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Re: Moving postfix to a new system



On 2008-04-26T11:27:43+0200, Andrea Gozzi wrote:
> * Postfix stores the mail in Maildir format in /home/vmail and the
> users/domains/forwards tables are in a sql db.
> Other than setting up on the new system the same stuff I am currently
> using (mysql, amavis, sa, ...), will it work if I just copy over the
> entire 'vmail' directory and the current configuration? Is there
> anything else I need to move to the new server?

I suggest you check out the results "migrate postfix", "migrate mysql" 
etc from your favorite search engine.  For instance, it is easily 
discoverable that you migrate a mysql database to another host via 
mysqldump.

If I was you I would come up with a process that allows you to migrate a 
few friendly users, and let that run for a few days before migrating the 
rest over.  The main state you have on the mail server is mailboxes, and 
spooled mail.  You copy the former over, and the latter expires by 
default in 96 hours.  If you can run the old server for 96 hours after
you switched over, then you do not have to worry about the spooled mail.

Whatever process you settle on it would be good idea to test it before 
trying it out in production.

> * The current box has not been apt-get update'd in months and I plan to
> keep it this way until I move the mailserver features to the new system.
> The postfix currently running is 2.4.5-3 (as reported by aptitude).
> When I setup the new server it will probably install the postfix that is
> in the lenny repository atm, 2.5.1-1 .
> My question is: to have the smoothest migration possible, should I
> upgrade postfix on the old mailserver and THEN copy the confs+maildirs
> to the new system or can I just do the copy process without bothering
> about the different releases?

I would do everything I could to minimize differences between the two 
servers.  This reduces your risk during migration when you have a lot of 
things going on already.


/Allan


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