Import users from other LDAP directory?

[bjdraw]

I am exploring Zimbra as a replacement for my companies iMail server.
We currently have 20 domains with about 100 total users using iMail 6.06.
We would like to use something like Zimbra for many reasons.
As part of my evaulation I am trying to plan a migration from iMail.

I have two ideas how this might work. But I need some help with both of them.

One way would be to export the users then use zmprov to create the accounts.
Most are POP so this would work ok.

I have successfully exported the user names and provisioned Zimbra accounts using zmprov.
The exported file from iMail is formated like this.

jsmith:x:0:384:Joe Smith:\IMAIL\domain_com\Users\jsmith

The format needed by zmprov is this.

ca jsmith@domain.com password displayName "Joe Smith" cn Joe sn Smith gn Joe

So if I use this method I will need some code to convert the iMail file to the zimbra file. Not sure if anyone out their has done this already, if so that would be great. If not I will have to write this and I will post it here in case someone else finds it useful.

The second would be to somehow do an ldap export and import. This might be ideal considering both mail systems utilize LDAP.

I have no idea if this is possible or how I would proceed.

I also don't know if it would be possible to bring over the passwords.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by bjdraw

The second would be to somehow do an ldap export and import. This might be ideal considering both mail systems utilize LDAP.

I have no idea if this is possible or how I would proceed.

I also don't know if it would be possible to bring over the passwords.

I'll anwser the LDAP part. If you use an LDAP browser(a link to my favorite below) you should be able to tell if the passwords are stored in plain text. If not you'll need to find out the format if you plan to extract them.

http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/~gawor/ldap/download.html

[raj]

hi..we run Imail for more than 20,000 email users.
we have planned to move lots of Imail users to Zimbra once it goes in production.

i dont know how you exported from Imail but i can write a small app for you which can give you LDAP format you want for Zimbra. it will take around an hour or so. which i guess can be used by other people if they like.

Yes you can export all PASSWORDS from Imail.

Let me know if you want this then i can spend some time over the weekend and get this out.
Imail also have Aliases, Forwarding, Signature, Address Lists and stuff which could be a trick and lengthy process to import in Zimbra and will take more time than just importing users and password for domains. Eventually I will have that along with how to move Existing Mails/Store also.

We have written apps for migration from Merak MailServer, rockliffe, Imail and Mail-Enable in house for our admin purposes. May be with some help from some dudes we can create this Super App to move from all these Windows Mail servers to Zimbra.
if anyone in Zimbra team likes to help. We have lots of insight how these mail servers work and store information.

Raj S Vrach
i2k2systems.com

[KevinH]

Sounds good. zmprov should be the entry point for account migration. Since it already supports batch mode via a text file this is the easiest way. So all the export scripts/apps should generate output in a format that zmprov will accept. We here at Zimbra can help with any questions or changes to zmprov to make this easier. You can add forward addresses and aliases with zmprov as well. For contacts you can just export to .csv for import, or use our SOAP api to import them live.

For mail if all these servers supoprt IMAP then imapsync is your firend. Lots of folks including us here at Zimbra use it to move mail into Zimbra.

[raj]

Hi..we waiting for Zimbra to release some stable version for production so we can really do some stress and scalibity tests.
if this takes the the load and works for us we plan to move 100% for our email stuff to zimbra.

we were anyway working on Postfix + SA + mySQL + clamAVS and others to come up with a solution but lack of Scalable Web Mail or Web access is a big deal and all PERL or PHP based webmail system are resource hogs and loop a lot for large mailboxes (try 2000 email in inbox with any of these)..
with Imail we have 15000 - 20000 email in inbox and it works like a charm..but it cost $$$ ..lots of them ...lol

we plan start on our Migration tools as soon as we 100% sure Zimbra is the one we will be using..so far it looks good .

Raj S Vrach
i2k2systems.com

[bjdraw]

Wow!
Thanks for the quick responses!

Kevin I will check out that ldap browser.

Raj, I went into the iMail console to the Domain and clicked "Export Users to file"
Then manually converted the file to the zmprov format and created about 50 accounts. This worked pretty good. But would prefer not to do it manually and to get the passwords.

Your plans look promissing and I would find it very useful. I am sure others would too. The more information that we can migrate from iMail the better. But the essentials are all that are required.

We are also planning to wait for a production version of Zimbra, so no hurry on the appliation.

This seems very promissing. I look forward to your migration tools as well as to future releases of Zimbra.

[KevinH]

What version and edition of Imail are you guys using today?

As for performance testing we'd love for some of you guys to beat up the next release in your enviroment. We are going to do some heavy perf work over the next couple releases so any direct feedback would really help focus us on the parts you feel need the most work. We have tools in house but you'll be able to better simulate your enviroment.

[bjdraw]

I am running iMail 6.06.
I have Simbra running of FC4 in a VMware Session on a server.
Once we decide to move forward we will build a real box.
Let me know if there is anything I can do for the project.

Ben

[bjdraw]

Now that the Open Source edition is out have you made any progress on the iMail migrator?

Ben

[tigozilla]

Raj,

I'm definately interested in such application to migrate users/passwords and mailboxes.

Thank you in advance.