Hi David, thanks for your suggestions. You`re right, if I use rsync the smtp service on the old maschine could be active when copying the mboxes. Without rsync a loss of emails is possible.
Another thing crossed my mind, on the new maschine we have a new directory structure like "/var/mail/domain/first_letter_of_username/username/maildir/". The directory structure on the old system is flat like "var/mail/username". So I have to script a lot. Hmm let`s see, maybe I use my second alternative (no migration of data). Thanks Torsten On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:39:03 +0000, David McBride <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Torsten wrote: > >> - stop services (smtp and pop3) on the old maschine >> - copy the mboxes to the new maschine >> - run a conversion script (for excample: "Perfect_maildir" >> http://perfectmaildir.home-dn.net/) >> - start the services on the new maschine (smtp and Dovecot) > > Hi, > > So, parts of these processes can be parallelised: > > * Copy mailbox data from old machine to the new one. Leave production > services > running. > * Shut-down services on old machine. > * Update the mailbox data on the new machine using rsync. > * Convert mailboxes to Maildir format, eg using Perfect_maildir or mb2md. > * Start services on new server, update DNS aliases, etc. > > Now, ideally, you'd do each of the above _per-user_ -- disabling just > *one* > account at a time whilst it was being updated. This will require a bit > more > work and infrastructure support (eg a front-end POP/IMAP proxy). > > Oh, and in principle, I see no reason why you can't have both SMTP > services > running at the same time.. > > Cheers, > David >