Upgrade and migration. Both Possible?

[KLGNT]

I inherited a Zimbra system that was setup and installed by a previous administrator. While I like Zimbra, I don't really like the way it was setup and I need to upgrade it anyway as we're having problems with it. Am I biting off more than I can chew by trying to upgrade versions, as well as re-install the host?

Here's the scoop.

Present setup is:

• Zimbra, Version 3.1.3_GA_474.RHEL4 Jun 9, 2006
• CentOS 4.5, Linux <ourbox.com> 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp #1 SMP Tue Jun 26 14:30:58 EDT 2007 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

I'd like to move to a current version of Zimbra, and preferably move to 64bit OpenSUSE 10.2, though I'd be OK with using the 32 bit version. It's running on a Dell server with a PentiumD dual core.

My plan was something like...

• Backup/dump all Zimbra data.
• Backup/dump Zimbra configuration
• wipe box
• Install OS
• Install latest Zimbra
• Restore configuration
• Restore Data
• enjoy

I know I'm probably asking for trouble, but I don't think I'll have a choice on this.

Any help, tips, links, etc. would be enormously appreciated.

[mmorse]

You'll need to do upgrading versions and operating system platform changes separately.

So for instance, grab something from the 4.5 or 4.0 installers at:
Zimbra - SourceForge.net: Files or /community/downloads_previous.html

Always make a backup each time before you upgrade, at the very least (giving you the simplest aside from disk images etc) be sure to:

su - zimbra
zmcontrol stop
exit
sudo -i (or whatever to become root)
ps aux | grep zimbra (kill -9 pid# of any remaining processes)
mkdir /zcsbackuprsync
rsync -avHK /opt/zimbra/ /zcsbackuprsync/zimbra
mkdir /zcsbackuptars
tar -zcvf /zcsbackuptars/backup.zimbra.version.date.time.tar.gz -C /zcsbackup/zimbra .

mv or scp /zcsbackuptars/backup.zimbra.version.date.time.tar.gz /elsewhereAsDesired

-Have the old installer handy & already downloaded just in case you need to restore.
-Use the stuff in /zcsbackuprsync/zimbra which is still there unpacked/ready to go in order to get yourself up and running faster.

Platform switches:
You could actually step up all the way to 5.0GA on RHEL4/CentOS4.5 (/community/downloads.html) before you switch operating systems.
-You could upgrade to CentOS 5 or switch to OpenSUSE 10.2, etc, etc
-Follow this guide: /blog/archives/2007/10/moving_zcs_to_another_server.html
-Avoid hostname changes, there's a command to but it's easier to avoid doing so right now, UID's also often need to be set the same. In that guide what matters is that you use the exact same zimbra version for the move/switch.

[KLGNT]

This is a great start, thanks for the info and the reply.

Just thinking about what's ahead of me scares me silly, but it looks like I'm going to have to do it, and soon. e-mail was down again this morning and intermittent all day yesterday.

[dwmtractor]

Just to clarify in kindergarten-simple (works best for me ) what was implied in Mike's post. Backup and restore have got to be to the same version, so you can't restore your mailbox data, etc. to a different version than you got them from. So you have to do one of two things:

1. You can upgrade to a new version in-situ on your old box, then do a backup and restore it to the (same) new version on your new box; or
2. You can install the old version on your new box, restore a backup from the old box, then upgrade it on the new box.

Edit: By "version" I mean same release number (e.g. 5.0.0, 4.5.7, 3.1.3, etc). Otherwise it would be impossible to move between OSes which is part of what you want to do here.

Hope this is clear!

Cheers,

Dan

[KLGNT]

I'm contemplating making a copy of my current box onto a VMWare system. Then upgrade that box, backup and copy the data to the new one.
If this will work, it seems to me that this method would offer less downtime, as well as the ability to start over without losing data if I screw something up.

Anyone have any comments or suggestions on this idea?

Thanks.

[dwmtractor]

I'm contemplating making a copy of my current box onto a VMWare system. Then upgrade that box, backup and copy the data to the new one.
If this will work, it seems to me that this method would offer less downtime, as well as the ability to start over without losing data if I screw something up.

Anyone have any comments or suggestions on this idea?

Thanks.

Sure, that should work. The only caveats I can think of are:

1. In the interim between your pulling your old machine onto vmware and your restoring your new machine, the production server will continue to see email come and go, and those messages won't make it onto the upgrade; and
2. As Mike pointed out above, your upgrade needs to have the same hostname, which means it's also going to have to resolve through DNS to the same IP address, and obviously you can't have two machines on the same network with the same IP. So you will have to set up an independent environment that LOOKS like the real world but doesn't actually interfere with it, or you will encounter dragons. . .