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Dear all,
this is a quite newbie question, I think
We have an old mail server with about 200 users mail accounts.
We want to exchange it for the new one (sol9), and we are planning to use
following method, which we don't know if it would be correct.
We want to install a new machine on the same domain and to configure
mail there (postfix).
For example a user John Thomas has an account "jthomas" on the old
mail server. We would make a new account "johnthomas" on the new
running mail server.
In the DNS server we would have
ourdomain.sk IN MX 10 mailold.ourdomain.sk.
IN MX 20 mailnew.ourdoamin.sk.
So our reasoning is that in the case somebody sends an email to
jthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go directly to maiold and when sending to
johnthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go to the mailnew.
By this method we would create all accounts in the new manner...
Is this correct ?
And in the case it is not, how this should be done ?
Thank in advance for your advice
Regards
Dusan

* Dusan wrote:
> For example a user John Thomas has an account "jthomas" on the old
> mail server. We would make a new account "johnthomas" on the new
> running mail server.
> In the DNS server we would have
> ourdomain.sk IN MX 10 mailold.ourdomain.sk.
> IN MX 20 mailnew.ourdoamin.sk.
> So our reasoning is that in the case somebody sends an email to
> jthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go directly to maiold and when sending to
> johnthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go to the mailnew.

No. Something trying to send mail to you will try
mailold.ourdomain.sk first. If it can talk to it it will talk (E)SMTP
to it, and try and deliver the mail. If mailold.ourdomain.sk rejects
the mail (so for instance if it's for one of the new-style names) it
will bounce. You need to make all the MXs for your domain be able to
accept all mail for it (or, if they refuse it, be correct in so
doing).

--tim

On Monday 24 November 2003 8:21 am in comp.sys.sun.admin Dusan wrote:

> Dear all,
> this is a quite newbie question, I think
> We have an old mail server with about 200 users mail accounts.
> We want to exchange it for the new one (sol9), and we are planning to use
> following method, which we don't know if it would be correct.
> We want to install a new machine on the same domain and to configure
> mail there (postfix).
> For example a user John Thomas has an account "jthomas" on the old
> mail server. We would make a new account "johnthomas" on the new
> running mail server.
> In the DNS server we would have
> ourdomain.sk IN MX 10 mailold.ourdomain.sk.
> IN MX 20 mailnew.ourdoamin.sk.
> So our reasoning is that in the case somebody sends an email to
> jthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go directly to maiold and when sending to
> johnthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go to the mailnew.
> By this method we would create all accounts in the new manner...
> Is this correct ?
> And in the case it is not, how this should be done ?
> Thank in advance for your advice

No in the above case all mail will go to mailold unless mailnew
goes offline.
Mail addressed to johnthomas will be rejected <user unknown>

The lowest number MX takes preference.
The MX system only looks at the domain.
The mailbox name is only examined by the destination system.

Reduce the TTL of your DNS to 1 hour at twice the existing TTL
in advance.
Set up mailnew with a full set of new user accounts.
Set up aliases on mailnew for the old accounts.
Set the MX of mailnew to 5 .
All new mail will now go to mailnew when DNS has propagated.
If you want to keep mailold as a standby machine, fixup the
accounts as above, otherwise take it offline after mailboxes
have drained or been moven to mailnew.

--
My real address is crn (at) netunix (dot) com
WARNING all messages containing attachments or html will be silently
deleted. Send only plain text.

oh, sounds simple and elgant
i will try
thank you very much for the reply
dusan

Chris Newport <me@see-my-sig.invalid> wrote in message news:<1423136.DUo6rGL2WI@callisto>...
> On Monday 24 November 2003 8:21 am in comp.sys.sun.admin Dusan wrote:
>
> > Dear all,
> > this is a quite newbie question, I think
> > We have an old mail server with about 200 users mail accounts.
> > We want to exchange it for the new one (sol9), and we are planning to use
> > following method, which we don't know if it would be correct.
> > We want to install a new machine on the same domain and to configure
> > mail there (postfix).
> > For example a user John Thomas has an account "jthomas" on the old
> > mail server. We would make a new account "johnthomas" on the new
> > running mail server.
> > In the DNS server we would have
> > ourdomain.sk IN MX 10 mailold.ourdomain.sk.
> > IN MX 20 mailnew.ourdoamin.sk.
> > So our reasoning is that in the case somebody sends an email to
> > jthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go directly to maiold and when sending to
> > johnthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go to the mailnew.
> > By this method we would create all accounts in the new manner...
> > Is this correct ?
> > And in the case it is not, how this should be done ?
> > Thank in advance for your advice
>
> No in the above case all mail will go to mailold unless mailnew
> goes offline.
> Mail addressed to johnthomas will be rejected <user unknown>
>
> The lowest number MX takes preference.
> The MX system only looks at the domain.
> The mailbox name is only examined by the destination system.
>
> Reduce the TTL of your DNS to 1 hour at twice the existing TTL
> in advance.
> Set up mailnew with a full set of new user accounts.
> Set up aliases on mailnew for the old accounts.
> Set the MX of mailnew to 5 .
> All new mail will now go to mailnew when DNS has propagated.
> If you want to keep mailold as a standby machine, fixup the
> accounts as above, otherwise take it offline after mailboxes
> have drained or been moven to mailnew.

