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Has a release timeline been set for the SmarterMail 17.x?
Question asked by Michael - 4/11/2018 at 10:12 AM
Answered
Is a rough release timeline available yet?

70 Replies

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1
Gabriele Maoret Replied
4/12/2018 at 2:34 AM
I would also like to know in particular when a beta will come out that contains MAPI support ...
We are waiting for this to do some tests, until there is MAPI support unfortunately I can not dedicate time to debugging ...
0
John Marx Replied
4/12/2018 at 3:50 AM
I agree. Tentative timelines are better than no time lines.
0
Michael Replied
4/19/2018 at 4:38 PM
bump
7
Tim Uzzanti Replied
4/24/2018 at 3:41 PM
Employee Post
This Friday we are releasing another BETA.
 
In 2 to 3 weeks were releasing a VERY IMPORTANT BETA that will have all the backend functionality to support MAPI.  This will change the way we store all configuration files and data in SmarterMail.  We are eliminating almost all XML configuration files at the System, Domain and User levels by using SQLite.  Team Workspaces and Mailing Lists were already implemented in SQLite but even they are being rolled into a single SQLite database per Domain!  These changes drastically reduce the number of files, File I/O and Memory.  We have introduced a much more optimized memory caching layer instead of the MANY CACHES we have that were added or built over the years.  
 
After releasing some BETA's stabilizing all the backend changes we will then release the MAPI protocol, allowing customers to use Microsoft Outlook.
 
Between SmarterMail 16.x and 17.x, SmarterMail will have been completely rewritten using all the latest technologies and will have allow us to focus on the remaining work we have to offer Clustering and a Linux version.  
 
This is a major milestone for SmarterTools and we're extremely excited!
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
echoDreamz Replied
4/24/2018 at 6:20 PM
Oh this is a massive turn on lol... CLUSTERING!?!?! WHAT!?!?!? I dont even care about MAPI now... Tell me more about this clustering you speak of lol.
0
Scarab Replied
4/25/2018 at 12:39 PM
<3 You had me at mention of a Linux version <3

(Although I agree with echoDreamz that Clustering is an entirely welcome turn of events for the future as well)

I guess it's time to spin up some VMs and get ready to give the Beta a spin!

On a separate note (remembering the days of going from SM v7 to v8 when you last changed the way accounts and domains were stored): is there a rough estimate of how long conversion of domains and accounts will take?

I also assume that once migrating domains and accounts to SQLite is done that rolling back to a previous SM version (i.e. v15-16) will no longer be an option, correct?
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
4/25/2018 at 12:50 PM
Employee Post
Scarab, Yea, no rollbacks as has been the case with a few versions throughout SmarterMail’s history. You would want to restore the server if there were any issues. But, that is the reason were having an extended BETA and releasing features in phases so they are really tested and our developers are responsive to the feedback!
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
4/25/2018 at 12:55 PM
Employee Post
echoDreamz, I had a customer private message me in the Community who was concerned that some of my previous comments could make people think that SmarterMail, in its current state, isn't high performing. He runs thousands of domains and tens of thousands of users on a single server today with SmarterMail 16.x, so he knows how well it does perform. I really appreciated his comments and said I would clarify some items to try and remove that doubt...

1) If you were to run competing products, using the same hardware similar, SmarterMail would allow you to host significantly MORE domains and users because we had built SmarterMail to reduce File I/O and evolved the product significantly over the years compared to our competitors.

2) Some of our customers, who run hosting companies, have used our competitors in a clustered mail solution and had nothing but issues. In some cases, they never want to try a clustered solution again and appreciate how much they can get out of their hardware with SmarterMail.

3) With centralized storage solutions becoming a little more cost effective and significantly more capable, now is the time for us to introduce clustering;

4) Introducing a Linux version of SmarterMail (which will run on the same code base as Windows) makes even more sense for clustering. Not only is Linux about 65% of the market but there are almost no solutions other than open source or Open Exchange that would could compete against SmarterMail, especially from a price standpoint. (Licensing as well as hardware.)

The SQLite changes will further improve the performance of SmarterMail as I explained in my previous post. In future versions you will be able to provide a database server for Domains instead of having it local.

