Server Migration

The biggest challenge for today's system administrators when moving to a new email server is working out a painless way to move all the users and data from the old server to the new one.

The classical approach to this problem is to utilize a custom program to extract the data directly from the old server's database and then import it into the new server's database. The problem here is finding a safe, reliable program designed to work with both the server technologies.

Note: Not with the IceWarp Server Integrated Migration Tool included in IceWarp Server administration console.

The IceWarp Server Migration Tool uses a smart proxy approach by sitting between the users of the old server and your new IceWarp Server installation. When the users login to IceWarp Server for the first time, via POP3 or IMAP, IceWarp Server will use the user/password combination given to access the old server and retrieve the user's email messages.

Email accounts are migrated automatically, so you even do not need to know who your users are.

Before actually going through the migration process, you must first prepare the system for the migration:

  • Lets say your old mail server handles mail for a domain called "navi.com".
  • Users access the mail server via a host name called "mail.navi.com".
  • They use that address in their POP3/IMAP and SMTP settings of their mail client.
  • Now, you modify your DNS records so that the migrator machine becomes the new "mail.navi.com" and create a new A DNS record called "oldmail.navi.com" that points at the original mail server (POP3/IMAP).
  • You have to make sure that MX records for domain "navi.com" point at host name "mail.navi.com".
  • You can use the DNS Query tool to check DNS records are setup correctly.

Migration Message

When the migration is in progress, migrated users cannot access their accounts. For users using email clients (e.g. Microsoft Outlook, IceWarp Desktop Client, etc.), you can use the Migration account feature (Server Migration > General). It is the only possibility, because these clients are not able to show IceWarp Server messages.

However for IceWarp WebClient, the situation is different. When a user is trying to login, the following message is shown:

Migration in progress, try it again later.

It is possible to customize the message:

Edit the data.xml file <install_dir>\html\webmail\client\languages\<language_code>\ where the language code is e.g.: pt, en , cs, etc. - <migration_in_progress> tag.

For example, you may want to inform users that they can send/receive emails using their email clients, even if migration has not finished yet.