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Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 5.May2006 11:34:28 PM

pknodle

Posts: 5
Joined: 5.May2006
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We are currently having our email hosted by a 3rd party provider that uses a Linux box with Squirrel Mail. We want to move our mail in house and bring the entire company onto an existing Exchange 2003 box.

What I need to know is how can I migrate all of our data from the 3rd party Linux environment over to my Exchange environment? I know that the Exchange Import Wizard can map IMAP folders to an Exchange mailbox, but I am not sure if the two boxes have to be on the same network. Will this tool work?

I have users all over the country so importing a PST file to their mailbox is not a viable option.

Or what is the best way to get from a 3rd party hosting to in house?

< Message edited by pknodle -- 5.May2006 11:35:44 PM >

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RE: Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 6.May2006 7:11:18 PM

tiallen

Posts: 269
Joined: 26.Jan.2006
From: Minneapolis MN
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Your exchange environment and the linux servers you're migrating from do not HAVE to be on the same network, though that would be preferred as migrating these folders across the internet could take some time... The big variables that you do not mention are:

1) how many users you need to migrate
2) their average mailbox size

The answers to these 2 questions will have a significant effect on what the "best way" to get from 3rd party hosting to "in house" would be.

-Tim

_____________________________

Tim Allen
I am available for direct bookings in the US, Canada, and the UK.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/timallen

(in reply to pknodle)

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RE: Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 8.May2006 6:30:24 AM

pknodle

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Joined: 5.May2006
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Probably around 350 accounts worldwide. Mailbox sizes are of all sizes with the largest at about 1gb.

Both servers are in data centers - two different ones unfortunatly.

(in reply to pknodle)

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RE: Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 10.May2006 1:01:08 AM

tiallen

Posts: 269
Joined: 26.Jan.2006
From: Minneapolis MN
Status: offline

When you say the exchange org will be in house, I�m assuming that its in an office behind a T1-type connection... is that accurate?

Are all of these users addressed on the same domain?

Do you need to provide them each with non-stop 24/7 service? or would a weekend outage be acceptable?

_____________________________

Tim Allen
I am available for direct bookings in the US, Canada, and the UK.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/timallen

(in reply to pknodle)

Post #: 4

RE: Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 10.May2006 1:14:47 AM

pknodle

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Both servers are in data centers and have T1 connectivity.

All users are addressed to the same domain.

I am prepared for downtime - I would just like to minimize it.

(in reply to pknodle)

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RE: Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 10.May2006 7:51:48 PM

tiallen

Posts: 269
Joined: 26.Jan.2006
From: Minneapolis MN
Status: offline

I'm assuming that your two mail servers are providing secondary MX for eachother? if not, lets set that up prior to migration. Server setup varies based on if you're using sendmail/postfix/qmail/exim... but DNS should look like:

domain.tld. IN MX 1 imap01.domain.tld.
domain.tld. IN MX 2 imap02.domain.tld.
domain.tld. IN MX 3 exch01.domain.tld.

How are imap01 and imap02 connected from a transport standpoint? I'm assuming that imap01 is primary mx and imap02 is secondary, and your using the 'deliver to non-local users via...' option to transport mail destined for imap01 users to imap02 and visa versa... if you're doing something different, like routing between imap01 and imap02 based on an ldap database or local tables, and/or you have an SMTP gateway in the middle, that will make a huge difference...

_____________________________

Tim Allen
I am available for direct bookings in the US, Canada, and the UK.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/timallen

(in reply to pknodle)

Post #: 6

RE: Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 11.May2006 8:01:57 PM

tiallen

Posts: 269
Joined: 26.Jan.2006
From: Minneapolis MN
Status: offline

Ok pknodle, I could get no sleep last night as I was thinking about your migration... If I was in your situation, (which I understand as 2 linux-based imap servers migrating to an exchange environment, with a single address space, and an organization that is tolerant to weekend downtime) I would do the following.

