[SOLVED] Export from old "bad" server and import into new

[jreinhart]

Hi all,

This is a pseudo continuation of the following thread:

http://www.zimbra.com/forums/adminis...2561-help.html

I'm moving on from the "fix the server" to the "move data out of the old installation and into a new" stage.

This is not an attempt at restoring from backup, since all attempts at restoration have failed and I've essentially given up on that as the problem seems to be some kind of permissions between LDAP and the MySQL instance or something. Basically, I can get the information store mounted, but can't send or receive e-mail, or search anything in Zimbra. I get a network service error.

This thread is to collaborate information on how to:

1) Export mail and mail settings from one Zimbra installation and
2) Import that mail into another.

I know that the e-mail itself is stored in .eml files that are in the /opt/zimbra/store folder. So, I suppose if I have to, I can create a shell Zimbra installation, create all of the same users, then somehow import those messages, possibly by going through this route:

.eml files ---> Outlook Express ---> Import into Outlook 2003 ---> Export to PST ---> Import into user's mail

Does anyone have any suggestions on this?

Does anyone know where the user accounts and settings are located? My guess is that they're in the MySQL database...but where's that located?

Thanks!
- Jesse

[ArcaneMagus]

Are you able to access the old server via IMAP? if so probably the easiest solution for migrating over the email would be to use IMAPsync.

I have used the second of the scripts listed here User Migration - Zimbra :: Wiki quite a few times without any issues (once I got it working).

You will need to have IMAP clear text access enabled. In every instance that I have used this I had a small enough user base that I could manually set the passwords on both servers to something known. If you have a large userbase though you might want to modify the imapsync command to use the --authuser1 and --passfile1 options. I am pretty sure that Zimbra supports this. Basically you provide the admin user which then has auth permissions on all other accounts without needing passwords for them.

Your imapsync command will probably look something like this:

imapsync --authuser1 admin@oldserver --passfile1 a file \
                --authuser2 admin@newserver --passfile2 a file \
                --noauthmd5 --exclude "Junk" --exclude "Contacts" \
                --host1 $host1 --user1 $user \
                --host2 $host2 --user2 $user2

A couple of notes on this tool:
If your distro has this tool available as a package USE IT. Installing this tool has been my biggest problem every time I have used it.
I have never used the authuser mechanism before but have seen reports of it working ...so see if the command I posted works but it might need some fixing.

[jreinhart]

Thanks ArcaneMagus! You've been pretty insightful during this whole ordeal of mine.

So IMAP sync from Zimbra to Zimbra server should work? Using the FOSS version?

If so, that'd be great...if the IMAP sync works. I'll give that a shot tomorrow and see if I get good results.

I'm assuming I'd have to have 2 boxes running concurrently...and therefore one would have to have a different hostname/IP. I know I can figure out how to change the hostname in Zimbra after the fact...I remember seeing that somewhere.

- Jesse

[Baylink]

imapsync should work, in general, as long as you can get into both servers via imap.

[ArcaneMagus]

As Baylink said IMAPsync should work as long as each server supports IMAP. It reads the capabilities of each server and uses what it can of those supported abilities.

I have successfully used it to transfer mail from a Groupwise 6.5 system to Zimbra, and then later from a Zimbra system to another Zimbra system.

[Baylink]

You can in fact change the Zimbra hostname, though you will also have to regenerate the SSL cert, and I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

[ArcaneMagus]

Have you tried going to Tools-> Certificates-> Install Certificate in the Admin UI? That is where I updated my certificate a while ago.

[Baylink]

Well, you see, Z and I don't see eye to eye on DNS issues...

That facility appears only to permit you to build and install certificates locally for what the server believes it is called.

Alas, what the server believes it is called (benjamin) is not what the users call it (zmail), and I have no clue how much stuff I'll break if I rename it temporarily to change the certs and then change it back.

And I don't have an SSL CA infrastructure built in-house to let me build it myself.

[jreinhart]

Did some major work on this whole snafu this weekend, and with a friend of mine we buckled down to figure it out. I worked in the direction of exporting and importing into a new Zimbra install and my friend tried to fix the current broken deployment.

The best method I worked out for exporting and reimporting is the command to export and re-import a single mailbox, including calendar and stuff. The forum thread I found this is:

Zimbra to .PST

And the commands are:

You can export an entire mailbox from the NE box with:
zmmailbox -z -m user@domain.com getRestURL "//?fmt=tgz" > /tmp/user.tgz

And import on the FOSS box (or back on the NE when needed) with:
zmmailbox -z -m user@domain.com postRestURL "//?fmt=tgz&resolve=reset" /tmp/user.tgz

I think that the IMAPsync would work great but I never got the point of testing/playing with it, since my friend actually figured out how to fix the broken install! Here's the link to the original thread in case you're interested in how it was fixed:

http://www.zimbra.com/forums/adminis...2561-help.html

Thanks to you all for the help.

- Jesse