Mail down after server migration

[hjunior]

Hi, all.

I already found the solution to my problem, but would like to share with you:

I used a cpaneltransfer script to transfer data to a new server, that has another OS and all mail functions went crazy. As there was a cpan update bug, some software was not correctly installed, what helped the mess.

PROBLEM:

When we got IMAP and webmail working, the INBOX was empty and appeared the mailboxes cur and new. Messages appeared as folders on those folders. POP was not working at all.

Another information: xinetd was running cpimap and cppop (actually was not running, but I am not sure if it was caused by the perl bug). There was no courier running at all.

SOLUTION:

My former server had the mbox to maildir convertion done, so all mailboxes were already maildir. As I forgot to add this procedure to my install guide, I installed the new server without the convertion. The imap server (cpimap) was intended to the old style mailboxes, and I should have done the convertions (/scripts/convert2maildir) before starting transfering data (really stupid).

At least the solution was simple. I just ran the script and all was correct. The script does not convert already converted messages. Just, to do so, you must tell cpanel it is in a pre-convertion state. In my case, during transfer, I brought the cpanel configuration file, so now my cpanel think it is in a post-convertion state.

1) Edit /var/cpanel/cpanel.config e remove the line 'maildir=1'

2) run /scripts/convert2maildir and choose the option to convert. You can do tail -f at the log file presented to you to see the convertion process. At the begining of the process the new courier server is downloaded and installed, and started. From there, probably you can already access your messages, as your mailboxes are already maildir.

We are still under tests after that (stupid) migration, but it seems all is all right now.

If anyone has any comments on that. I think that experience could help someone, as I found the answer in between the lines of many different threads about maildir convertion, but there was nothing specifically related to a migration to a non-converted system (maybe most of cpanel users are not that "smart").

hjunior