Hi all,
Thanks to all of you for helping me in this forum till date.I need some clarification for establishing a mail server in my production environment.My existing network structure includes a Windows 2003 domain controller(Running DNS ) and Microsoft exchange server 2003....Is it possible to replace exchange server with postfix(Suse Linux Enterprise Linux 11)without disturbing the current setup and import the mails from exchange server to postfix and remove exchange server completely?Can i check my new postfix setup in a new environment and then add this to the existing setup.Please give your valuable suggestions.Thanks

Yes, it's possible. If you want to build a new environment and run it parallel, why would it bother/matter the current Exchange servers?? My advice would be to build the new mail servers, and test them. Migrate a few technically-savvy users over, and have them use it, and get the kinks worked out.

Then, when the final migration date comes up, use imapsync to migrate the messages from Exchange to Postfix, and make your DNS changes accordingly. I'd also leave the existing mail system in place, but UNPLUGGED FROM THE NETWORK, for a while, just to make sure things aren't getting bounced to it.

Thanks for your suggestions...I have installed postfix in my OPENSUSE11.1 and as of now i am able to send mails internally as well as to another machine running Sendmail as MTA.(But the requirement is that end users will use outlook express for interacting with the mail server with their user accounts)..Is it possible to add a additional MX record for the postfix mail server?.Will this conflict with my existing exchange server MX records and mails.?How can i proceed in this?

Lastly should i need to create users of my corporate domain with mail boxes individually or is it possible to import all the users of my exchange server to this machine(postfix) and run both the machines in parallel.Please don't think i am keeping on asking questions.I am new to linux and i am learning ...Thanks

You should be able to add the MX record without issues I guess. And there should not be much changes done for using a mail client. It should just work fine. You would just need to make sure of other things like the authentication methods used previously.
As suggested imapsync tool can help you in migrating but it needs the user passwords for migration. So you will either need users to input the passwords or crack them. The later option is just not right.
You have another option of using Zimbra suite. It has an open source version as well where you do not need to buy the license. Zimbra has got some tools to migrate the exchange to zimbra without needing any user passwords. Just the admin passwords. So it should be more than feasible to migrate to Zimbra. Plus it is easy to implement so that you put more time on the constructive things.

Thanks Chaintanya...Since i am new to linux i am thinking of checking the postfix configuration(in Opensuse 11.1) with the new domain(gftindia.org).I have got access to the cpanel details for the new domain..Once i am equipped with the new setup(postfix mail server for the new domain) i can move towards changing exchange to postfix...I am doing this in the existing setup of my network(Windows 2003 already running dns service for another domain say abc.com).Now i have installed a postfix server(machine name linux.gftindia.org,with ip 172.24.1.120)(includes local dns service for a new domain gftindia.org) in the same lan.Please note that this postfix machine uses the same gateway(172.24.1.1) as all other machines on the lan with the only thing that postfix installed machine is in a different domain(gftindia.org).I am particular in this since i dont want to make problems with my existing setup.As of now i have added (A)host record only for the postfix mail server.I have plenty of questions to get clarified.I think you wont mistake me as i am learing things.

When i run the dig utility for checking name resolution i got the following messages



and dig -q linux.gftindia.org reveals
Digging other domains(like gmail,yahoo) works.May i know how it is able to resolve as i havent included any other ip's for resolving in /etc/resolv.conf or in the forwarders section of the named.conf file.Please let me knw what is making this resolution.

I guess the name resolution is happening correctly....
Postfix configuration includes
................
inet_interfaces = all

mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost, $mydomain

mydomain = gftindia.org

myhostname = linux.gftindia.org
mynetworks_style = subnet
mynetworks_style = subnet
relay_domains = $mydestination
myorigin = $myhostname
.............................

I am able to send mails within the systems to all of my user accounts but if i try to send mails from outlook express to one of the account of my mail server it fails.

I am able to telnet the postfix machine
telnet 172.24.1.120 25
220 linux.gftindia.org ESMTP Postfix

But telnet linux.gftindia.org 25 fails
I thought this could be becoz of dns issues so i included the ip address of postfix machine(since it is my dns and mail server) in the dns network settings of my windows machine.Now pinging by name works well.Configuring 'you@linux.gftindia.org' in outlook express i am able to send mail to 'root@linux.gftindia.org' account but reverse sending mail from 'root@linux.gftindia.org' is not getting to you@linux.gftindia.org outlook express configured account but instead it is getting into 'mutt' of the user 'you'....

How come i am able to send mails to all domains but the postfix configuration being relay_domains = $mydestination..i guess user at this domain will be able to route messges within the domain .I am really in confusion.Please help me on this.Thanks

Hi,

I googled and found some solutions .I configured courier imap with postfix mailserver.Now i am able to configure mail account settings in my outlook express for imap .But if i configure for pop3 it gives me Your password was rejected .Temporary problem please try again later.
I am using the same authentication settings for pop3 as imap.Both are using authuserdb(which means /etc/password,think i am not wrong)....while in windows command prompt i checked whether i am able to communicate with the user in the mail server and these are my outputs...

cmd>telnet 172.24.1.120 110

+OK Hello there
user xyz
+OK Password required
pass ****
-ERR Temporary problem ,please try again later

Connection to host lost.

cmd>telnet 172.24.1.120 143
*OK...............
..........................
a login xyz ****
a OK LOGIN Ok.

My authdaemonrc file contains
..................................
authmodulelist="authuserdb authpam authldap authcustom authpipe"
......................................

I created a log with monitoring the authdaemond it shows the following

I found that whenever i give the username and password for pop3 in the windows command prompt "ERR: ldap_simple_bind_s failed: Can't contact LDAP server" pops up.But i didnt use ldap authentication for imap same suits for my pop3 .Please let me know whether there is any pop3file i need to specify for local authentication setting other than authdaemonrc file

Please let me know where i am wrong since i am facing this problem only for pop3 protocol and not for imap.

Safe to say noone is ready to help in this forum

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You got quite a bit of help, and don't even care to acknowledge it, since no one answers you quick enough to suit you??

I will keep the answer to myself, since you can go look it up somewhere. Good luck getting help ANYWHERE with that attitude.

okay

fizee;
1. Please do not post statments like this.

2. Please do not file reports when someone gets annoyed by statements like this.

The forum is staffed by volunteers. If you do not get immediate assistance, there may be MANY reasons.

There are 2 magic words here: Please and Patience.

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