Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 10:01:58 +0400 From: SM <sm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi Michelle, At 10:37 19-06-2003 +0100, Michelle A. Hoyle wrote:Detailed Discussion: We currently host a high-volume mail/web site on our RaQ4, but due to problems with the network interface constantly thinking the network doesn't exist, we're moving it from the RaQ4 to our RaQ550. The two machines have a different block of IPs assigned to them, so we will be changing the IP address. Prior to actually doing this move, I've been experimenting with a domain which does not any active user e-mail accounts (seejapan.co.uk).Why do you have to change the IP addresses? You are moving the mail server to another host (RaQ550). It's only a matter of point the MX to the new host.
Hi SM.Thanks for the response. The IP is changing because the whole domain is moving from our old RaQ 4 to our new RaQ 550. The old machine has a different block of IPs allocated to it than the new machine (they're on different subnets at the co-lo centre).
>I have the following MX rules set up on the DNS server (not managed viathe RaQ itself): * mail for seejapan.co.uk is delivered to raq550 with a preference of 5> * mail for seejapan.co.uk is delivered to raq4 with a preference of 10 >
<SNIP>
You should expect problems. Getting the users involved will avoid you some hassle. Draw up a timetable for the transition and explain how the move might affect them. It's nice to see how you summarized the problem and detailed your requirements. Good luck on the move.
I came up with a cunning plan that didn't involve any sendmail reconfiguration at all. The existing client actually uses Fetchmail already to POP their accounts to the local mailserver (behind a firewall).
1) I backed up the site using the CMU tool.2) I recreated it on the new machine by doing a CMU restore, which created all the user accounts with their passwords intact. 3) I reset all the mbox files for those users on the new machine to 0 (they don't need week-old mail that's already been picked up or still sitting on the old machine) 4) A few days before the IP was scheduled to change, I added a new MX record with a higher priority than domain.com which shunted the mail to the new RaQ550. The RaQ550 now set up with the domain and all the user accounts happily accepted the mail. 5) Their existing FetchMail set-up continued to POP any outstanding mail on the old machine or anything that arrived until the MX record change was accepted by the NOC's DNS server. 6) A few days later, I issued a DNS change for the IP addresses. All their POP mail accounts are empty. When they come in on Monday, the IP will have switched over, and they can pick up their mail that accumulated since Saturday night.
And everything's hunky-dorey. Only snag was that a few of their user accounts weren't already being FetchMailed, but they belong to their IT staff and we can hash that out to pick it up off the old machine with no sweat.
Thanks for the advice, though, and for the compliment about my presentation of my problem.
Michelle