Re: [cobalt-users] PLEASE advise: Need a clean transfer from RaQto RaQ

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

DSL West Ops wrote:

> 4) Change the mx records on the original DNS servers to point to the
> new mail servers on the new Raq3i servers.  This is the only dicey
> part, since hosts that got a DNS lookup within the TTL time of the
> DNS records will point to the old mail servers.  We may have to set
> up a forward from the old servers to the new.

Pretty good <smile>.

Here's how I'd do it (since you asked)...

4)  A few days before doing anything else (exact number of days
partially dependent on how much time you have before you have to do
this, and partly based on your current TTL), change your TTL to one
hour.

Get someone to do backup mail spooling for you, and point an additional,
lower priority, MX record on your original DNS server to that server. 
Also create an A record for the new pop server (perhaps pop.domain.com
if you've been using mail.domain.com for your pop server, or
pop2.domain.com if you've been using pop.domain.com).

Once TTL has expired, turn off sendmail on your original server so it
won't accept email anymore; email will now go to the backup mail server,
and be spooled there.

Create the users on the new RaQ3i.

Copy over (by whatever means) all the mailbox files
(/home/spool/mail/username) to the new RaQ3i.

Tell your users that from now on they must pick up mail from the new
pop-server; give them complete instructions for changing it.

(Or alternatively, tell them they may not be able to pick up their mail
for a while, but that it will still be collected for them, then just
change the A record for the pop-server.)

Change the MX record on the original DNS server to point to the new mail
server on the new RaQ3i, delete the MX record for the spooling machine,
and tell the spooling machine to deliver all email to the new server
(beyond the scope of this post; the sendmail.org site has pretty good
directions on how to do this).

Then again after TTL, your original #5 will work fine:

> 5) Change the Internic domain records to point to the new DNS servers.

And oh, don't forget to change your TTL back to 12 hours or so.

This should work a bit better, unless I've forgotten something.

W'ere going with the same old pop server name when we do this for the
ISP we just bought; we're telling our customers they may not be able to
pick up email for about four hours one morning, from midnight to four
am.

Okay, I have to do this the end of the month.

Anyone have any better ideas?

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672
Riverside, CA  92517
voice: (909) 787-8589  *  fax: (909) 782-0205