Deleting Accounts using Command Line Batch File

[kurt2]

Hello,

I am curious what happens to the emails when we delete accounts using "zmprov da user@domain.com"

Do all the emails for that account get deleted or..... does running that command only delete an identifier in the database saying this account exists thus leaving all the email hanging in limbo somewhere in some datastore unlinked to an account.

it seems when I delete accounts using zmprov it happens real fast making me think that maybe the actual emails of each account are not being deleted... hence my question.

Cheers,
Kurt

[KevinH]

zmprov will just delete the LDAP data. If you want to have the mail removed too you need to use SOAP or the Admin UI. There is a bug filed to make zmprov use SOAP which would handle this case:

http://bugzilla.zimbra.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2430

[kurt2]

So the mail doesn't get deleted.... doh... that means I have tons of email taking up space with no account attached to it... how can I get rid of all that email stuck in limbo?

[KevinH]

You'd need to write a script to find the data in MySQL and remove the DB and message files. Your best bet is to use the admin UI or SOAP interface for deletes.

[fmodola]

as you know, certain countries' laws force companies to backup the data for 1 or 2 years.

keep this in mind before deleting the user mailbox !

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by fmodola

as you know, certain countries' laws force companies to backup the data for 1 or 2 years.

keep this in mind before deleting the user mailbox !

Yes this use case is common in many organizations for compliance. In the end the admin needs to make sure they follow the policies of their org or country. Zimbra will make it easy to implement such rules and set policies with our integrated HSM, backup/recovery, etc.

[kurt2]

But when your server is FULL you gotta get rid of that junk somehow.

I live in Canada the government hasn't become so authoritarian yet that they demand people keep all their email in the name of national security... who knows how long that will last.

Anyway, what happens to the mail when you delete a users's account from the Web Interface? Does this delete the email from the SQL Database?

[KevinH]

Yes both MySQL, LDAP and the message files on disk.