Moving to new server?

[sternfan]

Hi all,

I checked the wiki & did a search of the forums and can't find directions on moving an existing Zimbra (open edition) to new Server hardware. If anyone can point me to the info, thanks in advance.

Quick Q - does both the old & new server have to have the same OS? Do they have to run the same version of Zimbra?

Thanks,
Rob

[jholder]

Hi Rob-
As long as the new server will have the same hostname, this is relatively easy.

The new server doesn't have to have the Same OS as the former. However, the ZCS version must be the same on both instances during the migration.

The easiest way to move is to rsync /opt/zimbra to a backup location:
su - root
rsync -avr /opt/zimbra /backup/location
(see man rsync for more)

Then install a fresh copy of Zimbra on your new server. Do not rsync your backup to /opt/zimbra of your new server as when you install Zimbra for the first time, it will wipe /opt/zimbra.

Then
rm -rf /opt/zimbra
rsync -avr /backup/location/zimbra /opt

Then, reinstall your version of Zimbra. It will detect it; tell it it's an upgrade.

That should do it.
You may also need to run zmfixperms located in /opt/zimbra/libexec

jh

[sternfan]

Thanks JHolder,

Thanks for the help. Was there a wiki for this? I could have sworn I saw one a few months ago (or a howto on your website somewhere).

Rob

[jholder]

Originally Posted by sternfan

Thanks JHolder,

Thanks for the help. Was there a wiki for this? I could have sworn I saw one a few months ago (or a howto on your website somewhere).

Rob

watch the blog.

[markpr]

Jh,

That procedure would only work if it's moving to the same OS I think (don't you restore the binaries/libraries from the old server to the new with your copy).

We just moved through this procedure and upgraded to the Network Edition Trial at the same time (on the new server). Would the WIKI entry for that procedure make more sense here?

Network Edition Moving from Open Source to Network Edition ZCS - ZimbraWiki

Aside from the license key installation the procedure looks like it might be the same for any server move....

Mark

[mmorse]

That's the point of the upgrade install (./install.sh -s)
-Think he meant he's gonna make a blog entry about it sometime & if you want we can then copy that into a wiki for notes or something if you like

(also check the gid & uid of zimbra and make a note of it)

/forums/installation/9546-best-way-move-users-old-zimbra-zimbra-new-machine.html
/forums/installation/11523-upgrade-centos-4-centos-5-a.html

for those searching this thread later: Network Edition: Moving from 32-bit to 64-bit Server - ZimbraWiki

[markpr]

Mike,

I'm interested because we have moved to RH for the time being but would like to get back onto Ubuntu (our reasons for switching during this migration have more to do with the Vendor's current support for some RAID utilities.. but anyway....).

So if I understand the upgrade install it's going to remove the old Zimbra packages and install the new ones.

Isn't the new OS package manager that Zimbra calls going to balk when it finds the installed package contents (binaries, libraries) have changed and are not the ones that came as part of the package? On some platforms the package manager will not remove files that have a different checksum.... This procedure just sounds too easy :-)

Mark

[mmorse]

BTW are you using NE? (you have a thread title that would suggest this-you could also add it to your profile)
It's not the same thing but you should be able to accomplish that platform switch using a backup as well-

Restore the Zimbra Collaboration Suite Servers
This would be in the case of complete computer failure. (single-server ZCS configuration)
Important: The ZCS release you install on the new server must be the same release as installed on the old server. The server can have a different operating system.

/docs/ne/latest/administration_guide/10_Backup_Restore.13.1.html#1079525

[mmorse]

/blog/archives/2007/10/moving_zcs_to_another_server.html

[sternfan]

Hi all - thanks for all the replies & blogs on this.

I am getting close (probably going to do this in two weeks) to doing this hardware upgrade. I will post my results when this actually happens.

Just wondering... I use webmin to make off-hours backups easier (I am using the open edition). Basically backing up the /opt/zimbra to an NFS drive on another fedora box. Could I use this setup for my server move? Basic steps would be:

- backup old server, shut it down
- configure new server with old server settings
- do restore using webmin backups
- run Zimbra install as upgrade

Would this work?

Now that I'm looking at all of this again, I would use the rsync with the NFS drives, but I'm going to post this anyways since I am curious about something... I am now wondering if my backups are effective, and what would happen if I had to do a restore to another server using this webmin backup?

Any and all comments appreciated,
Sternfan