[Dovecot] Production server migration from mbox to maildir ( need advice )
Hello
I'm going to change the raid array of my mailhub in fews days/weeks and I wonder if it would be a good idea to take the opportunity of this migration to also change the storage method from mailbox to maildir.
I've never used maildir on my production server only on small satellites.
So I really need advice of admins that use maildir format on prod servers.
My server has approx 3500 users/mailboxes that is approx 450 Gb of data.
The OS is Debian etch amd64 but could change also during the migration Opensuse X86_64, CAOS-NSA, FreeBSD 64 are some options.
Any infos/experiences welcome, I'll summarize answers.
Thanks a lot.
Frank Bonnet wrote:
Hello
I'm going to change the raid array of my mailhub in fews days/weeks and I wonder if it would be a good idea to take the opportunity of this migration to also change the storage method from mailbox to maildir.
I've never used maildir on my production server only on small satellites.
So I really need advice of admins that use maildir format on prod servers.
My server has approx 3500 users/mailboxes that is approx 450 Gb of data.
The OS is Debian etch amd64 but could change also during the migration Opensuse X86_64, CAOS-NSA, FreeBSD 64 are some options.
Any infos/experiences welcome, I'll summarize answers.
Thanks a lot.
I use Debian amd64 with maildir. It works. Nothing really to say about it. It's never given me any trouble and nobody ever complains about performance. Easy to restore specific messages from backups when customers accidentally delete messages.
~Seth
Seth Mattinen wrote:
Frank Bonnet wrote:
Hello
I'm going to change the raid array of my mailhub in fews days/weeks and I wonder if it would be a good idea to take the opportunity of this migration to also change the storage method from mailbox to maildir.
I've never used maildir on my production server only on small satellites.
So I really need advice of admins that use maildir format on prod servers.
My server has approx 3500 users/mailboxes that is approx 450 Gb of data.
The OS is Debian etch amd64 but could change also during the migration Opensuse X86_64, CAOS-NSA, FreeBSD 64 are some options.
Any infos/experiences welcome, I'll summarize answers.
Thanks a lot.
I use Debian amd64 with maildir. It works. Nothing really to say about it. It's never given me any trouble and nobody ever complains about performance. Easy to restore specific messages from backups when customers accidentally delete messages.
~Seth
Thank you Seth :-)
Frank Bonnet wrote:
I use Debian amd64 with maildir. It works. Nothing really to say about it. It's never given me any trouble and nobody ever complains about performance. Easy to restore specific messages from backups when customers accidentally delete messages.
~Seth
Thank you Seth :-)
But with your storage you must think about backup strategies. Rsync + maildir = many time
-- Best regards, Proskurin Kirill
Proskurin Kirill wrote:
Frank Bonnet wrote:
I use Debian amd64 with maildir. It works. Nothing really to say about it. It's never given me any trouble and nobody ever complains about performance. Easy to restore specific messages from backups when customers accidentally delete messages.
~Seth
Thank you Seth :-)
But with your storage you must think about backup strategies. Rsync + maildir = many time
Well I use a LTO3 robotic system with NETVAULT backup software so it is not a problem.
Proskurin Kirill wrote:
Frank Bonnet wrote:
I use Debian amd64 with maildir. It works. Nothing really to say about it. It's never given me any trouble and nobody ever complains about performance. Easy to restore specific messages from backups when customers accidentally delete messages.
~Seth
Thank you Seth :-)
But with your storage you must think about backup strategies. Rsync + maildir = many time
The other option is LVM snapshots or a filesystem that has snapshots like ZFS. Just don't use ext3 with snapshots on a busy server - it's a horrible performer because it's block-based. Extent-based ones like xfs perform much better and you can "freeze" an xfs filesystem so the snapshot is consistent.
This is about MySQL but it has some good information: http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2009/02/05/disaster-lvm-performance-in-s...
And this Ars article describes the basic snapshot procedure for those unfamiliar with it: http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2004/10/linux-20041013.ars
~Seth
On Fri, 2009-02-13 at 10:05 -0800, Seth Mattinen wrote:
Proskurin Kirill wrote:
Frank Bonnet wrote:
I use Debian amd64 with maildir. It works. Nothing really to say about it. It's never given me any trouble and nobody ever complains about performance. Easy to restore specific messages from backups when customers accidentally delete messages.
~Seth
Thank you Seth :-)
But with your storage you must think about backup strategies. Rsync + maildir = many time
The other option is LVM snapshots or a filesystem that has snapshots like ZFS. Just don't use ext3 with snapshots on a busy server - it's a horrible performer because it's block-based. Extent-based ones like xfs perform much better and you can "freeze" an xfs filesystem so the snapshot is consistent.
This is about MySQL but it has some good information: http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2009/02/05/disaster-lvm-performance-in-s...
And this Ars article describes the basic snapshot procedure for those unfamiliar with it: http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2004/10/linux-20041013.ars
In addition, the rsync 'slowness' issue can be alleviated by breaking it up into smaller pieces (And version 3.0 is helpful). Since many files/directories on a single volume has been an issue for many filesystems for many years, some sort of directory management is usually already in place which you can use to break up rsync into smaller chunks.
Rick
Seth Mattinen wrote:
Frank Bonnet wrote:
Hello
I'm going to change the raid array of my mailhub in fews days/weeks and I wonder if it would be a good idea to take the opportunity of this migration to also change the storage method from mailbox to maildir.
I've never used maildir on my production server only on small satellites.
So I really need advice of admins that use maildir format on prod servers.
My server has approx 3500 users/mailboxes that is approx 450 Gb of data.
The OS is Debian etch amd64 but could change also during the migration Opensuse X86_64, CAOS-NSA, FreeBSD 64 are some options.
Any infos/experiences welcome, I'll summarize answers.
Thanks a lot.
I use Debian amd64 with maildir. It works. Nothing really to say about it. It's never given me any trouble and nobody ever complains about performance. Easy to restore specific messages from backups when customers accidentally delete messages.
~Seth
For the same purpose advice on convertion tools would be appreciated mb2md seems sexy ... ?
Thanks again.
~Seth
For the same purpose advice on convertion tools would be appreciated mb2md seems sexy ... ?
mmh forgot my question I haven't seen the http://wiki.dovecot.org/Migration/MailFormat page
sorry.
everything is clear I have converted my machine without problems .
Thanks Timo !
participants (4)
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Frank Bonnet
-
Proskurin Kirill
-
Rick Romero
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Seth Mattinen