domain name change 1

[MarkRCC]

Hi all.

environment: Netware 5.0sp6.0a running GroupWise 6 (all are patched current.

Question: My company is going through an identity crisis and is planning on changing their name. As a result, the task has been given (read: thrust upon) to me to also change our domain name, etc.
Obviously this includes changing our PO to reflect the new domain name. Would it be possible to point me in the right direction on the best way to do this? I've been given different suggestions, from completely rebuilding the PO and then migrating the boxes over to "just change the domain name in NWAdmin".

Thanks in advance for any and all help you fine folks can offer.

Mark

 

[KenB]

This is a lot simpler than it seems. My GW system had up to 5 Domain Names at one point all in the same PO. Once your new Domain name is registered just Select the GW Domain and add it to the GWIA Forign ID line on the GW Identification Page. Then click on the Tools/GW System Operations/Internet Addressing and Create the new Domain Name. When you are ready all you should need to do is change the default Domain name with the Set Prefered button. This will change Everyones E-mail Address to the new domain. You can set up an Alias with the old Domain name if you want the users to receive mail addressed both ways but this could be a lot of work. You can also over ride the default and leave some people with the old Domain name. Don't forget to ask your ISP to set up a new MX record for the new Domain name before you make the system changes.

HTH
Ken

 

[MarkRCC]

Hi Ken.

Thanks for the rapid response. I assumed it wasn't that difficult from the GroupWise POV, but I wanted to make sure. One more stupid question and some more clarification, if you don't mind (I think you might have answered it already though).

I did think to make sure my ISP sets up a new MX record for the new domain name (this surprised even me!), but will I have to keep the old domain name (along with its MX record) as well? I'm assuming that when our ISP sets up a new MX record for the new domain name, it basically keeps our existing IP addresses and just replaces our old domain name with the new one? How about the old one? I'd like to use both for a short time until I can get everyone successfully transitioned to the new address.

Sorry for being so wordy, but I'm struggling to understand the whole picture.

Thanks again, Ken for your response.

Mark

 

[KenB]

As long as you keep the old MX record any mail sent to that address will still come to your gateway (GWIA). This is the only way that the Nick Name/Alias will work. I think I miss-stated the Alias function. The Nick Name is to direct the incoming Email to the right user; ie: I can use 2 names for the same domain or 2 domains for the same name and still receive mail at the same in-box. If I have an Alias I can assign my outgoing mail to look like it came from the address that I want. You can use this combination to control when you transition everyone over to the new domain name. Also it should not cost extra to keep the old MX record in place as long as you want to receive the Email sent to anyone at that domain, just remove the Alias when you are ready to convert but keep the Nick Names.

HTH
Ken

 

[MarkRCC]

After being forced to postpone our domain name change, I'm being pressed to move forward asap.

After re-reading this thread and looking at my GWIA properties, etc, I noticed that it says, "Select the GW domain and add it to the GWIA Foreign ID line on the GW Identification page.....".

Please forgive my ignorance, but I'm assuming that to do this, I have to create a new domain using info from my new domain name first, correct? Thus instead of my current single domain (existing-domainXXX), I should have(existing-domainXXX)AND(new-domainYYY) created first.

At this point, I would then "Select the GW domain and add it to the GWIA foreign ID line.....", etc.

If this is all correct, I have one further question....In my current domain (existing-domainXXX), the Foreign ID line already has "existing-domainXXX" typed in. Would I change this to the secondary domain (new-domainYYY)?

I hope I'm making sense here. If not, just reply with a huge "HUH???" and I'll try to clarify.

Many TIAs!

Mark

 

[MarkRCC]

Anyone?

 

[KenB]

Hi Mark,
I've been away form the forum for a while but just happened to check in and caught your post. At the Tools/Groupwise System Operations/Internet Addressing box Create the new Domain name then set this to the Prefered Domain. This should change everyones email address to someone@prefered.domain. Close all the boxes till you get back to the main tree.
Double click the GW domain object then the GWIA object and find the Foreign ID line and add the new Domain seperated by a space from the other domain. I'd put the new domain first on the line so it will be easier to delete the old domain later.
At about the same time that you do this have your ISP add the MX record and you should be all set to test the new addresses.
You may not want to change the Prefered Domain for everyone right away in which case you can Overide them one at a time from the User Object Groupwise Internet Addressing box.
If you want the users to get mail at both domains I don't think that Nicknames will work for this. I think you will need to define the new domain email address in the E-mail Addresses box and set the Alias to the new address so it forces everything to be sent undre the new domain name

Good luck
Ken

 

[MarkRCC]

Hi Ken.

Many, many thanks for the clarification and many apologies for my ignorance. There's just one more potential problem.

We are hosting our website on someone else's server. Obviously the MX record for (

http://www.new-domainYYY.ca)

is pointing to the IP address of this webserver. How would I then have the MX record reflect that our website is located on this webserver but point email (john.doe@new-domainYYY.ca) to our gateway?

Mark

 

[KenB]

Mark,
You can have as many MX records as you want. Some corp. have more than one GWIA(SMTP Gateway)to help carry the heavy load. They setup an MX record for smtp1, smtp2, etc.
If you assign a priority to the gateways that is equal they will share the load, if any one has a higher priority, when it fails the other one will take over. In the case of your ISP/Web Host they are your backup email server apearently. My Web Host offers this service and so did an ISP I used for a while. It's kind of like asking your local Post Office to hold ouyr mail while you are on vacation. If you do an MX lookup on your old domain it should show the current setup. You may have to notify the Web Host about the new domain. You may also have GWIA to forward email to a Smart Host(your ISP/Web Host)where they do the DNS lookups for you and then deliver the mail, this should not affect the domain name change but will lighten the workload for GWIA.

HTH
Ken