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.

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 "foo.com".
• Users access the mail server via a host name called "mail.foo.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.foo.com" and create a new A DNS record called "oldmail.foo.com" that points at the original mail server (POP3/IMAP).
• You have to make sure that MX records for domain "foo.com" point at host name "mail.foo.com".
• You can use the DNS Query tool to check DNS records are setup correctly.