Unix7 and WebMail

[admin]

Unix7 Tuesday 7/12/05 at 11:00 PM ET

We will be repartitioning the root drive on Unix7. The repartioning is being done so we may implement additional security measures not possible on single partition servers. It will also help the server to better withstand attacks and the effects of poor coding. This will entail the following steps:

1. Power down server
2. Remove the server from the rack
3. Insert new drive
4. Remount server in rack
5. Boot server
6. Partition new drive
7. Format new drive
8. Mount new partitions
9. Copy data from old drive to new drive
10. Edit fstab on new etc partition
11. Unmount partitions
12. Copy boot sector to new drive
13. Power down server
14. Remove server from rack
15. Remove old root drive
16. Move new root drive into proper place
17. Remount server in rack
18. Boot server

The total time for the upgrade should be 50-60 minutes. Total downtime for Unix7 should be 25-35 minutes.

*****

Webmail Friday 7/15/05 at 11:00PM ET

We will be upgrading @Mail from version 3.64 to version 4.1. The upgrade will entail upgrading the @Mail web files as well as the database backend. In addition to the upgrade, we will also be adding a second web server to the webmail cluster. The software upgrade plus the addition of the second web server will help make the webmail system more responsive and stable with improved features. The webmail upgrade should take approximately two to three hours. During this time, the webmail system will not be online. The addition of the second web server can be done at any point after the @Mail upgrade. There should not be a significant amount of downtime associated with adding the second web server.

[kattouf]

I think it was about time to do something about atmail, but i thought it wasn't going to be.

Just this friday i bought and spent all day customizing dwmail, now i am not so sure if i want two webmails. :-( Do you think the second webmail server will speed things up? i am getting many complaints recenlty....

thanks.

[sansond]

Does anyone have a list of the upgrades or new features for the new @mail?

[Brangwyn]

Its on atmails website

[admin]

Well the nice thing is we will be up to date on webmail, they say that allown may help a lot. But we are moving in to the multi-server install here is a lay out of whats to come.

1 mysql DB server
2 Apache Front end servers.

Because we have unlimited number of backend servers and front end server we will be able to use, if 2 front ends do not fix it we will add a 3rd.

In the end our goal will be 2 to 6. 2 mysql server and 6 frontend servers all dual zeons. This should allow use to take more then 300,000 users and 2.4 million logins per week right now we are about 70,000 logins per week.

This should make @mail very fast. I am sure you guys have noticed the CP being much faster, it's time to get webmail like that as well.

[Vidvandre]

The planned upgrades to the webmail sounds great! It hasn't always been a pleasure to use the current web interface. Both the upgrade of @Mail and the back-end servers upgrades sounds very promising!

Originally Posted by sansond

Does anyone have a list of the upgrades or new features for the new @mail?

Originally Posted by Brangwyn

Its on atmails website

Well hidden, but I eventually found the changelogs for 4.0 adn 4.1...

The last page also has a "what's ahead" section (near the bottom), which at least sounds promising. Hopefully they'll find the time to further improve x-browser compatibility of @mail as well...

Will Vortech be installing forthcomming updates when they're made availible? If so, I might push/help CalaCode resolve some issues with @Mail/Opera...

[Vidvandre]

Also noticed that the new version has several additional features in addition to the core email features (scheduler/calendar, SA integration, shared contacts, etc). Just wondering which of these (if any) will be availible on the Vortech servers?

[Brangwyn]

Bare in mind some of those features are only available if your also running atmails backend mail server .. just which features rely on that I'm not sure, but I suspect things like Spam Assasin may well not be available.

[Vidvandre]

Originally Posted by Brangwyn

Bare in mind some of those features are only available if your also running atmails backend mail server .. just which features rely on that I'm not sure, but I suspect things like Spam Assasin may well not be available.

That's why I'm wondering/asking... A clarification if @mail will be continuously updated or not, would be very appreciated. This will most probably have some influence on the amount of work I put into a custom webmail installation...

Although I couldn't care less about most of the [additional] features, integrated SA would be very nice. Though it's not a big deal. Would be nice with an overview of which features would be available, but I guess I'll just wait and see. I'm in no kind of hurry, especially given that it's 30+ (Celsius) here and I'm working in slow-motion...

[admin]

Yea things that are something that goes along with "there" mail server will not work or be enabled in our system. E.g. SA with in @mail will not work since we run our own mail servers and SA installs.

[obj]

Is there any danger that customers may loose stored mail? I have several customers who are paranoid with Outlook etc. and use webmail instead. Should I warn them?

Thanks.

[admin]

Should not lose anything in the @mail upgrade, but I would warn them. If they have mail stored some how in @mail it might be best to back it up. Just incase. It is a big upgrade.

[dpyers]

Is the unix7 work still on for tonight?

[admin]

Yes sir.

[admin]

unix7 is still on for 11:00Pm tonight. I just wanted to bump this post.