The future SmarterMail will have a ton of different ways it can be used and when doing a clustered solution you will be able to have a variety of database servers for configurations of domains as well as centralized storage servers for actual mail storage along with putting an unlimited number of SmarterMail servers on the front end.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
echoDreamz Replied
4/25/2018 at 1:05 PM
While not an ST dev, I can 110% guarantee that once your install migrates to SQLite that there is no going back to your previous build. Unless of course you had backups to roll back to. Though if you are as large as we are, rolling back is simply not an option.

Since the config files I would assume would be gone once successfully migrated to SQLite, rolling back would mean that v15-16 would need to know of these databases and know how to use / read them to dump them back to their respective config files, which honestly, would be a bit counterproductive.

Nice to see a "database" system being added in though, like Exchange's ESE, I always wondered why there are so many different configuration files, flat files etc. for SM to parse through. Rather than just using some sort of a RDMS or SQLite type storage system for config params etc.

Clearly from an editable view, editing a .json or .xml file is FAR easier, but opening a .db file etc. with something like Navicat is not a big deal either.

Tim, what web server are you planning to support under Linux? As well as what Distro(s)?

I dont take from SmarterMail that it is high performance, but wow, SM16 has been nothing but constant problems, constant crashes, constant stalls and other issues that have required your poor devs working overtime on design changes etc. Right now we've been fighting an issue for months now, which has finally came to the last 10 days of daily SM stalls requiring us to reboot the server. It seems as our server is getting larger SM is struggling to keep top with our load. Gots to give props to Von-Austin though, the man is a one-man support machine.

SM 17's performance increases for us will be a MASSIVE welcome and cannot come soon enough.
0
echoDreamz Replied
4/25/2018 at 1:07 PM
Tim "The future SmarterMail will have a ton of different ways it can be used and when doing a clustered solution you will be able to have a variety of database servers for configurations of domains as well as centralized storage servers for actual mail storage along with putting an unlimited number of SmarterMail servers on the front end."

By saying "database servers" are you saying that SM will eventually support more than just SQLite for configuration storage?
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
4/25/2018 at 2:13 PM
Employee Post
Yes, in a future Major version each domain will be able to be assigned a database server for configuration information. In that same major update we would have finished a couple other conversions such as the STAT files and the Protocol Sync files. There will be a significant reduction in File I/O.

The reason everything is in XML or JSON is because no technologies were available 10 years ago that could handle thousands of domains and tens of thousands of users like your Mail Server.

I am aware of your spool issue. I'm alerted of tickets and issues that extend a certain timeframe or response count. The support team also updates me on a weekly basis on unique issues. I am aware that we are now attempting remote debugging to narrow down the problem.

The emoji via EAS and Outlook can't be replicated. I think six of guys have signed up for the newsletter across a variety of SmarterMail servers to test and not one has had the problem.

I'm also aware that you were hit with the SMTP issues we had awhile back when we made SPF and Session Level changes mid SmarterMail 17.x. That project did not go as well as I wanted and I have had some discussions on how that was approached with the manager. It seemed like a smaller project but really had tentacles throughout SmarterMail. That is not something we are supposed to do in minor versions and should have waited for a Major version. I know there were a lot of request for the feature and the manager wanted to make some customers happy (many of which are on the community) but it needed to be in a Major and go through a BETA etc.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
echoDreamz Replied
4/25/2018 at 2:41 PM
The emoji issue is not limited to just Outlook, it also occurs within SM's web interface. Not just my Outlook, but others on our server as well. I've also installed a fresh copy of Outlook 2016 on a brand new VM and new emails come in with the ?? characters instead of the actual symbol.

10 years ago though, MySQL, SQLite and SQL Server were around. Though SQLite was not as mature as it is now. Though I am sure SM was not originally envisioned as running servers our size and larger, so there was no need for such datastore technologies.

I do like the idea of using a real external RDBMS, especially for being able to query things such as stats and building out reports externally without having to rely on SM. However I assume this new API will offer more access to SM and its data.

Speaking of the API, will SM 17 have full documentation on its new API? We'd love to have our control panel systems updated to support it, at least for basic ISP / hosting provider management capabilities.

