How do I move Kerio Connect from one machine to another (or change Operating Systems)?

Article Number: 360 | Rating: 4.3/5 from 4 votes | Last Updated: Wed, Aug 17, 2011 2:05 PM

Summary

This article also covers how to change operating systems for Kerio Connect.

Details

The files that you need to keep or export are mailserver.cfg, users.cfg, license.key, and the Store folder. These files will contain your email messages, configuration, license information, and user accounts stored on the server.

By default the files you need are located here:

Mac OSX: /usr/local/kerio/mailserver/
Red Hat/SuSE: /opt/kerio/mailserver/
Windows: C:\Program Files\Kerio\MailServer\

They are also included in your backups, if you use the Kerio backup system.

Do the following to move Kerio Connect from one computer to another:

Install Kerio Connect on the new machine.
Disconnect the old server running Kerio Connect from the network.
Stop the Kerio Connect process on the new machine.
Move the Kerio Connect configuration and data files
The two methods for moving the Kerio Connect configuration files and the store directory are described below. The first method involves using existing (and a new differential) backup files that are moved to the new machine. The second method requires compressing the store directory and moving it with the configuration files to the new server.

Method 1: Using the backup and recovery feature (Recommended)

Using a Kerio Connect backup involves preparing and moving all necessary backup files from the old machine to the new machine:

Stop the services for the mailserver, to freeze your message store in it's current state; but still allowing you full access to the administration console. To do this, log in to the admin console, go to Services, then right-click and stop each of the services.
Copy the latest full and your newly-created differential backup (Files starting with F and I .zip) files, or your manual backupfiles (Starting with C)from the old machine to a folder on the new machine.
Execute the kmsrecover command to do a full recovery according to the instructions in section 15.3 of the Kerio Connect Administrator's guide. Be sure to enter the new folder (where the backup .zip files have been copied) as the last argument of the kmsrecover command.

Method 2: Compressing the store

This method is for IT professionals and is not supported by Kerio Technical Support beyond repeating what is stated below.

Copy and overwrite the mailserver.cfg and users.cfg files to the new machine. Then copy and overwrite the Store folder from the old machine to the new machine. Note: It is recommended that you first compress the Store folder, move it to the new machine and uncompress it into the correct location. This will reduce any issues that may occur with timestamps, file permissions and data corruption when copying the files over the network. To do this you will need to:

Compress the store folder with a cross-platform compression option.
Move the compressed file from the original machine to the new machine.
Uncompress the file into the correct MailServer directory.
Move over your sslcert folder if you did previously create or import an SSL certificate.
Delete the contents of the folder "/Store/SpamAssassin/Bayes."

You will need to re-register your licensewhen moving from one operating system to another. Instructions for license registration are available in section 5.2 of the Kerio Connect Administrator's guide

Other considerations:

If you are authenticating users to a directory service, make sure to join the new server to the domain.
If the Store, Archive, Backup or Logs folders will be located on a different hard drive or folder (or if Kerio Connect has been moved to a different operating system) then you will need to edit the mailserver.cfg file. To do that, use a text editor (e.g. Wordpad) to update the directory path for the following items to their correct location on the new computer/operating system:
<variable name="StoreDir">/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/store</variable>
<variable name="ArchiveDir">/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/store/archive</variable>
<variable name="BackupDir">/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/store/backup</variable>
<variable name="RelativePathsRoot">/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/store/logs/</variable>

The above directory paths are for Macintosh systems and are only examples. Your paths will likely be different, so please check you have the full and correct path.

Start Kerio Connect on the new server.If the Kerio Connect service on the new server will not start, please double-check you have specified the correct paths as above.

Verify mail can be read, sent and received. Verify any other functions needed, such as public folders and calendars.

When Kerio Connect is running on the new machine, make sure that MX records, IP addresses (Internal and External)and other network details (such as Firewall NAT configurations)are set properly to match the old server.

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