded over to the Zimbra server. The next stage would be to move a small group (5-10 users) over to the Zimbra server to test and/or demonstrate some of the other features, like the calendaring and group address lists. Finally, assuming I get a green light to proceed, I would probably want to move the users over in stages, although I would also consider doing it in one fell swoop.
I'm looking for ideas on the best way to proceed with this type of test and possible migration. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
John

14319KevinH · Post by **14319KevinH** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 1:03 pm

Welcome. Assuming you can simply forward mail for the test accounts and you have IMAP access to the current mail you can use imapsync to get a copy. If they POP/delete then there is no mail to migrate and you can just set up a rule/filter to forward a copy of mail to Zimbra. In fact we've had lots of trial where customers used imapsync to bring in all the accounts, then set up a forward for several accounts and allowed people to explore the Zimbra UI with some of their mail. Then when your ready to switch just make sure all the users' change their POP server's to look at Zimbra and you can then move the Mx record to the new server. You might want to read a little about split domain. This talks about a few techniques for running Zimbra in parallel with your current mail system.
http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=Split_Domain

soxfan · Post by **soxfan** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 2:08 pm

Thanks for the reply. I did briefly look at the Split Domain document, but figured I was getting a little ahead of myself for the one user test, and probably even for the 5-10 user test. We currently do POP/delete so there is no mail to migrate from the server. But I was probably going to investigate the tool to migrate Outlook pst files. Anyway, at least initially I'm more interested in getting a feel for the Zimbra interface and how it works in our real-life environment.
I guess the one initial question/concern I have is related to forwarding email from my current email server over to the Zimbra server. I know with the Postfix alias table I can forward email from one account to another; I've done this on several occassions. But in this case I'm not really sending it to a different account. I just want the email to end up on another server. I don't really have any experience with doing this. I was hoping someone on the forum may have done something similar to what I am looking to do.

14319KevinH · Post by **14319KevinH** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 2:28 pm

If you set up zimbra with a test domain then you can just forward the mail via smtp. If you don't want to take that route your back in split domain land. IMHO split domain is better if you want to use this first install as your eventual production server. If you plan to reinstall at some point then a test domain is better.

soxfan · Post by **soxfan** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:02 pm

Thanks again. I think I'm going to have to do a reinstall anyway, so I'll probably start with the test domain, at least for my one user test.
One additional question. I just walked through the install and it setup the domain as "servername.mydomain.com". What do I need to change so that the domain is simply "mydomain.com"?

14319KevinH · Post by **14319KevinH** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:13 pm

You should be able to create a new domain in the admin UI. Also create a new admin user. then remove the old domain. It might just be easier to re-install as it only takes a minute or two.

soxfan · Post by **soxfan** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:43 pm

Maybe I'm just missing something obvious, but I don't see where the installation let me specify a domain. Is it based off of the admin account that I choose to create?

14319KevinH · Post by **14319KevinH** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 4:00 pm

Yes I think the current installer will create the domain based on the admin user.

soxfan · Post by **soxfan** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:32 am

Changing the default admin account to admin@"mydomain.com" did not do the trick. The installation program is still trying to create the default domain as "servername.mydomain.com". I did a search on the forums and it appears that at some point the installation program prompted for the default domain, but that does not appear to be the case with the release I am trying (3.0.1 GA 160 for RHEL4).
Also, I read more closely the Split Domain document and now I think that is the route I will take even for my one user test. However, the one question I have with this method is, if and when I migrate all my users over to the Zimbra server what configuration changes would I have to make so that this is the one and only email server in my domain?

14319KevinH · Post by **14319KevinH** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 1:54 pm

It should be in the LDAP menu.