I've done the switch from MS Exchange / WinNT Domain based Network Shares to
Linux.
I'd do the Samba thing first. Both the mail and the Samba were big deals, but
the Samba move involved a lot less interaction with users, which made it seem
to go better in their eyes.
The problem with the move from Exchange, is if you try to keep Outlook (which
we did), things will go poorly. Features don't work the same when it's not
connected to an Exchange server, so obviously that means the new system is
broken. Not to mention the strange issues Outlook has with IMAP (Have to
delete -then- purge), unexpected disconnects, crashing on Excel imports, etc.
And then if -anything- goes wrong with the mail, say a message bounced because
of miss-spelled address, or someone who said they'd email but didn't,
immediately it's the new mail systems fault. No time is spent entertaining
any other options. Because we kept outlook, there is a perception that the
mail system is flaky, when infact it hasn't once gone down, or lost a message
(or have any message been lost in the move). It's tough to stomach when you
consider all the time that was put in to make sure the backend works
flawlessly.
Very off topic.. Sorry. Be careful though, keeping Outlook can sink the ship
if everyone involved doesn't realize how it'll change the operation. I wish I
would have pushed an alternate email client harder.
Samba move went flawlessly though. Samba 3 is pretty damn slick, no one knew
the change happened, so no one knew they should have been complaining about
how it's broken. Hurray for being a sys admin.
Chris
And of course this NT replacement is backed up with Amanda, which replaced
Seagate Backup Exec.
On May 26, 2004 10:09 am, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote:
> Hi, Toni,
>
> on Mittwoch, 26. Mai 2004 at 16:54 you wrote to amanda-users:
>
> TM> On Wed, 26.05.2004 at 16:34:37 +0200, Stefan G. Weichinger
<monitor AT oops.co DOT at> wrote:
> >> Subject: What to do with those MS Exchange Servers?
>
> TM> to answer this question first: Dispose of them and upgrade to a decent
> TM> Unix mail system!
>
> TM> ...ok, just joking...
>
> I am at the first step there: Moving things to a Samba-server and back
> it up with AMANDA.
>
> They don't have ANY Linux/UNIX in their environment, so they don't
> trust it. Yet.
>
> Maybe I can tell you about some "Exchange Server erased - Linux
> installed"-news earlier than expected ;-)
>
> >> confronted with the question how to backup a MS Exchange Server !
>
> TM> It would help to know the version of Exchange that you have. Afaik
> TM> there are significant differenes in behaviour between the various
> TM> versions.
>
> I have already requested that info ...
> seems to be 5.5 from what I researched until now.
>
> >> MS Exchange seems to only be able to dump ONE BIG FAT dumpfile, from
> >> which you can only recover ALL the server.
>
> TM> True for 5.5 afair - I managed one for about 1.5 yrs.
>
> 5.5 again.
>
> >> If you only need/want to restore SOME mails, this does not work.
>
> TM> Right.
>
> Brrr...
>
> >> Correct me on this, it's hard to believe for me anyway.
>
> TM> No. Exchange 5.5 has a binary blob which holds almost all data, and a
> TM> few small files around it. Can't remember exactly, and it's not in my
> TM> responsibility anymore.
>
> The good thing is that I don't HAVE TO mess with it, as the first
> steps will be fileserving and backup, as told above ... ;-)
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