Scalix Forums

Hi,

The upgrade on our test server is totally botched (to put it mildly). After screwing around with Centos install, postgres errors, FC9 install, postgres errors the partition on the drive with the message store has become corrupt and this test server is become useless (for now). I'm probably mostly to blame for this (long story..)

Our production server is as follows:

1) FC7
2) Scalix 11.4.0

I want to move to FC9 and V11.4.4 what would be the best steps to do this.

A few questions are in order.

1. Do you have a backup of the current mailstore? Are you planning to use that, or are you just going to start totally clean from scratch?

2. What errors did you have on the CentOS install? If your mail system needs to be reliable and is heavily used (i.e., it's not just for you and some friends), I *strongly* recommend CentOS. We didn't have any trouble installing it on our Dell Poweredge machines. Go to the CentOS forums and ask for help there, if need be: http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/index.php

3. Obviously, you get the OS working first. Make sure it's 100% happy, that you have networking, hardware is OK, you can log in, create and delete users, etc., etc.

4. Once the OS is 100% happy, THEN you install Scalix. The installer is pretty good, and I've never had a problem with it. If you do, post back here and ask for help.

If this doesn't answer your questions, post more details. For future reference, Scalix is pretty easy to upgrade, too, but you do have to follow the steps in order, and there are some important commands (particularly "ompatchom") that are invaluable for making it go smoothly. File ownerships and permissions are also critical. Finally, if you've blown out one OS (ex., FC7) and have installed a new one (ex., FC9), the user and group ID numbers (UID/GID) have probably changed. There are ways to address that.

Bottom line: don't lose heart, people upgrade and move mailstores all the time. Post more details and either I or someone else will be glad to try to help.

I have to agree based on experience that CentOS would be a better choice than Fedora (read these posts http://www.scalix.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11245). I ran into issues left and right when upgrading Scalix and Fedora at the same time. So the first chance I got, I setup a whole new server using CentOS 5.3 - couldn't be happier.

Richard

OK, followed advice and rebuild my test server with CentOS5.3

1) Installed Centos 5.2, did all updates now centos 5.3
2) Copied the message store with rsync from production server (42 GIG)
3) Installed Scalix 11.4.4

Install failed with postgres install. I checked platform.properties and I am using correct password.

Here is install log


Any suggestions?

Thanks

See this thread for some more tips:

http://www.scalix.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=51749

It looks like you're trying to install Scalix on a machine that already has a Scalix installation and some of the old stuff is arguing with the new. There's a reason why I asked if you were trying to do a completely new install (ie, you're upgrading your Scalix version and plan to start over with an empty mailstore), or you're trying to upgrade Scalix "around" an existing mailstore. If the latter, you need to follow a specific set of steps.

Note: this is my method; there may be others. However, this has one advantage: I KNOW it works.

1. You'll need a good copy of the existing mailstore (flash disk, DVD, whatever). This is essentially the directory "/var/opt/scalix/??," where "??" is the first and last characters of your hostname. Ex., if your hostname is "mailserver," the directory will be "/var/opt/scalix/ms."

2. Do a completely clean install of CentOS. Wipe the hard drives, start fresh. Make sure you use the same hostname as the original (ex., "mailserver"). Don't change it.

3. Once you're sure that CentOS is running and is happy, install Scalix. Do NOT copy the mailstore yet. This is a new, clean installation. Use the same passwords and config info as you would for the old installation, but this is a new, empty mailstore. Create a couple of dummy users and confirm that you can post emails between them.

4. Once you're sure that the new Scalix is happy, stop all Scalix services, then DELETE the new mailstore (in this example, you'd enter something like "rm -f -r /var/opt/scalix/ms").

5. Copy the old mailstore into that same slot, then run "ompatchom," and recreate the database.

That's the quick and dirty. There are detailed, step by step instructions in this thread:

http://www.scalix.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12182&p=55992#p55992

That particular example came from when we moved our mailstore from one server to the other, but the principle is exactly the same.

mnauta wrote:1) Installed Centos 5.2, did all updates now centos 5.3
2) Copied the message store with rsync from production server (42 GIG)
3) Installed Scalix 11.4.4

OK, so that IS what you're trying to do -- you're trying to upgrade with an existing mailstore. Sorry, don't know how I missed that.

What I suggested will hopefully fix things for you. If you don't have a good copy of the mailstore, though, you may be in trouble.

Look at the man pages for "omscan" and "omcheck." Both of these will help, too, though "omscan" only works once Scalix is at least running. "omcheck" will help sort out permission and access errors to the mailstore.

Just so you know, others have upgraded Scalix quite easily, so my detailed procedure mentioned above isn't always necessary. But when you're having problems, it's best to start clean, stay clean and build clean.

My approach was as follows:

Installed and Configured CentOS 5.3
Installed SAME version of Scalix as my mailstore
Followed procedure in a post I found here for copying over my existing mailstore
THEN upgraded Scalix

At the very least, make sure you install Scalix first, then copy over your mailstore.

Richard

RSisco wrote:At the very least, make sure you install Scalix first, then copy over your mailstore.

Richard

Agreed.

I can't find the link now, but when we were doing our upgrade/server move, I ran across a page where a guy said, "do NOT just install Scalix with the existing mailstore in place ... you will CRY!"

Ahh...found it. Smart little me bookmarked it.

This is one of the posts I followed:
http://www.scalix.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12846&p=58994&hilit=move+scalix+to+new+server#p58982

Richard

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give them a try.