moved Groupwise 5.5 can't open POA files 2

[pray11342]

Hi all,

Got a problem that has me stumped.

I moved a Groupwise Post Office from a Netwware 5.0 server that is going away to our new 6.5 server.

Sut down the 5.5 Groupwise, and moved the directories. installed Groupwise and the SP 5 for it on the new server, I think I have everything configured in nwadmin32.

Everything comes up, but the POA never opens up, gives an error that it cannot create files.

In the F4 configuration box, status, I think, I see a line that is pointing ot the old server and the old
PO or DOM directory, Can't for the life of me, see where it is picking it up.

I finally shut down the new Groupwise, and needed to start up the old one so thye can get email after several hours.

Now the old 5.0 server has the same disease. I finally came home to get some sleep.

It occurs to me that since the problem is on both servers, that maybe it has to do with the NDS, Problem is in the Tree? Plan on running DSREPAIR on both servers in the AM. Also poked around here, found info about the GRPWISE.NCF File. I have not looked at this, could the problem be in there?

Will be checking in the AM, thanks for any help you can come up with.

Paul Ray

Programming Languages -- .BAT Files

Preffered editor -- EDLIN

 

[sstoppel]

Sorry, it has been a while since I have used GW 5.5 and nwadmin. IIRC, there are settings in the objects for paths for the domain and PO. Also, in the properties of the NDS objects for the MTA and POA, is the path set correctly?

You probably don't want to do anything to the PO object, but the POA can be deleted and re-created. In your software distribution directory you should have an AGENTS folder, and if you run the install program it should ask for the path to install the agents, and the path to the domain and PO. The new objects will likely work just fine.

I do hope you have a good backup just in case. Good luck on this - let us know how it comes out.

 

[pray11342]

Sstopped and all,

I know what you mean. I want to get away from using it ASAP myself.

About a Backup. I copyied the domain directory and the po directory to my local workstation before we started this drill. Is that a sufficient backup? Crude, I know, but one of the reasons we are getting ric of the 5.0 server is that our backup hardware and software are pretty much non functional.

Tried your suggestion this AM. unfortunately we decided to delete the MTA object as well as the POA object. Ran the Agents Install a couple times, and now neither shows up in the Groupwise views in NWADMIN32.

Deleted all the Groupwise and copied the PO and DOMAIN files again. Ran a new install, and it stops when it tries to force auto update of windows clients.

It wants MTA to be running. When we start MTA, we get an error. GWMTA: DIS: No agent record found, and it unloads.

Thought the full re-install woud create the record, but no dice.

Any idea How to create a working MTA and OA at this point?

Tahnk yu much,

Paul Ray

Paul Ray

Programming Languages -- .BAT Files

Preffered editor -- EDLIN

 

[marvhuffaker]

Shouldn't have messed with that. The problem is very likely a path setting in your GroupWise startup file. If you just moved it, it most likely still references your old server.

Open up the file GRPWISE.NCF (probably in SYS:SYSTEM). Look at two lines in there. should be something like this:

GWMTA @[domainname].POA
GWPOA @[postofficename].POA

Then whatever file is listed in the [postofficename].poa, open that, edit it, and find the line that has the Post Office directory path. Note that the '@' is not part of the filename. If you find that the path is wrong, then change it to the correct path on the new server. This will get you going in the right direction.

Might not help your newest problem of hosing up your entire GW installation, but still..

Rule of thumb: Reinstalling is a Microsoft tactic not necessary in a Novell environment. Things can ALWAYS be fixed without a reinstall. Lots of times, reinstalling just makes your problem worse.

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[pray11342]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the help.

I finally called Novell on our 60 day Install help.

I asked them to help us restore the lost objects from our backups on the new server. Never tried that, and was not going to go to school on a production server.

Tech Support didn't seem to keen on it either. I told him that I might need to do it that way because I had been told that they no longer support Groupwise 5.5.

He was very helpful, said that they understood that we were in a bind. He went and talked to his Groupwise guys, and they had an answer. Novell Tech support has really been trying to improve lately, and it shows

In NWADMIN32, they had me right click on the Domain object. From there I could create an agent object. I picked MTA. They said the name should match the one that was deleted. Since we only had the one, it was MTA, which was the default from our original install. It created the object, I set the IP address in the object, it came up with all my users.

Same thing for the POA that we deleted. It could be created by right clicking on the PO Object. After that, we took a careful look at all the files that Marvin mentioned, and corrected them. Also, the GWIA.CFG file (for Groupwise Internet Access Gateway) had only generic information in it from the new Install. I think this may have been why we could not communicate. Copied and corrected the information from the file on the old server.

We were doing the new install, BTW, because the 6.5 Server did not have Groupwise on it. This was by design, we plan to upgrade after the move.

After we had all that right, started it up, and Groupwise hit the ground running. As soon as we are sure there are no issues, we intend to upgrade it to new Groupwise 6.5 that came with our Novel Small Business package.

Any opinions if the upgrade to GroupWise 7 is worth it? We may have to pay to go there, not sure if the upgrade is covered under our 1 year package. Could ask Novell, I guess.

Marv, I think your advice is sound. Most anything can be fixed in the Novell environment. You get a star for that.

Something interesting that Novell doesn't mention. My new Tech is a Linux geek, and he looked under the hood on the 6.5 SBS, and found a big V6 SUSE Linux engine, we think. I dunno, I never could run a BASH shell on a Novell Server before this.

Thanks again!

Paul Ray

Programming Languages -- .BAT Files

Preffered editor -- EDLIN

 

[marvhuffaker]

Novell does have a promotion to allow Novell SBS 6.6 users to get GW7... go here. I believe it is worth it.

http://www.novell.com/products/smallbiz/howtobuy.html

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com