Our biggest feature request in terms of admin side is FCDNS along with RDNS tests. We get a TON of spam from IPs that have a bogus RDNS name that resolves to no IP which a FCDNS test would fix. And this appears to be coming with SM 17.

Second would be the ability to add multiple outgoing IPs or IP ranges to a single SM server and have it rotate through them, instead of having to have multiple free SM installs acting as outgoing gateways. Though this does have the pro of lessening the load on the primary SM installation, but has the con of needing x more servers to act as gateways.

And third is a user request, we get SO MANY requests asking if SM has the easy ability to display a user or shared calendar on a website. Google has this where you just copy paste some code and walla, but SM you have the be a developer to understand how to do this and set it up. We have ISDs, bands, groups, event planning orgs etc. that would drop using Google in a heartbeat if we had this.

Thanks Tim for your continued responses and listening to the community!
0
Employee Replied
4/26/2018 at 8:46 AM
Employee Post
echoDreamz,

The ability to specify multiple IP addresses as well as rotation order will be in SM17 as well. IP's will rotate based on a configurable failure ratio.
0
echoDreamz Replied
5/1/2018 at 6:47 PM
Would be great if there was further config, such as rotate every x messages or just randomly rotate etc. rather than based only on failures.
0
echoDreamz Replied
5/1/2018 at 6:48 PM
I'd also like to state that the issues with the nighly stalls eventually came down to something with Macrium's bare metal backup. Not exactly sure what is up with that, but it is something we are working on.

The emoji issue is still showing though, even on iPhones, so it is not exclusive to just Outlook.
0
Robert Simpson Replied
5/1/2018 at 8:41 PM
As the original author of the System.Data.SQLite project, I approve of this message :)
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
5/2/2018 at 6:59 AM
Employee Post
Robert, didn't know you were a customer. Impressive work on SQLite. It is has turned into one heck of a project!
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
5/2/2018 at 7:00 AM
Employee Post
echoDreamz, I know you have brought up the idea before about having a link for a calendar. Can you please post that in a new Topic if it doesn't exist already so we can track it better. We would never find it again in just a comment.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Robert Simpson Replied
5/2/2018 at 12:10 PM
I live in Phoenix, as well. We could be neighbors!
0
Matt Petty Replied
5/2/2018 at 1:03 PM
Employee Post
Holy cow what are the chances! We are on the north-side, should visit sometime :)
Matt Petty Senior Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Robert Simpson Replied
5/5/2018 at 11:29 AM
Yeah you're pretty close to me. I'm up in Anthem. I used to work at the Honeywell on Deer Valley in the early 90's. There's a couple 4x4 places I visit near you. Sorry to derail the thread :)
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
5/8/2018 at 5:28 AM
Employee Post
This is wild and really shows how small the world can be sometimes. I worked at the same Honeywell right out of college and met my wife there. Worked primarily in the IT department but was lent out to Engineering for special projects from time to time. While working at Honeywell was also building a web hosting company on the side and it grew to be one of the largest Windows Hosting companies in the world at the time. As it grew we moved a few times, always closer to downtown to meet our bandwidth / fiber needs. Right before selling the hosting company we started SmarterTools and purchased an office building near Honeywell .... came full circle :)

Throughout the years I went to a number of the 4x4 and off-road places in the Deer Valley area. Spent way too much money at Screwie Lewie's!

Its all very interesting!
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
2
kevind Replied
5/16/2018 at 12:44 PM
Here's an idea. Instead of clustering and a Linux version, just skip the OS altogether and make SmarterMail into an app that runs on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
 
Leverage cloud services for built-in redundancy, infinite scaling, great security, and low cost.  Plus you could take advantage of new features like AI and blockchain.
0
Ionel Aurelian Rau Replied
5/17/2018 at 12:41 AM
Hmm, while a native SM version for cloud would be nice, there are some, like us, that prefer installing it directly on their own servers - Linux preferably. We purposefully avoid using cloud services as much as possible and I am sure there are plenty of people like us.

But do not skip the Linux version and clustering if building a version that works directly on cloud.
1
kevind Replied
5/17/2018 at 8:07 AM
Good comments. Just curious, are you an ISP or hosting provider and sell email services? Or do you purchase SM for internal use at a company?

