1 (edited by danitaz 2021-10-13 20:33:37)

Topic: Pre-migration questions

==== REQUIRED BASIC INFO OF YOUR IREDMAIL SERVER ====
- iRedMail version (check /etc/iredmail-release): none
- Deployed with iRedMail Easy or the downloadable installer? n/a
- Linux/BSD distribution name and version: will be RedHat Enterprise probably
- Store mail accounts in which backend (LDAP/MySQL/PGSQL): n/a
- Web server (Apache or Nginx): Apache
- Manage mail accounts with iRedAdmin-Pro? unsure
- [IMPORTANT] Related original log or error message is required if you're experiencing an issue.
====

Hello,

I am a GroupWise consultant (which was formerly a Novell product, now MicroFocus).  I have a small customer who is looking to possibly migrate to iRedMail - fewer than 20 defined users, probably only 10 active, but MANY domains!!  I have a number of general questions.  I'm familiar with Postfix generally (I use a MailScanner server with MailWatch currently for some projects), so I don't think iRedMail will be totally foreign to me, etc.  But I've never used DoveCot.  So here goes:

1.  I'm assuming that IMAP is the best way to do this mail migration, but it will require knowing all passwords for the GroupWise accounts, correct?  GroupWise does have "trusted applications" that allow an administrative task to do migrations of this sort without knowing the passwords, but I don't think IMAPSync supports this from the GW side?  Is IMAPSync a part of iRedMail or is it a third-party add-on - I'm fuzzy on this!
2.  We are accustomed to having email in a database, so that's not a concern, other than deciding which.  I'm leaning towards MariaDB, but PostgreSQL is also an option for me.  Current size of the system is roughly 35GB.  Any recommendations as to why I might want one over the other?
3.  We are planning RedHat Enterprise for the server - iRedMail Easy does not mention RHEL on the "comparison" page - is this just an oversight?  Or should we just use Centos Stream?
4.  What happens if you start with iRedMail Easy and then discontinue the subscription.  Are there configuration changes that need to be made on the server, or does it just continue, but all upgrade/update functions must be done manually again?
5.  What happens if you start with iRedMail Pro, and do not renew the license in a few years?  System continues to work, but all admin reverts to manual again?  Is there a demo of a "user" level access to iRedMail Pro that shows how to manage passwords, view quarantined mail, etc.?
6.  This is probably just a Postfix question, but GroupWise allows multiple domains to funnel through to the same mailboxes.  So, danita@domain1.com, danita@domain2.org, danita@domain3.net can all just go into the "danita" mailbox by default, and overrides are made for things like info@ that might need to go elsewhere.  I'm assuming this can be done in virtual_alias_domains and virtual_alias_maps respectively in Postfix?

I think that gets me started.  I've looked at the installation guides, etc., so I have a general idea of what to expect, and I'm going to start a test server this/next week to play around.

Thanks!

Danita

----

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

2

Re: Pre-migration questions

danitaz wrote:

1.  I'm assuming that IMAP is the best way to do this mail migration, but it will require knowing all passwords for the GroupWise accounts, correct?  GroupWise does have "trusted applications" that allow an administrative task to do migrations of this sort without knowing the passwords, but I don't think IMAPSync supports this from the GW side?  Is IMAPSync a part of iRedMail or is it a third-party add-on - I'm fuzzy on this!

2 possible solutions to sync mail messages (mailboxes):

1: sync with "imapsync" via IMAP protocol. You must know either user's password, or have a master user which can access all users' mailboxes without users' password. In Dovecot, it's called Dovecot Master User. FYI: https://docs.iredmail.org/dovecot.master.user.html
2: if GroupWise stores messages in Maildir format, you can simply copy them to iRedMail server with "scp" or "rsync", and make sure mailboxes are owned by user/group "vmail:vmail" with permission 0700.

imapsync is a third-party tool: https://imapsync.lamiral.info

danitaz wrote:

2.  We are accustomed to having email in a database, so that's not a concern, other than deciding which.  I'm leaning towards MariaDB, but PostgreSQL is also an option for me.  Current size of the system is roughly 35GB.  Any recommendations as to why I might want one over the other?

iRedMail stores emails in Maildir format on file system, not in a SQL db.
But mail accounts are stored in SQL db or LDAP.

