[SOLVED] New domain / Same users

[moneymonk]

Hi. I've been working with open-source Zimbra Version 4.5.3_GA_733 for about 2 months now (new job).

My Company is doing a re-branding which involves a new domain. I need to create the new domain in Zimbra (I think i know how to do this), and migrate addresses across to the new domain while preserving the original addresses (not sure about how to do this).

Can anybody point me toward some documents that will show me how to migrate zimbra_user@old_email.com to zimbra_user@new_email.com while keeping the old addresses completely functional?

Essentially, I'll have user's clients accepting mail from both addresses. Eventually I'll probably set up a relay/fwd and nix the old mailboxes, but thats a different subject.


Thanks in advance for any help.

mm

[mmorse]

Welcome to the forums,

The following can be done in CLI or the admin console:

su - zimbra

A)
-Create the new domain: zmprov createDomain domain2.com
-Use aliases to the new domain so they can receive mail there: zmprov addAccountAlias user@domain.com user@domain2.com

B)
-Create the new domain: zmprov cd domain2.com
-Move accounts: zmprov renameAccount name@domain.com name@domain2.com
-Create aliases to the old domain.zmprov addAccountAlias user@domain2.com user@domain.com

They can then send as either account.

You can force which they appear as - but you still need an alias if you want to receive to both: Bug 16668 - Make zimbraMailCanonicalAddress a valid address for the account

If you can take the time to do it individually (A & B above) do so - else:
Domain Alias/Forwarding/Catchall/Masquerading: ManagingDomains - Zimbra :: Wiki
Note things like: Bug 14129 - no 550 unknown recipient rejection or out of office replies for alias domains

Of course you need correct DNS MX records for domain2.com pointing to your server.domain.com

You can adjust zimbraDefaultDomainName or set a virtual host for easier login.
You can also adjust REST URL's with zimbraPublicServiceHostname / zimbraPublicServiceProtocol / zimbraPublicServicePort
I assume at this point your server is NOT being renamed (that would be ZmSetServerName - Zimbra :: Wiki).

[moneymonk]

Thanks, mmorse. I'm going to give this a try this week. I'll let you know how it goes.

I may have a a couple questions in the coming days. I really REALLY appreciate the help.

mm

[Klug]

I'd like to emphasize on something.

Don't do this :

If you can take the time to do it individually (A & B above) do so - else:
Domain Alias/Forwarding/Catchall/Masquerading: ManagingDomains - Zimbra :: Wiki

Because of this :

Note things like: Bug 14129 - no 550 unknown recipient rejection or out of office replies for alias domains

It got our MTAs to _very_ high load because of thousands of emails without real recipients.

[mmorse]

Yup the catchall approach has tons of downsides.

Another positive of doing A & B:
You can then edit /opt/zimbra/conf/zmmta.cf
And change this from no > yes:

POSTCONF smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient        no

[Klug]

I still haven't understood why it's not "yes" by default anyway 8)

[moneymonk]

Well, the powers that be decided that they do not want mailboxes to be aliased or forwarded across domains. They want mail sent to email@old_domain.com and email@new_domain.com to be separate.

If I have a list of email addresses, or usernames, is there an automated method for importing all of these addresses into an "empty" domain?

I guess my question is, do I have to create 250 mailboxes manually? there's got to be some MySQL trickery or something i can perform to automate this process.

mm

[mmorse]

Well it's not just MySQL, there's LDAP attributes as well.

Don't all these accounts already exist in Zimbra just wrong_old_domain.com? Use the renameAccount command - step B without aliases. (If you we're on 5.0.x there's a renameDomain command.)

Have a look at Bulk Provisioning - Zimbra :: Wiki (could be as simple as zmprov < commands.txt, other scripting, or import from CSV file)
How to create an account list easily: http://www.zimbra.com/forums/etc/199...alias-etc.html
Zmprov - Zimbra :: Wiki
Zmprov Examples - Zimbra :: Wiki
(You could use other SOAP or Java methods but that CLI wrapper is pretty straightforward.)

[moneymonk]

Will the zmprov renameAccount keep the original account intact? I basically want to provide a parallel mail domain identical except for the domain names, and obviously the addresses. Apparently the old_domain is going to remain a legal business entity, so they want to keep all those addresses active. I will have to provide access to two mailboxes in user's mail-clients. Not a problem.

I'm finding a lot of what I'm looking for in the links that you provided... Thank you.

If zmprov renameAccount does keep the original account intact then I should be able use some of the scripts in the links you provided to export a list of users, and then use zmprov with this file as input. to create the users in my new domain. Do I have the right idea?

Most likely, we are going to upgrade to a commercial Zimbra product in the not too distant future. However, this rebrand is on the fast-track so I need to create and activate the new domain accounts ASAP.

Thanks again-

mm

[mmorse]

Just renaming user@old.domain.com > user@new.domain.com would NOT leave a valid address at the old location.