Many companies are looking at G Suite or O365 and it will be hard for SM to compete with those big guys who have hundreds of developers. Need to find a niche.
0
Michael Replied
5/17/2018 at 2:02 PM
Sounds then like a June or July release?
0
echoDreamz Replied
5/17/2018 at 2:21 PM
We are an ISP / Hosting provider, there will be no AWS or Azure anything in our future. No thank you. We run our own equipment, racks, switches etc. Dont need Microsoft of Jeff for that :)
0
Ionel Aurelian Rau Replied
5/17/2018 at 11:47 PM
We are not an ISP - we host SmaterMail ourselves on our equipment for our internal company users, as well as provide email for a couple partners we work with. Again, I see the benefit of SM being able to run on AWS, for example (although we avoid the cloud, we did use their services for some projects and will do so again when needed). But I think a version of SM that would work on Linux would be much more useful, especially with clustering support.
0
viv burrows Replied
5/18/2018 at 9:05 AM
We are also an ISP / Hosting provider, there will be no AWS or Azure anything in our future. No thank you. We run our own equipment, racks, switches etc. Dont need Microsoft or Jeff for that :)
0
Gabriele Maoret Replied
5/19/2018 at 1:28 AM
We are both ISP and IT Managers for customers. We need SM on premise, not AWS things...
0
jev.sapasap Replied
5/20/2018 at 1:36 AM
Hello,

I hope SM17 will be able to accept message format attachment is supported within the web interface. As the attachment is shown below.

=======
begin 666 03631800.068
M#0H-"@T*#0H@341#("T@,#,V,R!-87)I:VEN82!#:71Y($)L=64@5V%V92!-
M87)Q=6EN=&]N(#(@(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @4"Y/+B!.;RX@+2 T
M,#,V,S$X,# P-C@-"B!"4D%.0T@@3U)$15(@1D]2($1)4D5#5"!055)#2$%3
M12!)5$5-4R @(" @(" @(" @<&%G92 M(" @,0T*(%9%3D1/4B M(%)!34]3
M0T\@3$]'25-424-3($E.0R @6R W.30T-5T-"B!/M,#4O,C Q." @(" @,34Z,S,Z,3$@(" @(" @=C)R-BXQ(# R+3(V+3(P,3@-
M"B @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" -"B @(" @(" @(" @
M(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" -"@T*(" @(" @(" @(%9%3D1/4B @("!/
M4DE'#0H@("!)5$5-(" @(%!23T0@(" @(%%.5%D@(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @
M(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @4%))0T4-"B @($-/1$4@(" @0T]$12 @(" @($]2
M1" @($1%4T-225!424].(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @1D%#5" @(" @($-/
M4U0@("!%6%1?0T]35 T*#0H@,SM8F5T87-O;"!6;FQA(#$X,&<@(" @(" @(" S(" @(#,@(" @-C,V+C,Q(" @
M(" V,S8N,S$-"@T*(#,W.# T,C4@(" @(" @(" @(" @(" Q($1I86)E=&%S
M;VP@0VAO8R Q.#!G(" @(" @(" @,R @(" S(" @(#8S-BXS,2 @(" @-C,V
M+C,Q#0H-"@T*(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @
M(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @(" @5$]404P@+2T@(" @(#$L,CM#0H-"B @4%)%4$%2140@0EDZ34A%04Y.($1)4U0N,C$@(" @(" @(" @(" @
M(" @#0H-"@T*("!.3U1%1"!"63H@35,N34%22450150@02X@34].1$%,02 @
M(" @(" @#0H@(" @(" @(" @(" @("A"4D%.0T@@34%.04=%4BD-"@T*#0H@
1(" @(" R(&QI`
end
0
Emmet McGovern Replied
5/21/2018 at 9:05 AM
We're a service provider. We use plenty of cloud services as a managed/hybrid option. Our growth in this sector has far outpaced our internal rack and switch side of the business.
0
Matt Petty Replied
5/23/2018 at 7:21 AM
Employee Post
Pushing towards a Linux version also means cheaper hosting for cloud and if you are running just SmarterMail on a Windows machine, then it could save you the Windows licensing cost as well. Running on Linux will also allow easier containerization of SmarterMail and its parts as well. There are many advantages to supporting Linux.
Matt Petty Senior Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
1
kevind Replied
5/30/2018 at 7:09 AM
Sure, I get the less expensive licensing and that's great. But if it's going to take another 6-12 months of development, I'd rather have that time spent adding features.

