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Migrating from qmail to exim question

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edgarosy at gmail

May 14, 2012, 11:59 AM

Post #1 of 7 (320 views)
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Migrating from qmail to exim question

Hello everyone,

1st of all thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my inquiry here.

I am very in-experienced when it comes to mail server administration,
however I was assigned a task to migrate an existing qmail server running
on a ubuntu 8.0 server to a new opensource mail server that will be
install and setup on a fresh redhat enterprise version 6 server.

doing a bit of research I came across exim and it seems a really good MTA
choice for our purpose specially being open source. ( we can't afford to
have any commercial products )

Is there any good documentation out there that can help me, guide me
through migrating 300 mail boxes from qmail server to exim server? our
current qmail server uses the Maildir format and we would like to keep the
new one that way, also runs courier-imap for IMAP on ports 143 & 993, we
don't use POP3, and all users in qmail server authenticate to their e-mail
accounts through an openldap server that is hosted on the qmail server as
well. Our current qmail server does not have any aliases setup nor virtual
domains.

One option I was looking at for IMAP service on the new server is dovecot.

I would like to test this procedure on a VM that I have setup but am
planning on deploying to a production environment in the next 2 weeks.

Any help would be greatly appreciate it.
--
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## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
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roger at firedrake

May 15, 2012, 12:34 AM

Post #2 of 7 (307 views)
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Re: Migrating from qmail to exim question [In reply to]

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:59:53PM -0600, Miguel Lanz wrote:

>Is there any good documentation out there that can help me, guide me
>through migrating 300 mail boxes from qmail server to exim server? our
>current qmail server uses the Maildir format and we would like to keep the
>new one that way, also runs courier-imap for IMAP on ports 143 & 993, we
>don't use POP3, and all users in qmail server authenticate to their e-mail
>accounts through an openldap server that is hosted on the qmail server as
>well. Our current qmail server does not have any aliases setup nor virtual
>domains.

I don't think there's any formal documentation of the migration process,
but all the things you mention are easily set up using the Exim
documentation. You can keep courier-imap or run dovecot; it won't make
any difference to Exim.

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

iane at sussex

May 15, 2012, 5:01 AM

Post #3 of 7 (307 views)
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Re: Migrating from qmail to exim question [In reply to]

On 14 May 2012, at 19:59, Miguel Lanz wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> 1st of all thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my inquiry here.
>
> I am very in-experienced when it comes to mail server administration,
> however I was assigned a task to migrate an existing qmail server running
> on a ubuntu 8.0 server to a new opensource mail server that will be
> install and setup on a fresh redhat enterprise version 6 server.
>
> doing a bit of research I came across exim and it seems a really good MTA
> choice for our purpose specially being open source. ( we can't afford to
> have any commercial products )
>
> Is there any good documentation out there that can help me, guide me
> through migrating 300 mail boxes from qmail server to exim serve

There's no mailbox migration to be performed, except to copy the email to the new machine. Exim is responsible for two things:

1. Accepting inbound email, and putting it into the right courier-imap mailbox.

2. Accepting authenticated email submissions from your users' mail clients, and delivering them either locally or to third parties.

Courier-imap stores the emails, and serves them up to users when they log in with their mail clients. You don't need to change this, or move any emails.

Exim can use openldap for authentication.

What you call your "qmail server" is actually a ubuntu server. Qmail is a process that runs on that server, alongside courier and openldap. You simply want to replace Qmail with Exim.

> our
> current qmail server uses the Maildir format and we would like to keep the
> new one that way, also runs courier-imap for IMAP on ports 143 & 993, we
> don't use POP3, and all users in qmail server authenticate to their e-mail
> accounts through an openldap server that is hosted on the qmail server as
> well. Our current qmail server does not have any aliases setup nor virtual
> domains.
>
> One option I was looking at for IMAP service on the new server is dovecot.

That might require mailbox migration. It might also then require reconfiguration of Exim. It's probably better to do this as a separate process.

> I would like to test this procedure on a VM that I have setup but am
> planning on deploying to a production environment in the next 2 weeks.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciate it.