You can choose the one you're familiar with, MariaDB or PGSQL, your choice.

danitaz wrote:

3.  We are planning RedHat Enterprise for the server - iRedMail Easy does not mention RHEL on the "comparison" page - is this just an oversight?  Or should we just use Centos Stream?

We recommend Rocky Linux 8, another option is CentOS 8 Stream.

danitaz wrote:

4.  What happens if you start with iRedMail Easy and then discontinue the subscription.  Are there configuration changes that need to be made on the server, or does it just continue, but all upgrade/update functions must be done manually again?

Your server continue working. The iRedMail Easy platform is just a platform to help deploy / upgrade iRedMail, also offers tech support via the web ticket system. Your server works fine without a subscription.

danitaz wrote:

5.  What happens if you start with iRedMail Pro, and do not renew the license in a few years?  System continues to work, but all admin reverts to manual again?  Is there a demo of a "user" level access to iRedMail Pro that shows how to manage passwords, view quarantined mail, etc.?

System continues to work, iRedAdmin-Pro continues to work, except no further new releases / bug fixes / tech support offered from iRedMail team (since license expired).

For user-level access to iRedAdmin-Pro, please visit our demo site, then create a new testing domain and user, enable "self-service" in "Advance" tab of domain profile page, then you can login to iRedAdmin-Pro with the user account for user-level access.
http://www.iredmail.org/admin_demo.html

danitaz wrote:

6.  This is probably just a Postfix question, but GroupWise allows multiple domains to funnel through to the same mailboxes.  So, danita@domain1.com, danita@domain2.org, danita@domain3.net can all just go into the "danita" mailbox by default, and overrides are made for things like info@ that might need to go elsewhere.  I'm assuming this can be done in virtual_alias_domains and virtual_alias_maps respectively in Postfix?

Technically yes. But you may want to setup per-user alias address with iRedAdmin-Pro in this case.

3

Re: Pre-migration questions

@ZhangHuangbin ... I setup a centos 7 iRedMail Easy server with a Pro admin license. 

I noted the pretty old mysql and PHP installs. 

Does the RockyLinux 8 bring updated packages?

Thanks in advance for your time!

4

Re: Pre-migration questions

kwags2021 wrote:

Does the RockyLinux 8 bring updated packages?

Rocky Linux 8 is similar to CentOS 8, and of course it has newer packages than CentOS 7.

5

Re: Pre-migration questions

ZhangHuangbin wrote:

For user-level access to iRedAdmin-Pro, please visit our demo site, then create a new testing domain and user, enable "self-service" in "Advance" tab of domain profile page, then you can login to iRedAdmin-Pro with the user account for user-level access.
http://www.iredmail.org/admin_demo.html

Great - so I have a user, and I'm logged in.  Is there a script or something that will populate this user with some mail to see how the processes work?  How to mark an item as spam, release an item, etc.? It "looks" user friendly enough, but since there is no trial of this function and it says "no refunds" it would be nice to be able to kick the tires a bit more than just see the interface.

Thanks!

Danita

6

Re: Pre-migration questions

iRedMail is free and open source, you can download the installer and deploy iRedMail on your own server and do deep evaluation.

The one with “no refunds” policy is the paid full-featured web admin panel, it’s optional component but makes sysadmin life a lot easier.

7

Re: Pre-migration questions

Download iRedMail installer: https://www.iredmail.org/download.html

8

Re: Pre-migration questions

ZhangHuangbin wrote:

iRedMail is free and open source, you can download the installer and deploy iRedMail on your own server and do deep evaluation.

The one with “no refunds” policy is the paid full-featured web admin panel, it’s optional component but makes sysadmin life a lot easier.

I was specifically talking about iRedMail Pro - I logged into your test system and created a user.  I can log in as that user and see the interface, but I've been disappointed with the actual implementation of such things in the past - is there no way to see what a user would see as far as what mail is blocked, how to release it etc.?  That's what I would like a better demo of.  I've already installed iRedMail on my RHEL server.  I'm just trying to see if I want to "purchase" iRedMail Pro" for the users.

Thanks

Danita

9

Re: Pre-migration questions

danitaz wrote:

I've been disappointed with the actual implementation of such things in the past - is there no way to see what a user would see as far as what mail is blocked, how to release it etc.?

Sorry about this, the demo server doesn't have quarantined emails there for demo purpose.

How about some screenshots of the self-service web ui mentioned in this tutorial?
https://docs.iredmail.org/iredadmin-pro … rvice.html