In article <600d02b0.0311240021.6f854a2d@posting.google.com >,
dkulisie@truni.sk (Dusan) wrote:

> Dear all,
> this is a quite newbie question, I think
> We have an old mail server with about 200 users mail accounts.
> We want to exchange it for the new one (sol9), and we are planning to use
> following method, which we don't know if it would be correct.
> We want to install a new machine on the same domain and to configure
> mail there (postfix).
> For example a user John Thomas has an account "jthomas" on the old
> mail server. We would make a new account "johnthomas" on the new
> running mail server.

Be careful with the length of the new accounts. Accounts should only be
8 characters maximum length. It's unclear why you're looking to create
new mail accounts. Are you trying to switch to a new naming convention?
If not there's no need to create different accounts...you can continue
to use the existing ones on the new server.

Josh

> In the DNS server we would have
> ourdomain.sk IN MX 10 mailold.ourdomain.sk.
> IN MX 20 mailnew.ourdoamin.sk.
> So our reasoning is that in the case somebody sends an email to
> jthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go directly to maiold and when sending to
> johnthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go to the mailnew.
> By this method we would create all accounts in the new manner...
> Is this correct ?
> And in the case it is not, how this should be done ?
> Thank in advance for your advice
> Regards
> Dusan

In article <1423136.DUo6rGL2WI@callisto>,
Chris Newport <me@see-my-sig.invalid> wrote:

> On Monday 24 November 2003 8:21 am in comp.sys.sun.admin Dusan wrote:
>
> > Dear all,
> > this is a quite newbie question, I think
> > We have an old mail server with about 200 users mail accounts.
> > We want to exchange it for the new one (sol9), and we are planning to use
> > following method, which we don't know if it would be correct.
> > We want to install a new machine on the same domain and to configure
> > mail there (postfix).
> > For example a user John Thomas has an account "jthomas" on the old
> > mail server. We would make a new account "johnthomas" on the new
> > running mail server.
> > In the DNS server we would have
> > ourdomain.sk IN MX 10 mailold.ourdomain.sk.
> > IN MX 20 mailnew.ourdoamin.sk.
> > So our reasoning is that in the case somebody sends an email to
> > jthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go directly to maiold and when sending to
> > johnthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go to the mailnew.
> > By this method we would create all accounts in the new manner...
> > Is this correct ?
> > And in the case it is not, how this should be done ?
> > Thank in advance for your advice
>
> No in the above case all mail will go to mailold unless mailnew
> goes offline.

Not quite. mailold will continue to be used regardless of the status of
mailnew (mailnew will only catch spam while mailold is online). mailnew
will only be used if mailold goes offline.

Hire you? Yeah...right.

Josh


> Mail addressed to johnthomas will be rejected <user unknown>
>
> The lowest number MX takes preference.
> The MX system only looks at the domain.
> The mailbox name is only examined by the destination system.
>
> Reduce the TTL of your DNS to 1 hour at twice the existing TTL
> in advance.
> Set up mailnew with a full set of new user accounts.
> Set up aliases on mailnew for the old accounts.
> Set the MX of mailnew to 5 .
> All new mail will now go to mailnew when DNS has propagated.
> If you want to keep mailold as a standby machine, fixup the
> accounts as above, otherwise take it offline after mailboxes
> have drained or been moven to mailnew.

