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Migrating Business Email into SmarterMail
Question asked by Doreen Jones - 9/1/2017 at 4:31 PM
Unanswered
I have a client who wants to migrate their business email to my SmarterMail system.  No problem.  Except, when the name servers are changed - the old email won't be available anymore.  And if I set up the client on my server without changing the MX records at the very least - then the new email won't work.
 
So how do I have a business in both places at the same time - just long enough to migrate their emails to my server?

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John Marx Replied
You have a few options:
  1. Rather than relying on DNS you can utilize the IP address (this is what we typically will do)
  2. You can set a new DNS name and modify the client (e.g. change mail.domain.com to mail2.domain.com) (this is what we typically do if we can't do the first)
  3. If using Outlook export each to PST, disconnect the from the old server, connect to the new server, reconnect the PST
 
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Scarab Replied
In addition to John Marx's suggestions (all of them perfectly viable) there is another option:

After setting up the email accounts in Smartermail you can use the Mailbox Migration Utility in Smartermail to import their email from their respective accounts on the old Mail Service (and in some cases import their Contacts, Calendars, Tasks & Notes). Once the migration is complete you can then change the MX Records in DNS (and probably SPF, any Host A Records used by your Smartermail Services, and SRV Records for CalDAV/CardDAV and Autodiscover if applicable). You shouldn't need to worry about normal DNS Propagation (which can sometimes take up to 72 hours) as Mail Servers normally should not use DNS Caching or Caching DNS Servers, meaning that once DNS is changed their old email accounts at their previous provider should not be receiving any emails after the change is made in DNS.

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