Migrating from older Zimbra to new Zimbra

[roman]

Hello,

I know this is probably a very basic question, but I am in need to perform this migration on a production server and am very concerned about corrupting or otherwise losing emails. Please help!

I have an extremely outdated Zimbra running on one server:
Release 4.5.5_GA_838.RHEL4_64_20070518070829
RHEL4_64 NETWORK edition

what I would like to do is both upgrade to the latest version of Zimbra avialble:
zcs-NETWORK-5.0.5_GA_2201.RHEL5.20080417003749
and migrate everything to a new machine running latest redhat and hardware.

To make life easier I have an MX BACKUP service running - allowing me to shutdown my zimbra server for maintenance, and I completely new RHEL5_32 machine with all prerequisites.

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First of all can I run full backup on 4.5.5GA and restore on 5.0.5? If not, do you recommend I install older version on new machine, restore, then upgrade?

Second, I assume I have to put the current/live server into maintanance mode to prevent it from getting new emails while I backup & restore? how do I do this?
note: running "zmcontrol maintenance" seems to do nothing. should I just stop MTA? ("zmmtactl stop")?

Anything else I should think about, before performing this upgrade and migration?

[uxbod]

Welcome to the forums

Have a read of the Power Admin Tip: Moving ZCS to another server.

As with everything ensure you have a valid backup! You will also need to install the same version on the new server, but that is covered in the above.

[roman]

Uxbod,
super helpful link, I am surprised I did not come across it in my googling. A few questions on top of that:

1)if i already hastingly installed the l;latest Zimbra 5.0.5 on the new server, do I just 'rm -rf /opt/zimbra' to remove it and follow the instructions in the above link?

2) while performing RSYNC and switching between the servers, what is the best way to 'shutdown' the current server? do I just zmcontrol stop and let the backup MX pick up the pieces?

-r

[y@w]

roman,

There are instructions on uninstalling Zimbra in the wiki:
UnInstall Zimbra - Zimbra :: Wiki

We've done a couple server migrations using rsync. Shutting down services gets a little interesting when doing the migrations becuase you have to have the mailbox service running while doing the backup, but during the backup you could get more email. What we have done in the past is do a full backup, rsync it, stop the mta using 'zmmtactl stop', do an incremental backup, and then rsync that over then stop the rest of the Zimbra services on the old server. If having the services available on the old system is not a big deal, you can just stop the mta services and do a backup and rsync and skip the extra incremental steps.

Wyatt

[uxbod]

As the Wiki says do not use the internal ZCS backup mechanism. So just shutdown your ZCS services, and run a full rsync backup. Let the secondary MX do what it is there for

For removing ZCS you can run install.sh -u from where you extracted the tarball.

[roman]

Wyatt,

your response actially hits upon a question I am currently confused about

It seems that you are only rsync-ing backup files and not the entire zimbra directory? I was under the impression that I should rsync entire /opt/zimbra -- which includes the zimbra backups tree underneath it.

So when you metion incremental backups do you speak of rsync or zimbra?

Also if you can help me with rsync - I don't use it often, but this is the command I got so far: rsync -aHzv --rsh=ssh root@$OLDZIMBRA:/opt/zimbra /opt/

so here is my strategy:
#1) run rsync as above from new server to copy entire /opt/zimbra including backups tree -- while zimbra current i still live
#2) wait until later night, shutdown live zimbra, run rsync again (do I use the same command??)
#3) upgrade zimbra on new server to 5.0.5 (direct jump? no incremental updates?)
#4) switch DNS to point to new MX

obviously I will experience some downtime during incremental rsync and upgrade tonight, but I hope backup MX server will take care of me

Does this make sense? I am assuming:
-I will not touch zimbra's backup and restore functionality at all? (even thouygh I am paid user)
-rsync will take care of any new messages or folder changes users make between 1st and 2nd run.
-I use rsync command above to make both the backups (full & iincremental)
-I can jump a few version of Zimbra forward from 4,5 to 5.0.5

[y@w]

Sorry, I was misreading what you were saying.. Follow the instructions in the wiki. Every time we've done the migration, the most of the configuration of the server changed except the mailboxes stayed the same and it ended up being easier to use the backup utilties. If you're simply moving it to new hardware, by far the easiest way is the way in the wiki. Sorry for the confusion.

The exact rsync command is also in the wiki as well.

[mmorse]

When doing the blog rsync method - for the operating system platform switch you should be using the same ZCS version.

Either:
A)
-Upgrade RHEL4 4.5.5 > 4.5.11
-Upgrade 4.5.11 > 5.0.5
-Change to RHEL5 using 5.0.5

B)
-Change to RHEL5 using 4.5.5
-Upgrade 4.5.5 > 4.5.11
-Upgrade 4.5.11 > 5.0.5


(I would suggest 4.5.11 as a good hop point.)

[mmorse]

Of course with good /opt/zimbra copies (and any linked directories) or NE backups in-between

[mmorse]

Though I understand you're not using it in this case, just have to put it out there:
For NE users another alternative is /docs/ne/latest/administration_guide/10_Backup_Restore.14.1.html#1059814