> Stupid Question: I have about 50 web sites and a few hundred e-mail accounts to move to a new > server. New IP address, etc... Web sites are no problem, but I do not want my clients to > notice any problems with e-mail. They have IMAP available, so many of the clients store their > e-mail on the server. > > Any ideas on how to move the e-mail accounts seamlessly. I have all their MX records pointing > to one address: mail.dailydata.net. > > I have rsync'd all the files over, and can do it again whenever, but that won't work as they > will be checking their mail on one machine while, I assume, some might be delivered to the > other, older server (I was planning on keeping the old server up a few days in case I screw > up). > > Guess is boils down to this. When I update the address of mail.dailydata.net, it can take up > to 72 hours for that change to perculate throughout the net, so I'm assuming some places will > still try to send to the old IP and, if I leave that box on, be delivered to it. If I turn the > other box off, I'm assuming they will bounce.
You could set the refresh-, retry-, expire- and minimum-values in your dns-zone-file to low values (at least 72 hours before you change the mx-entry). When you choose an expire-value of 2h, your changes will take effect throughout the net within 2 hours. I never tried this out, but it works in theory:) Michael Kreilmeier.
