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Moving Smarter Mail 13 From Texas to SmarterMail 14 in Hawaii
Question asked by Curtis Kropar www.HawaiianHope.org - 6/25/2015 at 5:16 AM
Unanswered
Hi
I am trying to figure out the least painful way of doing this  This is my first migration or move of smarter mail. We just bought 14 (i feel like a nooblet ! hehehe)
 
So we are moving to a new data center. Boom, the move has to be done BY this Friday and Saturday.
The old location is in Texas, has smartermail Version 13.0.5430. (On Helm 3 control panel) We can get a backup of the email domain data
Our new data center is here in Hawaii, We just installed SmarterMail 14. on Plesk 12
 
In comparing a copy of the old data and a new test email account, the new smartermail 14 as a folder in the "users" that looks like "6ZY8gMeMs83838" or something.  I cant see that in the old version 13 data.
 
1) What is that ?
 
I was hoping (expecting) to simply take the old version 13 backup data and plunk it down in the domains directory and away we would be perfect world.  Now I just read this article :
https ://portal. smartertools.com/kb/a2856/major-upgrade-of-smartermail.aspx
 
2) Do i seriously need to uninstall 14 now that we just installed it ? or can i simply copy the email data over to the directory structure ?  Or does installing it over the old data somehow do some type of import magic hocus pocus ?
 
3) Also, Since We are now using plesk, will plesk have those email accounts ?  Does plesk simply read the contents of smarter mail and display it ?  The old Helm actually stored the email accounts in its own database too, so that if you created an email in smartermail directly, helm would not know about it.
 
4) Is there a better less painful way of doing this ? Note : Servers in texas go Offline on Saturday never to return.

www.HawaiianHope.org - Providing technology services to non profit organizations, low income families, homeless shelters, clean and sober houses and prisoner reentry programs. Since 2015, We have refurbished over 11,000 Computers !

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Bruce Barnes Replied
There should be ZERO issues with the move of SmarterMail from a server in Texas to a server in Hawaii.
 
The biggest issue will be the fact that Plesk uses such goofy DOMAIN ADMIN accounts (personally NOT a fan - end of editorial content).
 
So I would create the DOMAIN or DOMAINS in advance.
 
Because you are doing a major version upgrade simultaneously, I would do the following:
  • Install the NEW VERSION on  the NEW SERVER
    • Setup the IIS
    • Copy or install any required SSL certs
    • Make certain you properly setup the SmarterMail CER file, if required
    • MAP all PORTS to IP ADDRESSES and CER file, as required
  • Stop the SmarterMail builtin webserver
  • Point the DNS for the DOMAIN or DOMAINS to the NEW SERVER FIRST - on the night you are going to do the move.
    • Do a MAJOR VERSION UPGRADE on the OLD SERVER, if the operating system supports it
    • uninstall the old version
    • BACKUP the data which is NOT uninstalled with the uninstall of the old version
    • reboot the server
    • install the new version 
    • wait an hour for the new version to upgrade data
  • SHUT DOWN the OLD SERVER
  • STOP the SmarterMail SERVICE on the NEW SERVER (via the OPERATING SYSTEM SERVICES menu)
  • ZIP and MOVE the data files from the OLD SERVER in Texas, to the NEW SERVER in Hawaii
  • UNZIP and restore the data to the EXACT locations they are required by the new installation.  
  • If you had different directories/drives on the old server, you may have to modify your restore locations on the new server
  • Start the SmarterMail Service
  • Double check that the IP ADDRESS is correct for the domain(s) in the DOMAIN EDIT function
  • Double check that the IP address is correct for SMTP OUT
  • DISABLE any IPV6 address - if you are not using them
  • Make certain the HOSTNAME to PUBLIC IP MAPPING is valid
  • change the rDNS for all hosted domains - as your public IP address will, more than likely, change as part of the move.
  • Test and adjust any settings which might cause delivery or connectivity issues.
  • Make certain you update your FEEDBACK LOOPS to reflect your new PUBLIC IP ADDRESS(ES).
I have done many of these - the largest of which had more than a terabyte of e-mail data for an $800 million dollar per year, privately held corporation, and, with the exception of having to deal with a couple of techs who knew absolutely nothing about SmarterMail and DNS, things went very smoothly.

If properly planned, the actual move and testing should take no more than four hours MAX.
 
Please feel free to contact me directly if you need someone to assist.
 
 
 
Bruce Barnes ChicagoNetTech Inc brucecnt@comcast.net Phonr: (773) 491-9019 Phone: (224) 444-0169 E-Mail and DNS Security Specialist Network Security Specialist Customer Service Portal: https://portal.chicagonettech.com Website: https://www.ChicagoNetTech.com Security Blog: http://networkbastion.blogspot.com/ Web and E-Mail Hosting, E-Mail Security and Consulting

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