Migrations

What is a migration?

A migration is an operation that allows you to transfer the contents of one or more email accounts from a mail server to Qboxmail systems in a batch, through a specially configured CSV file. This makes the transferring procedure of your messages easy and fast.

Migrations transfer all messages from an old server to Qboxmail and replicate all tree structures of the folders and subfolders eventually created in the old server.

Who can make a migration?

Migrations can be carried out by an admin, a team member or a manager authorized to oversee the domains.

What do you need to carry out a migration?

To perform a migration, the original mail server must allow access to messages via IMAP and you must prepare a specially configured CSV file.

Creating a CSV file for the migration

To perform a migration, you need to create a special CSV file. The file needs to contain the usernames and passwords to access the email accounts that you wish to move from the old server to Qboxmail.

If you know the passwords of the email accounts you want to migrate, then you can carry out a standard migration. Otherwise, you can carry out a migration with Master User, if the functionality is supported by the server of origin.

The CSV file can support a maximum of 500 lines. Each customer can schedule a maximum of 5 migrations simultaneously.

If you do not know the users' passwords and your server supports the IMAP Master User, you can transfer the contents of the email accounts even without knowing their password. In this case, you will need to create a CSV file following the migration instructions with Master User.

If you do not know the passwords of the accounts and your remote server does not have the Master User function, contact our technical support.

CSV file for standard migration

To perform a standard migration, you need to create a CSV file wherein each email account that you wish to migrate must be identified with 4 fields, divided by the ; field separator (semicolon). Should the elements of a field contain a semicolon, then the fields must be enclosed by a ” (double quote) text separator.

You must always specify the hostname or IP of the remote IMAP server that will connect to the Qboxmail server to download the messages.

Follow the specifications in the file 0-ENG-README-MIGRATION.txt that you can find in: Migrations.zip.

We recommend that you always specify an IP address, as the hostname may change due to changes to the DNS.

email@local;imap-server-remote;email@remote;pwdremote

If the remote server has a username different from the email address, you can specify it in the CSV at the "email @ remote" field.

Once the CSV file has been generated, we recommend you to always open it with a text editor (ex. Notepad) to verify its correctness.

CSV file for migration with Master User

Performing a migration with Master User allows you to transfer the contents of email accounts without knowing their passwords. To perform a migration with Master User, you need to create a CSV file wherein each email account that you wish to migrate must be identified with 5 fields, divided by the ; field separator (semicolon). Should the elements of a field contain a semicolon, then the fields must be enclosed by a ” (double quote) text separator.

You must always specify the hostname or IP of the remote IMAP server that will connect to the Qboxmail server to download the messages.

Follow the specifications in the file 0-ENG-README-MIGRATION.txt that you can find in: Migrations.zip.

We recommend that you always specify an IP address, as the hostname may change due to changes to the DNS.

email@local;imap-server-remote;email@remote;pwd-user-master;master-user-name

If the remote server has a username different from the email address, you can specify it in the CSV at the "email @ remote" field.

Once the CSV file has been generated, we advise you to always open it with a text editor (ex. Notepad) to verify its correctness.

Performing a migration

To perform a migration, click on the Migrations entry in the control panel sidebar and click on the + Migration button. Then, complete the steps to plan the procedure.

• Migrations > + Migration

1. Select the type of remote server that you wish to move the messages from (e.g. Standard, Gmail, Exchange, Office 365);

   The access and IMAP settings may vary between different providers and servers.

2. Load the CSV file that you previously prepared;
3. Set a date and time to start the first migration;
4. At the end of the first run, you will receive a confirmation email so that you can change your MX records;

   We recommend you to change the MX records at the end of the first run, so that the second run can transfer the remaining e-mails arrived in the meantime to the old server.

5. Choose when to run the second migration (up to a maximum of 23 hours from the first one).

You can either set the date and time when to start the migration, or you can choose to immediately begin to migrate your messages with the option Run first migration as soon as possible.

The messages in the following folders will not be migrated: Trash, Spam, Junk Email and any single message that is larger than 50MB.

To complete the procedure click, on the Migrate button. Once the planning process is completed, the migration will be visible on your Migrations list.

If the migration has been successfully planned, it will be performed at the scheduled time and you will receive an email alert when finished.

In case of errors, the Qboxmail server will connect to the IMAP server indicated in the CSV file to attempt authentication. If this fails, an error message will appear. Before being able to plan a new migration, you will need to verify any issues with the accounts or the remote server as indicated in the error message.

Migration errors are generally due to incorrect user name or password, IMAP protocol support from the remote server, or incorrect remote server IP address.

To see the log info of each account involved in both executions, just access the list of migration resources.

• Migrations > Migration resource number > Migration resource > Log 1 or 2

Migrations list

The Migrations list contains all the migrations added to the Qboxmail systems belonging to an admin, with all related information. To view the list of migration, click on the Migrations entry in the control panel sidebar.

The Migrations list includes the following information:

• Status of the migration;
• Name of the user who requested the migration;
• Migration code;
• Type of migration;
• Number of resources to be migrated;
• Scheduled date for conducting the first migration;
• Scheduled date for conducting the second migration.

By accessing the migrations resource list, you will be able to see all the details about the accounts in the migration CSV file and their results or errors.

• Migrations > Migration resource number > Migration resource > Log 1 or 2

Delete a migration

To delete a migration within the Migrations list, click on the Trash button corresponding to the migration info that you wish to delete, confirming the operation by clicking on the Delete action within the modal.

• Migrations > Migration name > Trash > Delete

A migration in progress cannot be deleted. Contact our technical support for more information.

Migrations older than 30 days are automatically deleted.

When do MX records need to be changed?

Make sure to plan multiple migrations with a time frame of at least 4 to 8 hours between one another. This way, you will be able to change the MX records of your domain and prevent the loss of eventual new messages received by your accounts during the execution of the first migration.

At the end of the first migration, the Qboxmail server will send you an e-mail alert, so you can change the MX records and redirect the accounts to the Qboxmail servers. Therefore, when the second migration takes place, eventual messages received by the old server during the procedure will be transferred successfully.

Migrating from MS365

This procedure applies to MS365 accounts protected by OAuth2 authentication.

In order to migrate from MS365, you need to create an App Registration, and contact our technical support. Send them your CSV file, with the following two additional fields:

Your CSV file will have the following fields:

email@local;imap-server-remote;email@remote;pwdremote;client_ID;client_secret