--
Ian Eiloart
Postmaster, University of Sussex
+44 (0) 1273 87-3148

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

edgarosy at gmail

May 15, 2012, 8:35 AM

Post #4 of 7 (311 views)
Permalink

Re: Migrating from qmail to exim question [In reply to]

Thanks for your feedback guys I really appreciate it.

I installed courier-imap and courier-imap-auth.

My question is:

where do I configure exim and courier-imap to work together. what setting
do I need to configure on exim.conf file. Also openldap server runs on an
external server how to I tell exim to use it so that users can
authenticate through their e-mail clients using IMAP and their network
password?

also when I sent my self a test e-mail using just exim right after I
installed it, it places the e-mail under /var/mail/$USER instead of
creating a Maildir folder for the user.

Thanks for your help.

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 6:01 AM, Ian Eiloart <iane [at] sussex> wrote:

> On 14 May 2012, at 19:59, Miguel Lanz wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > 1st of all thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my inquiry
> here.
> >
> > I am very in-experienced when it comes to mail server administration,
> > however I was assigned a task to migrate an existing qmail server running
> > on a ubuntu 8.0 server to a new opensource mail server that will be
> > install and setup on a fresh redhat enterprise version 6 server.
> >
> > doing a bit of research I came across exim and it seems a really good MTA
> > choice for our purpose specially being open source. ( we can't afford to
> > have any commercial products )
> >
> > Is there any good documentation out there that can help me, guide me
> > through migrating 300 mail boxes from qmail server to exim serve
>
> There's no mailbox migration to be performed, except to copy the email to
> the new machine. Exim is responsible for two things:
>
> 1. Accepting inbound email, and putting it into the right courier-imap
> mailbox.
>
> 2. Accepting authenticated email submissions from your users' mail
> clients, and delivering them either locally or to third parties.
>
> Courier-imap stores the emails, and serves them up to users when they log
> in with their mail clients. You don't need to change this, or move any
> emails.
>
> Exim can use openldap for authentication.
>
> What you call your "qmail server" is actually a ubuntu server. Qmail is a
> process that runs on that server, alongside courier and openldap. You
> simply want to replace Qmail with Exim.
>
> > our
> > current qmail server uses the Maildir format and we would like to keep
> the
> > new one that way, also runs courier-imap for IMAP on ports 143 & 993, we
> > don't use POP3, and all users in qmail server authenticate to their
> e-mail
> > accounts through an openldap server that is hosted on the qmail server as
> > well. Our current qmail server does not have any aliases setup nor
> virtual
> > domains.
> >
> > One option I was looking at for IMAP service on the new server is
> dovecot.
>
> That might require mailbox migration. It might also then require
> reconfiguration of Exim. It's probably better to do this as a separate
> process.
>
> > I would like to test this procedure on a VM that I have setup but am
> > planning on deploying to a production environment in the next 2 weeks.
> >
> > Any help would be greatly appreciate it.
>
>
>
> --
> Ian Eiloart
> Postmaster, University of Sussex
> +44 (0) 1273 87-3148
>
>
>

--
Edgar Lanz

"If nobody is perfect I must be nobody"
--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

roger at firedrake

May 15, 2012, 8:43 AM

Post #5 of 7 (309 views)
Permalink

Re: Migrating from qmail to exim question [In reply to]

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 09:35:05AM -0600, Miguel Lanz wrote:

>where do I configure exim and courier-imap to work together. what setting
>do I need to configure on exim.conf file. Also openldap server runs on an
>external server how to I tell exim to use it so that users can
>authenticate through their e-mail clients using IMAP and their network
>password?

http://www.exim.org/exim-html-current/doc/html/spec_html/ch33.html et
seq.

>also when I sent my self a test e-mail using just exim right after I
>installed it, it places the e-mail under /var/mail/$USER instead of
>creating a Maildir folder for the user.

http://www.exim.org/exim-html-current/doc/html/spec_html/ch26.html

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

iane at sussex

May 16, 2012, 7:41 AM

Post #6 of 7 (297 views)
Permalink

Re: Migrating from qmail to exim question [In reply to]

On 15 May 2012, at 16:35, Miguel Lanz wrote:
>
> Thanks for your feedback guys I really appreciate it.
>
> I installed courier-imap and courier-imap-auth.
>
> My question is:
>
> where do I configure exim and courier-imap to work together.

