Hi David,
Afaik you have to put the 'old' emails before replicating on both, because replicating only works on new arriving.
I just migrated to a server on a different platform keeping same os and dovecot version. One namespace had mbox storage which on the new server became mdbox.
For the mbox -> mdbox namespace I used this
doveadm backup -f -n inbox -F /root/backup-accounts.txt tcp:mailXX.local:542
Test first with one account, depending on the permissions of the directories on the destination, dovecot will create all the files.
I had a 2nd namespace that I needed to migrate that was already in mdbox. I decided the rsync that, because here it was 2 days vs 5 hours syncing.
After the rsync I did again the backup on that namespace
doveadm backup -f -n Archive -F /root/backup-accounts.txt tcp:mailXX.local:542
Then I ran a script counting messages in mailboxes of all users on both servers and a diff showed that everything was ok.
I guess if you handle it like this you will not loose a message. ;)
-----Original Message----- From: David Morsberger [mailto:david@mmpcrofton.com] Sent: 29 December 2020 20:09 To: dovecot mailing list Subject: Initial Replication
I searched the archives and do not see a question/answer for this.
Should I perform a set of ordered steps after setting up replication? I have setup dovecot on both ends with identical config except for the remote hostname.
Main concern is the existing server gets replicated to the new server. I want nothing from new server replicated to the old server. Risking "Trial and error" and "crossing fingers doesnt work with production emails
Specifically:
Do I need to setup the mail directories for the various virtual users on the remote? If so, do the directories need to empty?
Should I initially do a manually one-way synch using doveadm from the existing server? If so, is there a way of turning off automatic replication while the manual one runs?
Anything else?
T
David