How do I move GMS from Windows to Unix?

Answer

The seven steps outlined below to migrate your existing GMS windows configuration to Linux has been designed to be as simple and straightforward as possible. The procedures are designed to maintain the "status quo" so that upon completion, you should see your identical mail server except running on a different platform.

Best practice says that you should create a System Recovery file and store it in a safe place before performing the migration.

KEY NOTES:
Before following the procedure, review the GMS Administrators Guide chapter 4 and take the pre-install measures described there. Make sure that you have at least as much free disk space on the Linux machine as that required by the GMS mail system. Be sure to pull down the same build number for the GMS software that you have been running on Windows, to install on Linux. Existing builds of the software can be found at the FTP site:
ftp://ftp.gordano.com.
If you are in any doubt, contact Gordano by telephone or email to sales@gordano.com.

THE STEPS:

1. Contact the Gordano sales team and obtain valid keys for GMS on Linux or Solaris.
2. Stop all of the GMS services on the Windows machine before creating a setup.txt with files. To do this open a command prompt in the gordanobin folder and type "mail -yA" and press the Enter key.

   Copy the file produced (called setup.txt) to a safe directory. This System Recovery file (setup.txt) must be kept in a folder well away from your GMS directories, as it constitutes your recovery position.

3. The install process for Solaris and Linux is very similar to that for the Windows platform. You must be logged on to the Unix machine as root when installing GMS. To install GMS on the Unix machine, do the following:
   

   1. Copy the downloaded GMS install file it to a suitable directory (e.g. "./install") on your unix machine.
   2. The GMS install file comes packaged as a .tar file which has been compressed into a gzip file (.gz) so the first step is to uncompress the zip. To do this type the following at the command line or in a console window:

        gzip -d filename

      This will leave you with a .tar file in your install directory. Unpack the .tar file by typing:

        tar -xovf filename

      This unpacks the files required for installation into your install directory. The console will display the file names as the files are unpacked. You are now ready to start the install by typing

        ./install

      from within your install directory.

   3. The install script will ask you to confirm that Sendmail (Exim, Postfix or QMail) can be permanently disabled on your system. If you agree to this, type YES in capital letters and press enter. The install will continue and automatically disable sendmail at the appropriate time.
   4. After agreeing to the licence terms, you will be asked which products from GMS you would like to install. To install the whole suite (default) just hit the Enter key. To install just one or two of the products, type a comma separated list of products. For example M,J will install GMS with GMS Anti-Spam. You will be prompted to confirm your selection.
   5. The install will then ask you to provide the following information:
      1. Install directory. To install to the default /opt/gordano directory just press the Enter key.
      2. The password to be used for the postmaster account. You will need to type this twice to confirm you have entered it correctly.
      3. The domain name that your machine is to host mail for. For example yourcompany.dom. The domain entered here should have an MX record set up in DNS.
      4. The IP address of the machine GMS is being installed on. To accept the suggested address, press the Enter key.
      5. Enter a space separated list of IP addresses for the DNS servers that GMS should use for domain name resolution. To accept the suggested address, press the Enter key.
      6. The port to be used by the SMTP service. To use the default port 25, press the Enter key.
      7. The port to be used for configuring GMS using a WWW browser. To use the default port 8000, press the Enter key.
      8. The name of a user on your system that will own all mail files. To accept the default of "mail" press the Enter key.
      9. The name of a group that is to have access to the mail system. To accept the default of "other" press the Enter key.
      10. You are also asked to optionally provide up to 3 email addresses for registration with Gordano support. These addresses will be the ones that Gordano support will automatically respond to.
      11. You will then be asked for final confirmation that you wish to complete the install. Typing "yes" installs the products you selected and starts the GMS services. Your http://<server_IP_address>:8000 in the address bar on any machine or http://127.0.0.1:8000 on the server itself.

          The server is now ready to receive and send mail and can be configured straight away using a web browser by typing

4. Enter the licences obtained from Gordano Limited in step 1 above. The keys are applied by logging into GMS as a System Administrator. In this case, it is the user "postmaster" with the password defined above. Look for the KEY node and enter your customer reference with machine number provided by the Gordano sales department followed by the upgrade key you have been issued. All other keys can be entered in any order after this.
5. Take the System Recovery file (setup.txt) created in step 2 above and transfer it to the machine that has just had GMS installed on it. The file should be placed in the bin directory of the install path e.g. if the install directory chosen in step 3. i.e – above was /opt/gordano then setup.txt should be placed in /opt/gordano/mail/bin.
6. Enter the following at the command line or in a console window, assuming /opt/gordano was the install directory

     cd /opt/gordano/mail/bin

   followed by

     ./glmail stop
   ./mail -yrZ

   Please note – From Build 3365 onwards, you can simply specify “mail -yr” as “mail -yrZ” is no longer used.

   This will restore your users settings and build the GMS UNIX system directories to replicate the GMS Windows setup from which this was extracted and when complete will give a fully working GMS UNIX installation that replicates the former GMS Windows system. User directories are not created unless the mailbox is accessed, they will need to be copied over.

7. The final step is to restore all of your users mailbox files from the Windows server into this new directory structure on the Linux server. Once this is done you can now restart all of the GMS services on your new platform by entering the following at the command line or in a console window, assuming /opt/gordano was the install directory

     cd /opt/gordano/mail/bin

   followed by

     ./glmail start

   The migration of your GMS installation from Windows to Linux is now complete.

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