Migrate Zimbra data from one Zimbra server to another (different DNS)

[clincoln]

I am looking for a way to migrate the complete configuration of a mail server from one server (let's call it A) to another (called B). The DNS entries of the servers are different and I would like to keep it that way if possible. The whole purpose of this exercise is to set up a test bed for updating server A to 4.5.4 so as to verify that data loss will not occur, while at the same time verifying that we can have something of an easily restored backup if necessary.

Installation on server A is ZCS 4.5.1 on Intel OSXS 10.4.9.
Installation on server B is ZCS 4.5.1 on PPC OSX 10.4.9.

I did a full export from server A with the following command (or at least I think I did):
zmbackup -f -z -a all -t /opt/zimbra/backup/full/

I then transferred the contents of the full directory to the same directory on the other server (incidentally, I thought that the -z switch was supposed to zip the files...?). I then ran this command:
zmrestore -a all -sys -rf -c -t /opt/zimbra/backup/full

The restore did not seem to display any fatal errors, but it was not able to import the current email accounts (which are formatted like this: username@a.domainname.com).

Since then the services will not start on server B. I attempted to uninstall Zimbra on server B using ./install-mac.sh -u but a subsequent reinstall errored out. I am not overly concerned with this part at the moment, but I am getting a little worried about being able to get a zimbra installation back up and running in the case of server failure.

Any help would very much be appreciated.

[jhahm]

Hi,

The -z option only zips the blobs subdirectory within each account directory. It does not zip the entire backup session.

I'm not sure what is going on. I suggest you try out the steps in this wiki page:

http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?tit...aster_Recovery

The main difference is the use of zmrestoreoffline as opposed to zmrestore.

You mentioned you are keeping DNS entries separate on A and B. Does that mean the ZCS install on host B will use a different domain and server name from the original install? Try making B look like A to Zimbra. Add A to 's /etc/hosts to point to itself, and use A as domain/hostname during installation. (I haven't tried this myself, but I think it will work. Notice the wiki entry assumes you've taken down A or changed its hostname and the new machine owns the old IP/hostname before starting the ZCS install.)

Also, from your initial restore attempt, are you sure there were no errors? Try restarting tomcat after appending "log4j.logger.zimbra.backup=DEBUG" to /opt/zimbra/conf/log4j.properties, then run restore again.