Moving dovecot/maildir to new host, dovecot.* files

[Bill Shirley]

I did it successfully the way you're thinking about doing it.

If your uid's changed you should use rsync's --usermap= and --groupmap=
I created a bash exec with an entry for each user:
#!/usr/bin/bash

USERMAP=400:psql,301:smbguest,501:bill
GROUPMAP=400:pvsw,401:pvsw-adm,301:smbguest,501:bill

echo smbguest
# begin single looong line
rsync -Aaxlrt --delete -e 'ssh -p 20026' --bwlimit=50m --numeric-ids --usermap=$USERMAP --groupmap=$GROUPMAP --exclude '*~' 
--exclude 'dovecot*' --exclude 'maildir.dovecot.purge.conf' rsync://192.168.40.231/home/smbguest/Maildir/ /home/smbguest/Maildir/
# end single line

   mv /home/smbguest/Maildir/current.sieve /home/smbguest/Maildir/dovecot.sieve
   mv /home/smbguest/Maildir/current.svbin /home/smbguest/Maildir/dovecot.svbin


echo bill
.
.

Note I changed my sieve file name on the new server.
USERMAP consists of comma separated pairs of old_server_uid:new_server_username
likewise with GROUPMAP and gid and group_name
maildir.dovecot.purge.conf is a file I use to purge user folders

Bill



On 5/24/2017 10:31 AM, John Gateley wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've done a fair amount of searching, and couldn't find a definitive answer.
>
> I am moving my dovecot/postfix servers and mail in Maildir formats to a new host.
> When I move the Maildir directories, what should I do with the dovecot.index/cache/log/etc. files?
> I know I can filter them out, and dovecot will recreate them, but is that the best approach?
>
> I am thinking of the following:
> Shut down postfix and dovecot on both the new and old server
> rsync the maildirs from the old server to the new server
> start up postfix/dovecot on the new server
> verify all is okay
> switch DNS from old server to new server.
>
> Is this the best approach with minimal impact to mail users?
>
> Thanks very much
>
> John