Good procedure! ----- Original Message ----- From: "I. Forbes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <debian-isp@lists.debian.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 11:35 PM Subject: Re: Upgrade a mail server
> Hello Craig > > On 19 Feb 2002, at 10:38, Craig Sanders wrote: > > > i'd love to convert it over to Maildir/ but haven't yet found any way > > that doesn't involve many hours of downtime while converting the > > mailboxes from mbox format to Maildir. > > I did this a while back. It is possible with very little apparent > downtime. (We are using Exim and Courier): > > - create Maildirs for all users. (This is important if both your > POP3/IMAP software and MDA are not configured to create missing > Maildirs "on the fly"). > > - change your MDA to deliver into the new maildirs > > (At this stage new mail is not visible to users when it arrives - but > they can still see their old mail. The downtime for this phase should > be short) > > - change your POP3/IMAP programs to pick up mail from the > maildirs. > > (At this stage old mail is not visible to users, but new mail is. This > should not be too much of a problem - if users have left MB worth of > mail in their boxes, they can't want it too badly, it is when new mail > is not available that people complain.) > > - run your script which reads the mbox files, and delivers to > maildirs. My script renamed the mailbox files just after they > had been converted, so I could restart the script without > incurring duplicate deliveries if (when) the script crashed. > > - By the time the script finishes, all mail is visible again. > > - Keep the old mbox files around for a few days just in case you > discover a problem ... > > No corruption, no duplication, no mail lost, no file locking, no error > messages on client desktops, not too much loss of service and very > few support calls. > > Have fun! > > > Ian > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Ian Forbes ZSD > http://www.zsd.co.za > Office: +27 21 683-1388 Fax: +27 21 674-1106 > Snail Mail: P.O. Box 46827, Glosderry, 7702, South Africa > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >