Mailserver - where to start?

[BIS]

boys and girls,
help me out here.

Our linux guru left the company and I have been giving the task of migrating the mailserver to another machine.
The thing is running slackware 8.1 I think, with ip-tables as firewall.

We need to move this to another, newer pc.

How to go about this?

Is there a tool like ghost that can take a 'picture' and pop it on another pc?
Otherwise I will need to reinstall and reconfigure a new mailserver. In that case what are the steps? I can easily install slackware. I guess I can backup the ip-tables ruleset and import that at a later stage? What else should I consider?

Any pointers, hints, tips, FAQs that can get me started are very very much appreciated.

Kind regards.

 

[fluid11]

Make sure to do a complete backup of any important config files and data. What mail server are you running? If your running Sendmail, back up the /etc/mail directory, /etc/sendmail.cf, /etc/aliases (if not in /etc/mail), and wherever you store you mail under /var. If your running Postfix, back up the /etc/postfix directory, and wherever you store your mail directory under /var or /home.

Do you run any other important services on the server?

Generally, when doing a backup, you should backup /home, /etc, /usr/local, and certain directories in /var. Since your not sure, backup the entire filesystem.

You can't clone the hard drive because you are going to use new hardware.


ChrisP

 

[marsd]

Caveat: I have never used a version of ghost for linux
filesystems.

Technically speaking however there is no reason why you
would not simply ghost your existing server onto a new
drive. Maybe Chris is aware of some issues with this
that I am not.
The hardware difference is simple to fix. Linux is much
more forgiving in this regard than many other OS's.

One way is to plan ahead for the transfer, making sure the necessary driver support is installed, and/or compiling a new kernel for the transfer.
If you are using generic pc hardware and a simple FS supported by ghost the transfer should be painless. With scsi, ide raid, soft raid, LVM, etc..you may be better off with Chris's suggestion.

 

[fluid11]

The reason I said that I wouldn't clone the drive is because it would probably be more work to fix all of the driver issues than it would be to do a clean installation of the OS and restore your data. He's going to have to recompile the kernel to get all of the drivers working okay. I would imagine that a clean install would go much smoother, but thats my opinion and personal preference. Plus, a clean install will eliminate any problems that you might not have been aware of (ie, hackers installing a trojan that you don't know about).


ChrisP

 

[marsd]

That's whats so wonderful about linux though.
The driver issues are usually just a matter of compiling a transfer kernel with the proper support, and physically moving the hardware. I agree that "other issues" could present a problem, but with tools like tripwire, chkrootkit,iptables and a reasonable security policy, there is no real reason to fret
over things like this. If you are cracked and you did it all right, it's not really a problem you could have prevented or could prevent again.

 

[fluid11]

I agree, but what if they don't have a good security policy? Installing Tripwire after the server is already up and running is kind of pointless. Its just a personal preference of mine to always do a clean install of the OS. Its really not that much longer than cloning the drive, and you will know 100% whats on your drive, but like I said, thats just my preferred way of doing it. Cloning will work just fine also.

BIS, the point that we're trying to make is that you have a few options to choose from. You should pick whichever you are more comfortable with. You can clone the drive and recompile the kernel, or you can do a clean install and restore your data. Its your choice.


ChrisP

 

[BIS]

Hello all,

Many thanks for your answers.

Is it possible just to copy for example the /var directory onto a new installation? Or would it mess things up a bit...
Sort of like clean install - remove /var - copy old /var.

 

[fluid11]

I wouldn't copy all of /var. Just copy the things that you need, like your mail files (possibly /var/mail/spool, if your using mbox (Sendmail-style) mailboxes. If your using Maildir (qmail-style) mailboxes, then the mailboxes are in each users home directory). You don't want to copy any old logs to the new server, so I wouldn't just copy the entire folder.

ChrisP

 

[fluid11]

...typo above, it should say /var/spool/mail