Josh McKee <jtmckee@rm-bogus-ac.net> wrote in message news:<jtmckee-A9D603.18533024112003@netnews.attbi.com>...
> In article <600d02b0.0311240021.6f854a2d@posting.google.com >,
> dkulisie@truni.sk (Dusan) wrote:
>
> > Dear all,
> > this is a quite newbie question, I think
> > We have an old mail server with about 200 users mail accounts.
> > We want to exchange it for the new one (sol9), and we are planning to use
> > following method, which we don't know if it would be correct.
> > We want to install a new machine on the same domain and to configure
> > mail there (postfix).
> > For example a user John Thomas has an account "jthomas" on the old
> > mail server. We would make a new account "johnthomas" on the new
> > running mail server.
>
> Be careful with the length of the new accounts. Accounts should only be
> 8 characters maximum length. It's unclear why you're looking to create
> new mail accounts. Are you trying to switch to a new naming convention?
> If not there's no need to create different accounts...you can continue
> to use the existing ones on the new server.
>
> Josh

We have a oldmail server on the linux mandrake which is administered
not by us but by small admin-company. The hardware is old. We have
bought a new machine (mailnew) and want to use solaris 9 there as an
os. I think that sol9 together with postfix support long name
conventions. Isn't that true.

Dusan

>
> > In the DNS server we would have
> > ourdomain.sk IN MX 10 mailold.ourdomain.sk.
> > IN MX 20 mailnew.ourdoamin.sk.
> > So our reasoning is that in the case somebody sends an email to
> > jthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go directly to maiold and when sending to
> > johnthomas@ourdomain.sk it will go to the mailnew.
> > By this method we would create all accounts in the new manner...
> > Is this correct ?
> > And in the case it is not, how this should be done ?
> > Thank in advance for your advice
> > Regards
> > Dusan

On Wednesday 26 November 2003 7:30 am in comp.sys.sun.admin Dusan wrote:

>
> We have a oldmail server on the linux mandrake which is administered
> not by us but by small admin-company. The hardware is old. We have
> bought a new machine (mailnew) and want to use solaris 9 there as an
> os. I think that sol9 together with postfix support long name
> conventions. Isn't that true.

User login name, password, and group names are all limited to 8 chars.
Aliases are not limited.
Give each user a short account name and a long alias.

--
My real address is crn (at) netunix (dot) com
WARNING all messages containing attachments or html will be silently
deleted. Send only plain text.

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 10:43:13 +0000
Chris Newport <me@see-my-sig.invalid> wrote:

> On Wednesday 26 November 2003 7:30 am in comp.sys.sun.admin Dusan wrote:
>
> >
> > We have a oldmail server on the linux mandrake which is administered
> > not by us but by small admin-company. The hardware is old. We have
> > bought a new machine (mailnew) and want to use solaris 9 there as an
> > os. I think that sol9 together with postfix support long name
> > conventions. Isn't that true.
>
> User login name, password, and group names are all limited to 8 chars.
> Aliases are not limited.
> Give each user a short account name and a long alias.

When a system is a pure mailhost, you should make sure
that none of the users you (have to) create can log on
to the system. The fact that SMTP and FTP servers require
system user accounts is a historical accident (based on
the multi-user nature of Unix, in those days that users
had terminals and not PCs.) Nowadays, having to create
users for the purpose of hosting a mailbox or allowing
a file transfer is a security risk. One could make a
solid case in favour of an SMTP/POP3/IMAP server that only
uses "aliases" for the purpose of accepting and delivering
email, and a single system user for all the file system
activity.

--
Stefaan
--
"What is stated clearly conceives easily." -- Inspired sales droid

On Wednesday 26 November 2003 2:09 pm in comp.sys.sun.admin Stefaan A
Eeckels wrote:


> When a system is a pure mailhost, you should make sure
> that none of the users you (have to) create can log on
> to the system. The fact that SMTP and FTP servers require
> system user accounts is a historical accident (based on
> the multi-user nature of Unix, in those days that users
> had terminals and not PCs.) Nowadays, having to create
> users for the purpose of hosting a mailbox or allowing
> a file transfer is a security risk. One could make a
> solid case in favour of an SMTP/POP3/IMAP server that only
> uses "aliases" for the purpose of accepting and delivering
> email, and a single system user for all the file system
> activity.

Indeed, there are some fancy packages which will do this.
For small systems it is easier and cheaper to set the user's
shell to /bin/false



--
My real address is crn (at) netunix (dot) com
WARNING all messages containing attachments or html will be silently
deleted. Send only plain text.