Few Deployment Questions

[burhankhalid]

Hello Everyone:

I have begun a field test of Scalix 10 on an internal network to see how it fits in with our existing systems/clients. So far, things have been great; but I have ran into a few concerns.

Questions I have:

Is there a way to import existing .pst files into Scalix so that emails are not lost during the switch over? We have users with 700,000+ MB .pst files, and these messages need to part of the new system.

I have been reading the various threads about backup issues. Is there a recommended guide for backing up/archiving emails? We already have a backup policy in place, and I would like to enforce it with Scalix also.

Currently, we have a remotely hosted mail server that acts as our primary email server (running Exim). In my current setup, Scalix is running on a local network with a mirrored dns setup and it runs fine (in that it relays emails to external addresses correctly), but emails to the same addresses do not work -- unless the address is already on the Scalix server.

Example:
foo@domain.com is on the external server only. User jim@domain.com (who is a Scalix user) cannot send to foo@domain.com -- the message recieved is :

Code: Select all

The original message was received at Mon, 27 Feb 2006 12:30:57 +0300
from localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]

   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<foo@domain.com>
    (reason: 550-Verification failed for <jim@domain.com>)

   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to mail.domain.com.:
>>> DATA
<<< 550-Verification failed for <jim@domain.com>
<<< 550-no such address here
<<< 550 Sender verify failed
550 5.1.1 <foo@domain.com>... User unknown
<<< 503 valid RCPT command must precede DATA


foo@domain.com is a valid mailbox.

I think the problem here is that both servers are running on the same domain name, but I am not an expert on these issues, so I would like some confirmation.

Finally, I would like to have two Scalix servers setup -- one on the external DC, and one internally. What is the recommended setup for this (I realize that I will be purchasing the Enterprise Edition if I do this).

I would like the following scenario:

If a user is in the local office, they are using the local Scalix server to send and receive emails, when they travel abroad, they are connected to the 'external' scalix server, but have the same messages/contacts/calendar. Both the internal and external servers should be mirrors. Is this setup possible?

Thanks for your time, and sorry for the long post :)

[ScalixSupport]

Hello,

from the looks of it, you do not seem to be talking to the right MTA. Can you please telnet 127.0.0.1 25 and post the output here?

- yes, you can import PSTs.

- the knowledgebase has some good docs regarding backup and restore. In general, installing onto a LVM and doing snapshot based backup is a recommended solution.

- check if your /etc/mail/local-host-names if it contains you host / domainname.

- running two server the way you describe is not possible nor advisable. You should separate your users so that people often travelling use the remote server and folks in the office use the local server. Outlook users can work in offline mode, so they are really able to work disconnected and when connected to the Internet or the office LAN, can sync their messages.

Cheers,

Sascha.

[burhankhalid]

Yes I realized after a few moments of deliberation (and a large cup of coffee) that the setup would not work.

However, maybe I could modify my domain record to point to two mail servers, each running Scalix. Would this be a viable option? My concern is to have a backup server running incase we have connectivity problems (like we recently did when a freak fire knocked out two providers).

Can you please provide me details on importing .pst files? I would like to try this out on my test environment.

Telnet output as requested:

Code: Select all

[burhan@avalon ~]$ telnet 127.0.0.1 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.localdomain (127.0.0.1).
Escape character is '^]'.
220 avalon.domain.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.13.4/8.13.4; Wed, 1 Mar 2006 13:27:09 +0300
^]
telnet> quit
Connection closed.


Could it be that the external email server (which runs on the same domain name) requires SMTP authentication? That thought just crossed my mind.

Edit:

Forgot to add that my /etc/mail/local-host-names file is empty, I will add the fqdn there and see if that helps.

[ScalixSupport]

Hi,

(1) you are not telling us all about your installation ...

http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=59

(2) You haven't told me about your /etc/mail/local-host-names...

The reason why you are getting these errors is because sendmail does not think your domain is local, does an mx lookup, ends up talking to your exim who then in turn does recipient verification. You need to fix that. See (2) and my previous reply.

(3) Professional services can work with you to setup a failsafe scenario. Generally speaking, if all you want is inbound mail to be failsafe, setup multiple mx records. Most folks have two mx records pointing to inhouse mail servers with a third one pointing to their upstream provider. With so much spam being sent nowadays, having a third mx is generally discouraged as spammers tend to prefer these mx's as those are generally not as spam-resistant as primary or secondary.

If you need failover for outbound mail and POP3, you should look at a clustered solution. This is not part of the Community Edition, you need to aquire licenses for the Enterprise Edition. Professional services will be happy to work with you on a design.

(4) PST files are imported using File-Open-PST File.

Thanks,

Sascha.

[burhankhalid]

Thank you for your quick reply. Yes, I understand how to import PST files using Outlook, but I was hoping for a way to do it on the admin side, perhaps to batch file it. Anyway, if that is the only option, then I am happy with it.

I edited the original post after I realized I missed your part about /etc/mail/local-host-names -- that file is empty on my system.

I had a feeling this is what it was doing, and I can fix this by editing the local-host-names file.

My goal is to incrementally get Scalix involved in our system, and not do a complete ninja swap of Exim with Scalix.

I will be in touch with your professional services to talk about my options regarding the exact setup of the system. I am more than happy to acquire licenses should that be the option to take.

Thanks again for your quick reply!

[AussieOwner]

With regard to server side import of .pst files, I believe that Compusven can do that. It is not a true "server side" import in that it runs on a windows workstation and actaully uses CDO to import the data, but it is automated nonetheless.

With regard to your externa/internal access to your server. All you really need to do is confiugre SSL on your SWA box then open port 443 on your firewall to this SWA box. You can install SWA on a seperate box from your Scalix Server. Then your external users come in thru secure port 443 and your internal users can use Outlook and SWA on port 80. They will all be hitting the same backend server so this should be what you are looking for.

Darrell Sturdivant
Scalix