There are basic features that SmarterMail doesn't have compared with other mail systems. For example, purging deleted items after 30 days which has been on the list since 2014.
https://portal.smartertools.com/community/a1088/feature-suggestion-modification-to-auto-clean-process-1.aspx

I'd prefer more features first. And I'm guessing you could sell more licenses based on features, not platform. Adding Linux will just get current customers to switch platforms, not increase sales.
4
Tim Uzzanti Replied
6/1/2018 at 10:20 AM
Employee Post Marked As Answer
All, we will be releasing an updated BETA in a couple weeks.  The BETA should not be used in production.  All customers should restore production machines to a test machine and test the conversion process to the new database and file formats.  This BETA will solely be testing how the conversion process is working.  If you want to make sure your future upgrades work perfectly... this is your opportuinity!
 
The reason for the delay on this build is because we increased the scope of our conversions.  As I mentioned previously, we were going to wait for SmarterMail 18.x to convert certain files but we decided it would be best to do ALL files after seeing some of the benefits.  
 
In addition, were sending a six people to Microsoft for a week to work with Microsoft's protocol engineers.  This is being done specifically to review our MAPI implementation.  This project has been moving slow and steady but we need some face to face time to make sure everything is perfect.
 
We have been testing the conversion process internally on some VERY big installations and have had some incredible results.  After the initiation conversions we have seen:
 
A 50% speed improvement in startup time of SmarterMail.  This was way beyond what we originally anticipated and will be mostly appreciated on larger installs because in most cases SmarterMail loads almost instantly.
 
Were seeing a significant reduction in memory as we have eliminated many caches layers that have been added over the years. All database and file access is now running through one caching layer.  Were not sure how much of a benefit we will see but on system seeings, user settings, domain settings... its about a 60% reduction.  In regards to the mailbox data ... we don't anticipate that dropping much because of all the focus we have put into that over the years.
 
Since were a couple weeks late, I wanted to provide an update on why and some of the results were seeing.
 
Were in crunch mode now and the guys are working long hours to make this an incredible release.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
1
Gabriele Maoret Replied
7/17/2018 at 6:43 AM
Hi Tim, more than 7 weeks have passed since your post in which you said that in a couple of weeks you would have released a new BETA.
Is there any news about it?
0
Derek Curtis Replied
7/17/2018 at 7:08 AM
Employee Post
We'll have a blog post out this week that gives some more details of where we are with things and a tentative timeline for the next BETA and full release. Stay tuned!
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
7/17/2018 at 7:22 AM
Employee Post
Gabriele, the Blog Post will explain in detail some of the delays and things we have discovered. We wanted to have as much information as possible before providing an explanation. Were putting the final touches on the Blog Post!
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Gabriele Maoret Replied
7/18/2018 at 5:32 AM
OH, excuse me! I had not read the BLOG yet!
0
Michael Replied
7/19/2018 at 2:43 PM
Any word on the new blog post that will provide a timeline?
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
7/19/2018 at 6:23 PM
Employee Post
Probably tonight.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
2
Derek Curtis Replied
7/19/2018 at 11:24 PM
Employee Post
Hi, All...here's the blog post. Sorry it's a little late..we've been here late the last few nights working on the Mail 17 release. No rest for the wicked, as they say.
 
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Employee Replied
8/9/2018 at 8:34 PM
Employee Post
Just an update for anyone subscribed to this thread.... Phase Two has been released! 
 
0
Freek S. Replied
8/10/2018 at 10:58 AM
Will the Linux version be provided as Docker image as well?
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
8/10/2018 at 11:17 AM
Employee Post
Linux is planned for an upcoming major after SM 17 . Major releases will be occurring much more often after this release, about every 6 months. The same will be true for SmarterTrack.

