Migration to Carbonio#
A migration procedure to Carbonio allows to import configurations and data into a mail server infrastructure based on Carbonio from an existent infrastructure, which is about to be decommissioned or dismissed. This section contains several procedures to migrate to Carbonio, depending on the system from which you want to migrate away. Before attempting a migration, please read Section Preliminares.
Preliminaries#
This page contains the definition of some important terms used throughout the various migration procedures, an overview of the procedures’ workflow, a list of task to be carried out before the actual migration, and finally the list and links to the various migration procedures.
Definitions#
Before we enter the discussion, let’s define some terms to avoid misunderstandings.
- Source
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The Source infrastructure (Source) is the mail server from which to move away and that, at the beginning of the procedure, contains everything. It is important to stress the facts that we do not make any assumption on the Source (which can be any software).
- Destination
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The Destination infrastructure (Destination) is the Carbonio installation to which you want to move your existing mail server.
- Procedure
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The Procedure is a set of tasks that guide you in the import of all your data to the Destination. It requires access to the CLI of both Source and Destination, though it is assumed that all the data have been already exported when you start the Procedure.
- Provisioning
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Provisioning refers to the process of creating and setting up the Domains, Accounts, Class of Services, and Distribution Lists that are present on the Source before the start of the Procedure.
- Data
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Data refers to the set of all the e-mails that are present on the Source before the start of the Procedure.
- Zextras Suite compatible platform
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In the context of the migration procedure, we define Zextras Suite compatible platform a Source system equipped with any of this software combination:
Zimbra OSE 8.8.15 + Zextras Suite (latest release)
Zimbra OSE 9.0 (built by Zextras) + Zextras Suite (latest release)
Zimbra Network Edition 8.8.15 (with NG modules)
Zimbra Network Edition 9.0 (with NG modules)
Procedures Overview#
The migration procedure is roughly divided into four phases, which may consist of multiple steps. Phases and Steps must be executed in the order given. The actual tasks required to complete each Phase and Step may vary, depending on the Source. Moreover, some phase may not be required, or even unsupported, depending on the procedure.
There is also a Preliminary Phase, consisting of checking the requirements and limitations of the procedure, exporting the backup, preparing the data to be exported and manually imported.
In this phase, we deal with tasks that create the domains, users, and COSes.
Import of Domains and User Accounts
Import of Distribution Lists
Import of Classes of Services (optional)
After the provisioning has been completed, we process the actual data:
Import of E-mails
Import of Appointments
Import of Contacts
After Provisioning and Data, our attention goes to the Shared items.
In the last phase, we import Zextras Drive items into Carbonio Files.
The figure gives an overview of the various procedures, but does not show the preliminary phase.
Fig. 2 Overview of the migration to Carbonio procedures.#
Available Procedures#
There are four available procedures: two of them can be used when the Source is a Zextras Suite compatible platform, the other when the Source is a generic, third-party system.
This procedure is the one that should be always used when migrating from a Zextras Suite compatible platform and is presented in section From Zextras Suite Compatible Platform, it will migrate a whole Carbonio infrastructure (including all domains, accounts, CoSes, DLs) from the Source to the Destination and will use the Zextras Suite's Backup Module on the Source and Carbonio Backup on the Destination infrastructure to complete most of the procedure (Phases 1 and 2) at once.
This procedure only migrates accounts and COSes, (provisioning) using the Backup module, while all remaining items are migrated using data exported from the Source and manually imported in the Destination. This procedure may be used in a scenario which features a huge amount on data and an incremental migration using a tool like imapsync is preferred. This scenario is described in dedicated page From Zextras Suite Compatible Platform - Provisioning Only.
This procedure uses a compatible AD or Openldap + IMAPSync for provisioning by connecting to an external LDAP database (either Active Directory or OpenLDAP). It migrates Domains, Accounts, and CoSes. Once the provisioning phase is completed, the data will then be synchronised with the IMAPSync tool. This procedure can be found on the page From Generic E-mail Systems Based on Compatible AD or OpenLDAP.
When the source is no Zextras Suite compatible platform, provisioning must be carried out by exporting from the Source suitable text files and importing them on the Destination. Once the provisioning is complete, the data will then be synchronized with the IMAPSync tool. This procedure is available on page From Generic E-mail Systems.