They don't really work together. You need to create a transport on the exim.conf file that delivers to the correct inboxes. And you need to create a router that says which messages should be delivered with that transport. Presumably that'll be all messages destined for your email domains.

> what setting do I need to configure on exim.conf file. Also openldap server runs on an external server how to I tell exim to use it so that users can authenticate through their e-mail clients using IMAP and their network password?

There you need to set an authenticator in the "authenticators" section. Mine looks like this (but I've obfuscated my ldap structure, you'll need to tweek the "user=" section so that it's appropriate to your LDAP structure

begin authenticators
######################################################################
# AUTHENTICATION CONFIGURATION #
######################################################################

login:
driver = plaintext
public_name = LOGIN
server_prompts = Username:: : Password::
server_condition = ${if ldapauth \
{ user="uid=${quote_ldap:${sg{$1}{[\n\t\r ]}{}}},ou=A,ou=B,o=blah" \
pass="$2" ldap:///\
}{yes}{no}}
server_set_id = ${sg{$1}{[\n\t\r ]}{}}
### end authenticators

> also when I sent my self a test e-mail using just exim right after I installed it, it places the e-mail under /var/mail/$USER instead of creating a Maildir folder for the user.

Yes, you'll need to set up the transport for that. I don't use courier, so I can't help with that, I'm afraid.

> Thanks for your help.

--
Ian Eiloart
Postmaster, University of Sussex
+44 (0) 1273 87-3148

--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

edgarosy at gmail

May 16, 2012, 9:45 AM

Post #7 of 7 (296 views)
Permalink

Re: Migrating from qmail to exim question [In reply to]

Thanks Ian. I really appreciate your help on this.

Bless.

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 8:41 AM, Ian Eiloart <iane [at] sussex> wrote:

> On 15 May 2012, at 16:35, Miguel Lanz wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for your feedback guys I really appreciate it.
> >
> > I installed courier-imap and courier-imap-auth.
> >
> > My question is:
> >
> > where do I configure exim and courier-imap to work together.
>
> They don't really work together. You need to create a transport on the
> exim.conf file that delivers to the correct inboxes. And you need to create
> a router that says which messages should be delivered with that transport.
> Presumably that'll be all messages destined for your email domains.
>
> > what setting do I need to configure on exim.conf file. Also openldap
> server runs on an external server how to I tell exim to use it so that
> users can authenticate through their e-mail clients using IMAP and their
> network password?
>
> There you need to set an authenticator in the "authenticators" section.
> Mine looks like this (but I've obfuscated my ldap structure, you'll need to
> tweek the "user=" section so that it's appropriate to your LDAP structure
>
> begin authenticators
> ######################################################################
> # AUTHENTICATION CONFIGURATION #
> ######################################################################
>
> login:
> driver = plaintext
> public_name = LOGIN
> server_prompts = Username:: : Password::
> server_condition = ${if ldapauth \
> { user="uid=${quote_ldap:${sg{$1}{[\n\t\r ]}{}}},ou=A,ou=B,o=blah" \
> pass="$2" ldap:///\
> }{yes}{no}}
> server_set_id = ${sg{$1}{[\n\t\r ]}{}}
> ### end authenticators
>
>
> > also when I sent my self a test e-mail using just exim right after I
> installed it, it places the e-mail under /var/mail/$USER instead of
> creating a Maildir folder for the user.
>
> Yes, you'll need to set up the transport for that. I don't use courier, so
> I can't help with that, I'm afraid.
>
> > Thanks for your help.
>
> --
> Ian Eiloart
> Postmaster, University of Sussex
> +44 (0) 1273 87-3148
>
>
>

--
Edgar Lanz

"If nobody is perfect I must be nobody"
--
## List details at https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://wiki.exim.org/

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