5 replies to this topic

[SAGA]

Hi,
I am working on a migration from MS Exchange to GNU/Linux based email system. I need the contents of mailboxes to be migrated from exchange to postfix. What are the tools that could be used? Some tips on email server migration could also be helpfull.

Thanks.

[mecca_]

Hi,
I am working on a migration from MS Exchange to GNU/Linux based email system. I need the contents of mailboxes to be migrated from exchange to postfix. What are the tools that could be used? Some tips on email server migration could also be helpfull.

Thanks.

I did something similar a while back ago except my company went with zimbra. We used imapsync http://freshmeat.net...jects/imapsync/ for some of the mailboxes, but it has the downside of needing to know the password of the mailbox you're migrating which sucks if you have a large migration to do. The tool itself works great though.

[SAGA]

I did something similar a while back ago except my company went with zimbra. We used imapsync http://freshmeat.net...jects/imapsync/ for some of the mailboxes, but it has the downside of needing to know the password of the mailbox you're migrating which sucks if you have a large migration to do. The tool itself works great though.

Thanks, How did you find out the password? Cracked it? Is it good to work with zimbra?

[Alk3]

I am no expert in this subject but it may be easiest to write a python application to help with the migration. Use a SQL back end to store credentials and export all user names and passwords into the database from MS exchange. Once set up have the python application execute the appropriate commands to add each user until all users are added to your new mail server environment. I know this works because I did some data recovery a while back for a company and did something similar to restore the data. It will require some research on how to interface your script with each mail system, but should be marginally effective. This does not cover copying email data, but should set you off in the right direction. (I hope)

[mecca_]

I did something similar a while back ago except my company went with zimbra. We used imapsync http://freshmeat.net...jects/imapsync/ for some of the mailboxes, but it has the downside of needing to know the password of the mailbox you're migrating which sucks if you have a large migration to do. The tool itself works great though.

Thanks, How did you find out the password? Cracked it? Is it good to work with zimbra?

Some we cracked, some we just had the users stop by and input their passwords.

I really like zimbra. It's basically a nice front end around a bunch of open source applications. Also, they have an exchange migration utility that works well. For the most part we used this tool for migrations (it doesn't require a password, just an exchange admin account). We primarily used imapsync to sync a mailbox after a migration. IE: we use the migration wizard over night because a user may have had a huge mailbox. We come in the morning and use imapsync to catch any mails that may have been delivered to the old account, then we move the client over to the new server. imapsync is alot faster for a small sync than the migration wizard.

I'm not going to lie, the whole process required tons of manual intervention which sucked, but some of the tools that zimbra offers made it alot easier. Also, while we converted many people to thunderbird during this process we have some users who can't get away from outlook. Zimbra has an outlook connector that actually works really well and provides the same functionality to outlook that being connected to an exchange server would have. I don't know what kind of environment your working in so I'm not sure if that would be helpful... (I should note that we ponied up for Zimbra network edition. I don't think all of the feature I mentioned are in the OpenSource version)

[AkexKrenvalk]

Hi,
I am working on a migration from MS Exchange to GNU/Linux based email system. I need the contents of mailboxes to be migrated from exchange to postfix. What are the tools that could be used? Some tips on email server migration could also be helpfull.

Thanks.

Usually I have some similar problems with ms exchange. But not always I'm able to manage with theirs. Luckily last time I was rescued next application which had been found a soft portal. It owns many positive characteristics and is able to cope with like troubles - exchange edb recovery.