Re: Migrating from Exchange 2000 to Postfix

Ben Tisdall wrote: 
Hi,

my gf is the unofficial sysadmin for a small human rights charity and
their box running Exchange server is in urgent need of replacement.
Since:

(a) They don't use the collaborative features of Exchange.

(b) From what research I've done so indicates that restoring the
backed up stores and logs to a fresh install moving the current install to
new iron could be a nightmare


Could it be you got cutoff mid-post...

Some general thoughts....

Postfix is a good solid, secure email MTA (Message Transport Agent - all it does is move email around, not allow people to read it). You can add both anti-spam and anti-virus to it without too much trouble.

You will also need a mail store that Postfix will deliver local users email to and allow them to access it. I like Cyrus, some people prefer Courier. Cyrus stores messages, 1 message per file, with and index. Backing up just means backing up the filestore. Restoring you can just restore a single file or the whole message store - you may need to regenerate the index, a simple job from the command line.

Once in the mail store you can use any POP3 or IMAP4 (both have well supported SSL options for security) client to access it (this bascically covers just about any modern email client, including Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora plus mobile options like Nokia phones, Pocket PC and Blackberry).

I would suggest going for IMAP as the preferred option as the mail stays on the server. That way you get to use web mail clients as well (e.g. SquirrelMail or Horde) and maintain a single coherent view of your email, as well as easing backup & other managemnet issues.

Conversion from one version of Exchange to another is a well established, although not painless process. A lot will depend on how cleanly the current server is configured. Long established systems tend to collect a whole raft of little tweaks which can make migration a real PITA.

Conversion from Exchange to an IMAP based system is reasonably straightforward, if you have the right tools. The simplest way is to use IMAP to move message stores for Exchange to whatever a user at a time - all can be scripted & automated.

B.
.

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