Migration to Scalix 11

[JonathanC]

Hey everyone,

We need a little advice. We are currently running Scalix 10 (community edition with Redhat 4) on an older piece of hardware with about 400 users. It has been working great and we love scalix. With the constantly growing number of users, we have decided to get a new server. I have installed Scalix 11.1 community edition on FC 5 on this server and I was curious if anyone had any ideas for a smooth migration. We would of course like the transition to be as seamless as possible to the end user. No one is storing any mail on the server so the largest issue is the migration of the user accounts, user information, and passwords.

If anyone could share their opinions on how they feel this would be the most seamless to the end user, it would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help.

[les]

Hey everyone,

We need a little advice. We are currently running Scalix 10 (community edition with Redhat 4) on an older piece of hardware with about 400 users. It has been working great and we love scalix. With the constantly growing number of users, we have decided to get a new server. I have installed Scalix 11.1 community edition on FC 5 on this server and I was curious if anyone had any ideas for a smooth migration. We would of course like the transition to be as seamless as possible to the end user. No one is storing any mail on the server so the largest issue is the migration of the user accounts, user information, and passwords.

If anyone could share their opinions on how they feel this would be the most seamless to the end user, it would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help.

Interesting you went to fc5 from redhat 4. FC5 is no longer supported and you cannot get any updates.

I'd really recommend sticking with redhat for stability and reliability. I assume you went to fedora to save on OS costs?
A better option would be CentOS 5 which is a redhat clone. Lots of users run CentOS without problem. Its is "redhat rebadged but free".

On to migration.....

There are a couple of ways to do it......i've seen reports on the forums with success in either.

I think the best way is.....

Upgrade to 11.1 on your current server.
Install 11.1. on your new centos 5 server. make sure you set all the same settings on install, hostname, mailnode etc
stop scalix on both servers.
rsync /var/opt/scalix
make sure configs in /etc/opt/scalix and /etc/opt/scalix-tomcat match.
start scalix on the new server.

you said no data is on the server, i guess that means everyone is pop3? if thats the case transition should be quick and painless.

[JonathanC]

Hi Les,

Thank you for the reply. I opted for FC 5 because scalix offered a package for that and like you said for cost concerns. My linux flavor of choice is always CentOS 5. Which package should I choose for CentOS? Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0?

Thanks again for the help...

[les]

Hi Les,

Thank you for the reply. I opted for FC 5 because scalix offered a package for that and like you said for cost concerns. My linux flavor of choice is always CentOS 5. Which package should I choose for CentOS? Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0?

Thanks again for the help...

yep use rhel5 package.

centos 5 will have its own version of /etc/redhat-release

Scalix will want to see a rhel5 release file to install. Just change the file when you install scalix, then afterwards change it back.

/etc/redhat-release file in Centos 5 looks like....

CentOS release 5 (Final)

/etc/redhat-release file in Redhat 5 looks like....

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5 (Tikanga)

[Valerion]

Or with 11.1.0 you can use scalix-installer --override=rhel5 to skip the redhat-release check on CentOS 5.

[JonathanC]

think the best way is.....

Upgrade to 11.1 on your current server.
Install 11.1. on your new centos 5 server. make sure you set all the same settings on install, hostname, mailnode etc
stop scalix on both servers.
rsync /var/opt/scalix
make sure configs in /etc/opt/scalix and /etc/opt/scalix-tomcat match.
start scalix on the new server.

Just to make sure...there are no other options for us that don't require the upgrade to the original server? I am sort of a linux / scalix novice. I am just looking for the most direct approach.

[les]

think the best way is.....

Upgrade to 11.1 on your current server.
Install 11.1. on your new centos 5 server. make sure you set all the same settings on install, hostname, mailnode etc
stop scalix on both servers.
rsync /var/opt/scalix
make sure configs in /etc/opt/scalix and /etc/opt/scalix-tomcat match.
start scalix on the new server.

Just to make sure...there are no other options for us that don't require the upgrade to the original server? I am sort of a linux / scalix novice. I am just looking for the most direct approach.

There are other path's which require only that you sync the /var/opt/scalix filesystem over, then when installing the 11.1 on the new server it will automatically detect and upgrade it. But that involves some manually tweaking and setting up.
From a novice point of view you would be better of using the scalix installer as i mentioned above to upgrade to 11 on the current system.

The upgrade process is really quite seamless, i've done many of these without problem.