Mail Migration to CS Central Mail Server
by Hanz Makmur - Last Modified: April 18, 2006


As part of the move to the central mail server, some users will want to have his/her old mail be moved to the new server. Since program to read old email (mm for instance) may not be available at all in the future, this will ensure that old mail will still be readble with some mail program. This document will describe steps needed to completely migrate a user's current email from the legacy mail server to the new centralized server.

These instructions will be divided into three sections. One section will describe preparation instruction for current users of emacs based mail client also known as rmail. The second section describes preparation instructions for current users of MM, Mail, Pine, or current mail client that utilized POP3 or IMAP protocol to read email. The third section will describe the actual migration process.

Important:
  • Before migrating your mail, make sure that you already created a new mail account on the CS Central Mail Server - dragon.rutgers.edu.
  • For the migration to work correctly, your password on dragon and on the old server must be the same. This is the default setting for people who created their dragon account themselves.

    • I. Preparation for Users of rmail or emacs based mail client.

    If you are using emacs rmail to read your email, you need to follow these instructions to prepare for the migration process. It is important that you follow this steps before you start the migration process.

    Before any of your RMAIL formatted email can be migrated to the new Central Mail Server, it needs to be converted to MBX format.   Please do these steps below on the actual mail server machine like 
    aramis.rutgers.edu, research.rutgers.edu, paul.rutgers.edu or
remus.rutgers.edu
    If you are not sure what your mail server is, send mail to help@cs.rutgers.edu.

    To make sure all email are migrated, don't forget to read any new mail on this mail server before doing steps below.

    Step 1. Create a new folder or directory in your home directory and call it Mail.
    You can do this by typing: (excluding the % sign) 

    % mkdir ~/Mail
    Step 2. Convert your current rmail file(s) to mbx format and store the resulting format in the directory.
    % /usr/local/bin/formail -B -s < rmail_formated_file > ~/Mail/mbx_formatted_file
    where the rmail_formatted_file is replaced with the actual name of the rmail file and mbx_formatted_file is replaced with the name you want to call the output file. It is OK to name the output file the same as the input file.
    Repeat step 2 for every rmail file you have. For example: 
    % /usr/local/bin/formail -B -s < personal > ~/Mail/personal
% /usr/local/bin/formail -B -s < CS314 > ~/Mail/CS314
    When you finish converting all your rmail files to mbx format files,  continue on to Section III. Migration Process below.


    II. Preparation for Users of MM, Mail, Pine, POP3 or IMAP based clients.

     If you are using MM, Mail, Pine, POP3 or IMAP based clients, you will need to follow steps in this section to complete your mail migration.  

    In order to migrate your current mail files to the new Central Mail Server, you need to gather all your mail files into one directory or folder.  Please login to your unix account and move all your current mail files into one directory or folder. Make sure you name the directory or folder: Mail or mail or Mailbox or mailbox. Don't forget to read any new mail on this mail server and store it in the same folder as well.

    Once you finished gathering the mail into one folder,  follows section III. Migration Process below.


    III.  Migration Process.
    After gathering your old mail files, your next step is to start the migration process by going to the migration website http://dragon.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/migrate.pl



    The website will ask you for the name of your mail server (example: aramis.rutgers.edu) and the name of the folder or directory described in preparation step above.(example: Mail)

    Select your server and folder, enter your username and password and click the Go button.

    Pressing the Go button will queue your migration request into the system and it will start the migration process immediately. Depending on the size of your current mail files, this process may take a few seconds to minutes. At the completion of the migration process, you will received an email message describing the status of the migration.

     Once you are sure that all your old mail have been migrated to the new server, you may delete the old mail files in the old server folder to gain more disk quota on your unix account.

    If you have questions or need helps, please email: help@cs.rutgers.edu


      
    For more information see:

  • Email Transition Announcement
  • What is dragon?
  • Dragon features
  • How Do I get an account on dragon?
  • What to expect once you get a dragon mail account
  • Frequenty Asked Questions.
  • Mail Expiration Warning Optout