Only Emails Migration

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version CentOS 8 to Ubuntu 20.04
Webmin version 1.984 to 1.990
Virtualmin version 6.17 Pro to 6.17-3 Pro
Related packages SUGGESTED

I have CentOS 8 server with PHP website. I got new server setup with Ubuntu 20.04 server and Node.JS React.JS website.

Problem is that I can’t migrate entire virtualmin domain server to new Ubuntu server. I just need all domain email accounts fully migrated to new Ubuntu Server so that when I go live all my emails start working with Ubuntu server exactly as how they were working on CentOS 8 server.

Is there anyway to just migrate all email accounts from one Virtualmin Server to another Virtualmin Server?

Quick response is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

No, the way Virtualmin thinks about everything is “a website…plus maybe some other stuff”. You cannot take away the “website” part of it.

But, nobody is forcing you to switch your DNS to point to the new server for anything other than mail. I did the opposite when we migrated to a new server and new CMS. I left the mail running on the old server and migrated the websites to the new server. Just change your MX records and mail. names to point to the new server and leave all the rest pointing at the old server.

Thanks for quick note.
I am keeping same domain on new server. So from same domain name server to same domain name server I think there should not be any issue in migrating just emails without the website etc… right?
The reason I can’t migrate everything is because Ubuntu 20.04 is having Nginx web server and Node.JS + React.JS website. If I migrate full virtual server then it will bring all unwanted stuff and change all working behaviour (NGinx + Node.JS/React.JS) on new server. I just want domain emails migrated from old server to new server with same domain name as the previous CentOS server.

Appreciate if you can help with this one as can’t lose 10 years worth of domain emails.

See Virtualmin with an external, dedicated mail server - #2 by calport

Thank you for a quick comment. I am instead going for very scammy looking link removed by Joe to transfer all my accounts over to new server. Seems easy to use. Just one email account at a time. Which is ok given that I can keep all my emails. Wish there was a way to do this with Virtualmin Restore. Anyway, it is what it is.

Thanks again.

I don’t think you’ve interpreted my comment correctly. What you’re doing seems much more complicated and prone to error than just restoring the whole domain on the new server but not switching DNS for anything other than mail.

Also, trusting a random shady looking server on the internet to access all your mail!? Absolutely batshit crazy.

Really, that’s dangerous. I’m going to remove the link in your comment, because even if it’s not a scam (which I’m about 80% sure it is), it is an insanely dangerous habit to get into to hand your passwords over to strangers.

Is this any use copy-mailbox – Virtualmin

Steve

Unfortunately virtualmin solution is not good idea because I now have existing working domain on Node.JS/React.JS with NGinx server. And same domain on old server was PHP, Apache2. And my experience so far has been that keep them miles apart to avoid issues. Migrating PHP/Apache2 domain to NGinx/Node.JS enabled server I don’t thing is great idea. Anything todo with web server and mixing them will break more things then it will fix. So migration itself is not good idea in this case so rest is not helpful beyond that.

Regarding that website sure remove the link if you like. They have paid service and free limited service. And because virtualmin did not have solution for this I have transferred my emails through that website and looking at the whole workflow and my experience through it, it doesn’t look like a scam website nor I could find any such review about it. Anyway, many users were discussing about it in similar situation as mine and it worked for them so tried and seem to have fixed my issue just flawlessly. It even retained timestamps etc… from old emails. In absence of other viable solution I could find, this is the best way I could migrate entire mailboxes with all folders etc… intact, was a effortless and quite easy solution that just worked flawlessly. No errors and no complications. It just worked as other users were claiming.

Having said that, off course virtualmin migration process fixing this completely by simply migrating email accounts with full mailboxes as part of backup/restore process (without migrating anything else) would be every virtualmin user’s first preference. It would be wise decision to include this option in upcoming release update.

Thanks Stefan. Looks like that would have done the trick. Probably the file location would allow to go into remote source/destination server to migrate just the mailboxes from one server to another.
Unfortunately for me this was not known at the time and I ended up using third party solution. Which seem to have done the trick. But yeah this if worked, would have been more secure option.

Thanks for bringing it up. Hopefully someone in future can see it and use it. Good on you.

Also there are some MAILSync scripts for years available. ( imapsync)

Thanks. Imapsync seems to be doing one such other tool. Yeah seems to be quite old tool compared to the one that I used. Thanks for highlighting. Hopefully someone will get benefited from it till virtualmin has it imlemented.

We have no plans to implement anything else in this area. There have been two suggestions for how to solve it with Virtualmin in this thread, both of which work. The tool you used is not modern, it is dangerous and using it is wildly reckless (you should immediately change all of the passwords you gave to that service). imapsync works fine, which I assume is why there haven’t been recent updates.

2 Likes

Yup using it now and then for many many years. :wink:

But i have learned also here.

No worries. Appreciate your advice. Thanks for taking the time to guide on this issue. Yes, changed password to 60 digit complex password.

Thanks again.

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