[Mailman-Users] migrating mailman lists

Jerold Stratton jerry at sandiego.edu
Wed Jan 3 17:51:47 CET 2007


On Jan 3, 2007, at 5:06 AM, Kelsey Forsythe wrote:
> I've recently moved to a new server.  It is an Xserve G5 running
> 10.4.3 OSX.
> I'd like to migrate the mailman lists from the old server (Xserve G4).
>
> Does anyone have experience migrating lists?
> If so, please let me know what procedure you followed.

My experience was similar to Paul's: dead easy. My steps were  
slightly different; and I had been running the new Xserve with some  
test lists before copying the files over. These are my notes for the  
final switchover:

	on old lists
		mailmanctl stop

	on old list server, copy files to personal workstation:
		sudo rsync -a --delete -e ssh /home/mailman/lists  
user at workstation:Desktop/lists/ --progress
		sudo rsync -a --delete -e ssh /home/mailman/data  
user at workstation:Desktop/lists/ --progress
		sudo rsync -a --delete -e ssh /home/mailman/archives  
user at workstation:Desktop/lists/ --progress


	shutdown old lists hardware

	on new lists:
		--copy from personal workstation to staging area
		sudo rsync -a --delete -e ssh user at workstation:Desktop/lists/lists / 
var/mailman/new --progress
		sudo rsync -a --delete -e ssh user at workstation:Desktop/lists/data / 
var/mailman/new --progress
		sudo rsync -a --delete -e ssh user at workstation:Desktop/lists/ 
archives /var/mailman/new --progress

		--fix staging area
		cd /var/mailman/new
		rm -r lists/mailman
		rm data/adm.pw data/aliases data/aliases.db data/master-qrunner.pid  
data/sitelist.cfg
		sudo chown -R mailman:mailman /var/mailman/new

		--fix symbolic links in public directory
		cd /var/mailman/new/archives/public
		sudo ~/bin/fixlinks *

		--move from staging area to live
		sudo scp -pr /var/mailman/lists /var/mailman/data /var/mailman/ 
archives /Users/cole/mailmanvar
		sudo mv /var/mailman/new/lists/* /var/mailman/lists
		sudo mv /var/mailman/new/data/* /var/mailman/data
		sudo mv /var/mailman/new/archives/* /var/mailman/archives


		--add alias lines to /var/mailman/data/aliases
		--note that I had kept a list of lists in FileMaker, along with the  
necessary aliases for each
		--this is what I copied
		cd
		sudo scp -p user at workstation:Desktop/lists/list_aliases .
		sudo vi /var/mailman/data/aliases
			:r list_aliases
			:wq
		sudo /usr/sbin/postalias /var/mailman/data/aliases

		--update data files
		sudo /usr/share/mailman/bin/update
		sudo bin/withlist -l -a -r fix_url -- -v

		--add IP address (change from test-ip to live-ip)
		sudo changeip - test-ip live-ip
		sudo networksetup -setmanual "Built-in Ethernet 1" live-ip netmask  
gateway
		sudo networksetup -getinfo "Built-in Ethernet 1"

		stop and start postfix from server admin?



The fixlinks script referenced above, because after the copy the  
public alias links didn't work, as they were pointing to the wrong  
directory:
===
#!/usr/bin/perl

$privatebase = "/var/mailman/archives/private";
while ($item = shift) {
         $reallink = "$privatebase/$item";
         print "Changing $item to $reallink\n";
         unlink($item);
         symlink($reallink, $item);
}
===
Jerry
jerry at sandiego.edu
http://home.sandiego.edu/~jerry/
Maher 190/x8773
--
"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing  
that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot  
possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to  
get at and repair."--Douglas Adams (Mostly Harmless)




More information about the Mailman-Users mailing list