As we have re-written SM16 and 17 nearly from the ground-up, we did it with Linux and Clustering in mind. Linux will be our first objective. For a little more detail, we are transitioning our code to be more compatible with .NET Standard and .NET Core for complete flexibility.

I don't see why we wouldn't be able to provide a Docker image as well. Don't hold me to that until we actually implement because there are always gotchas. For example, we hit a snag with SQLite and MySQL for SM 17. In the end, it will actually be better but it did cause some delays. Good can always come from roadblocks and it really helped us re-evaluate even more of SmarterMail on this release than we anticipated.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Ionel Aurelian Rau Replied
8/13/2018 at 12:13 AM
+1
thanks for the update!
1
Derek Curtis Replied
10/25/2018 at 8:48 AM
Employee Post
Hello, all

As you may have seen in this post: https://portal.smartertools.com/community/a91233/smartermail-17_0_6870-is-a-go-lite-release.aspx, we're at a point in the BETA process where we feel SmarterMail 17.x is ready for production deployment. If anyone has a "lite" mail server with a few domains and a few hundred mailboxes, and you're interested in testing 17.x on production, please let us know. We'd be happy to work with you on the upgrade process and work with you if you encounter any issues. Spots are limited...so first come -- first served. :) So far, testing on larger installations has been extremely successful, with few issues seen by our team as well as by customers we've worked with.

You can either reply here or email sales@smartertools.com and use the subject: Interested in Testing SmarterMail 17.x on Production and I'll have our team transfer tickets to me directly. Then we can begin getting you set up. 
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
2
kevind Replied
10/25/2018 at 9:34 AM
Referring back to Tim's post above...

FWIW, we would prefer new features, UI improvements, and bug fixes over a Linux release.
0
Michael Replied
10/25/2018 at 9:41 AM
Are we still looking to see MAPI in the x.2 release or any chance we'll see it in x.1?
1
Derek Curtis Replied
10/25/2018 at 10:07 AM
Employee Post
MAPI is getting closer and is still on schedule to be in a future release.

As an aside, we'll be making an announcement in the next week or so regarding some major and exciting changes around product releases and other areas of our business. Big things are coming that are all designed to improve how new features, fixes, changes, support and more are handled. Sorry for the tease...but the wait will be worth it!
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Michael Replied
11/5/2018 at 11:25 AM
Seems we will see Smarter Mail 17 launch shortly. Fingers crossed and looking forward to it.

For those of us that stayed behind on v15 because of all the bad feedback regrading v16... is it recommended that we update briefly to 16 to get to 17? Or, will the v17 installer update us from v15 to v17 directly?

What is the recommended update path for those of us that remained on v15 while awaiting v17?
0
Employee Replied
11/5/2018 at 1:16 PM
Employee Post
Michael, you should be able to upgrade from SM15 directly to 17.  We have been testing the upgrade process from even earlier versions to eliminate the need to have any intermediary upgrades.  As with all upgrades, we recommend that you backup ALL of your data beforehand.  If you are concerned with how your domains will do with the upgrade, you can spin up a VM to test or you could also contact us and we will test for you (GRP / EML files are not necessary).
0
Laszlo Libor Replied
11/12/2018 at 4:50 AM
Hi Robert,
Could you please elaborate a little more on this upgrade path question. E.g. will we be able to upgrade directly from version 12? If not, in what intermediary steps?
For doing a intermediary upgrade step are we supposed to have a licenced intermediary version of SM?
0
Tim Uzzanti Replied
11/12/2018 at 6:42 AM
Employee Post
Yes, you can and should upgrade to the upcoming SmarterMail release.  There is no reason to upgrade to previous versions.  We strongly suggest testing the conversion process during the BETA on a test machine.  This test machine does not need all the GRP files and mailbox information, just the configuration files.  The next. couple weeks we have our developers monitoring the community and working with BETA testers to ensure its as perfect of a release as possible!
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
1
Webio Replied
11/12/2018 at 12:13 PM
Can you consider creating some kind of mirror tool which will mirror existing directory structure to some new directory for testing purposes (without grp)?

