1 Topic by echo5

  • echo5
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Topic: How best to upgrade old server from RHEL7/iR0.9.3 to Rocky9/iR1.7.6?

==== REQUIRED BASIC INFO OF YOUR IREDMAIL SERVER ====
- iRedMail version (check /etc/iredmail-release): 0.9.3
- Deployed with iRedMail Easy or the downloadable installer? Manual
- Linux/BSD distribution name and version: RHEL7
- Store mail accounts in which backend (LDAP/MySQL/PGSQL): MySQL
- Web server (Apache or Nginx):  Apache
- Manage mail accounts with iRedAdmin-Pro?  No
====

I'm seeking advice. I have a very old iRedMail 0.9.3 server running on RHEL7. Since there are no updates or security updates available I need to update this *somehow*.

I have the ability to install a fresh Rocky 9 VM and configure iRedMail in any manner (MySQL, LDAP, etc). The question is, how to migrate the users, settings, email inboxes and folders, etc to the new server.

Does anyone have a proven method to migrate an old server's contents to a new server?

Thanks!

----

Spider Email Archiver: On-Premises, lightweight email archiving software developed by iRedMail team. Supports Amazon S3 compatible storage and custom branding.

2 Reply by dittman

  • dittman
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Re: How best to upgrade old server from RHEL7/iR0.9.3 to Rocky9/iR1.7.6?

I recently went through this process following the documentation.

The first thing I did was clone my old mail server to test the process.  I then went through the steps for each release to get to 1.7.4 (that's the latest release) on the clone.  I made notes of any issues and I saved the update files so I'd have them when I went to update the production server to save time.  I also created a new server using the new OS and installed iRedMail 1.7.4 on it.  Both servers were isolated from the production server.

At this point I tested generating fresh backups on the clone server and restoring to the new server.  After that I tested the new server, sending emails to verify they went through and my DMARC/SPF/DKIM records were all working.  I also created a NAT from one of my public IPs to the new server and tested that the emails from outside were received.  I tested over a couple of weeks.

Once I was satisfied everything was working I created a fresh new server that would replace the old server and installed iRedMail 1.7.4 on it.  I then disabled my incoming firewall rules for the mail server to block new email coming in and went through all the steps to update the old server.  I also enabled soft_bounce in Postfix.  Once that was done I did the backup and restore, updated the CNAMEs to point to the new email server, rebooted the new server, updated the firewall rules with the new server's IP, and re-enabled the firewall.

I left soft_bounce on for a week and watched the logs.  I found a couple of issues that I corrected.  Once I was satisfied I turned off soft_bounce.

3 Reply by echo5

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Re: How best to upgrade old server from RHEL7/iR0.9.3 to Rocky9/iR1.7.6?

Wow, respect. *That* was a lot of work. I guess that would stick me with the mysql and not moving to ldap or anything. At one time I thought I saw some process where you could use imap to push/pull each account over to a new server and retain time/date, etc.

4 Reply by GerryM (edited by GerryM 2026-01-23 03:31:06)

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Re: How best to upgrade old server from RHEL7/iR0.9.3 to Rocky9/iR1.7.6?

echo5 wrote:

At one time I thought I saw some process where you could use imap to push/pull each account over to a new server and retain time/date, etc.

There should be a migration guide in the documents section. That's what I used migrating from my Windows mail server to iRedMail, and what I may do again when I build a new box with the current versions.
edit-
Migration link https://docs.iredmail.org/migrate.to.ne … erver.html is hiding in the Upgrade document, just above the release notes. smile

5 Reply by dittman

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Re: How best to upgrade old server from RHEL7/iR0.9.3 to Rocky9/iR1.7.6?

echo5 wrote:

Wow, respect. *That* was a lot of work. I guess that would stick me with the mysql and not moving to ldap or anything. At one time I thought I saw some process where you could use imap to push/pull each account over to a new server and retain time/date, etc.

There are a couple of tools to sync imap accounts.  I thought about doing that but decided upgrading and then rsyncing the mail and doing the backup/restore of the databases would be slightly faster.