Adjust the timeout/ndr settings on imap01... get really liberal with these... remember, imap02 might appear offline to imap01 for several hours... we don't want any queued mail to expire or generate NDRs (also: don't forget about the 'delay' NDR)...

The migration wizard will read in a text file with userids and passwords from the imap server, if imap is the only service they are using on this server, do a mass passwd reset to simplify this step... You do not need to create AD users for these mailbox accounts, I believe that if they don't exist the migration wizard will create them... double check on this though... Check the documentation on the migration wizard for this text files syntax and the specifics of user creation...

At this point you should be having fun

Once we are good to go on the text file and it is populated with users on imap02, use iptables on imap02 to block off port 25 from all hosts and port 143 from all hosts except your exchange server... This will freeze any changes from taking place on those mailboxes for the duration of the migration.

You are now in migration mode!

Verify that inbound internet mail and messages from users on imap01 are queuing on imap01 without issue... If this is not occurring you should back out of the iptables changes on imap02 and troubleshoot mail delivery further... If it is working, next step is to verify that random hosts cannot establish imap connections with imap02 but that you can from your exchange server.

Once everything is in order, kick off migration... verify that mailboxes are being populated on exch01 with data from imap02... then head to the club to get krunked... depending on average mbox size, item/folder count, and available bandwidth, 6 hours later when the taxi brings you home and you login, you'll probably still be migrating...

Once migration is complete, verify that it was successful (login to mailboxes as exch full admin and verify the presence of items/folders... modify the 'deliver non local users to...' directive on imap01 to deliver to the exchange server, restart the MTA and tail the maillog to see if the queues are processing...

If the messages in queue are stamped for delivery on imap02's IP... backup the mailbox data on imap02, delete all usersaccount/mailboxes, and set the 'deliver non local users to...' directive on imap02 to exch01... using iptables, allow smtp via localhost, and on imap02 generate an email for a former user of imap02 who is now on exch01, verify that it is sent to imap01...

Similar steps to decommission imap01... this time enable SMTP on the old imap02 and use it to queue on behalf of imap01 during 01's migration... when all is said and done both imap01 and imap02 should be directing all inbound @domain.tld to exch01 (as they no longer have any local users)

_____________________________

Tim Allen
I am available for direct bookings in the US, Canada, and the UK.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/timallen

(in reply to tiallen)

Post #: 7

RE: Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 7.Jun.2006 12:50:25 AM

pknodle

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Joined: 5.May2006
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Sorry I disappeared! I got all of the mailboxes migrated by using the Exchange Migration Wizard. Very easy! However, it does not bring across contacts (addresses in qmail). Do you have any programs that you like to bring across addresses into the Contacts folder? Is it possible to script without having to log into each mailbox?

(in reply to pknodle)

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RE: Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 7.Jun.2006 4:35:50 PM

tiallen

Posts: 269
Joined: 26.Jan.2006
From: Minneapolis MN
Status: offline

pknodel -

Glad to hear your migration went well... I'm assuming qmail has some central facility where contacts are stored and shared globally with all users? these 'contacts' representing names and SMTP addresses for external people who members of your org frequently interface with?

If so, instead of adding all of this information to users contacts folders or using a public folder, I would suggest creating contacts in AD as they will be displayed by the global address list, and thus made globally available to your users.

Perhaps they are LDAP accessible on the qmail side?? Find a way to export them to a comma separated file... learn about csvde and modify your comma separated file to get your attributes right and then import to AD... you should be golden!

Have a good one!
-Tim

_____________________________

Tim Allen
I am available for direct bookings in the US, Canada, and the UK.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/timallen

(in reply to pknodle)

Post #: 9

RE: Migrating from Squirrel Mail to Exchange 2003 - 7.Jun.2006 5:02:08 PM

pknodle

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Joined: 5.May2006
Status: offline

Thanks, Tim.

The contacts are personal contacts for each account. There are no global contacts.

If I log into each mail account I can export the contacts to a CSV file, but the problem is I have 468 accounts - and I really dont want to export 468 times then import to each users Exchange mailbox.

(in reply to tiallen)

Post #: 10