I have 5TB mail system so it is quite hard to mirror it just for testing purposes but if you need only certain files from mail directories then it would be nice to have this kind of tool.

copyNeededFiles.exe X:\MailDomainsDir X:\ConversionDomainsDir
this way I could mirror system drive with current system and SmarterMail 15x to new VW and use new directories for conversion purposes (more than 5000 mail domains with almost 40k mailboxes).
0
Employee Replied
11/12/2018 at 2:25 PM
Employee Post
You can use Robocopy to accomplish this.  The following example will copy all domains within the C:\SmarterMail\Domains folder to C:\SmarterMail\Domains-copy folder.  It will exclude the grp files.

robocopy C:\SmarterMail\Domain C:\SmarterMail\Domains-copy /e /xf *.grp
If there are any other file types you want to exclude, for example, stat files, you have add *.stat3 after the *.grp.  Additionally, if you want to exclude certain folders, for example, FileStore, you can add /xd "FileStore".

I hope this helps.
0
echoDreamz Replied
11/13/2018 at 12:16 PM
Robert, are the stat files converted by SM17 at all? If not, we dont bother copying...
1
Matt Petty Replied
11/13/2018 at 12:27 PM
Employee Post
No, they are left alone. You can safely exclude .stat3's from your tests.
Matt Petty Senior Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Michael Replied
12/6/2018 at 2:03 PM
How long should it take to upgrade from 15 > 17?
Maybe we can talk in terms of number of mailboxes or mailboxes per MB or something like this. 

This will help us understand the conversion process and downtime calculation.
0
Larry Duran Replied
12/6/2018 at 2:17 PM
Employee Post
It depends on the size of the domains and users, really.  We've seen some conversions for email servers who have 3000+ domains take around 12 minutes to convert.  The real time block comes into play if there are any issues after the conversion.  For most it's a seamless conversion but we've seen a small handful that needed some extra attention on our part to help get them through the process.  If you have any issues on a conversion just open a support ticket and it becomes a high priority issue for us.  Good luck with the conversion!
Larry Duran Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
1
Tim Uzzanti Replied
12/6/2018 at 2:19 PM
Employee Post
Most servers are done in minutes.

Really big servers could be 10 minutes or so.

With the improvements we made in startup times, big servers convert and start running faster than the previous version would just start up.
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
1
Freek S. Replied
12/7/2018 at 2:46 AM
So what's the deal with SM 17? Has it been released (for production) yes or no? I'm having a hard time understanding the release cycle and where we're standing right now.

Also, is there any news on the Linux and/or Docker version of SM 17?
2
Laszlo Libor Replied
12/7/2018 at 4:45 AM
I am also confused, after a long wait for version 17 release and seeing many v17 Betas I see  no mention of what happened to version 17 at all now.
Is it the Build number that replaced the usual and industry standard major/minor versioning altogether or is it just another Beta we see now ? Please clarify.
0
echoDreamz Replied
12/7/2018 at 10:17 AM
https://www.smartertools.com/smartermail/downloads it is RTM and released. There is no docker or linux version at this time.
1
Matt Petty Replied
12/7/2018 at 10:20 AM
Employee Post
Speaking of docker... I've played around with some docker and got an image going. With remote locations for data and system config. Maybe I can experiment with it again.
Matt Petty Senior Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
echoDreamz Replied
12/7/2018 at 11:04 AM
Matt, if need testing on that, let me know :)
2
Freek S. Replied
12/7/2018 at 12:00 PM
I find it a bit odd that the release of SM17 has been done so stealthy. It has been long announced, with beta and such, and then suddenly, out of the blue, there is the RTM without even a news/blog article? Strange..

Anyway, let me know if you need help testing that Docker image. I would love to have an auto-updating SM instance using watchtower :)
1
Patrick Jeski Replied
12/7/2018 at 12:07 PM
Did I read that the installer for 17 is all new? Is the KB article on major upgrades:
still applicable to 17?

What are the system requirements?

I agree with the post above that referring to it by just the build is confusing.
0
echoDreamz Replied
12/7/2018 at 12:18 PM
1
echoDreamz Replied
12/7/2018 at 12:20 PM
I wouldnt touch an automated updater for SmarterMail if my life depended on it lol.
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