SAS Computing LPS email migration checklist

Things to consider for migrating an account to the new server:

• Is this a group account?

  Group accounts are not supported on the new server; they will remain on mail.sas.

  Only "person" accounts can be migrated.
  
  
• Does the person use a command line mail program such as elm, pine, or mutt?

  Pine and mutt are available on the new server. They are preconfigured to connect to new imap mail server. People who wish to use them need a shell account on the new system. If a user's web site on mail.sas gets migrated to the new system (see below), he or she automatically gets a shell account. Otherwise, after his/her migration, the user needs to request a shell account via the factaff account maintenance page. The account will generally be ready 20 minutes after the use submits the request.

  Other command line mail programs, including elm, are not available on the new machine. Users who want to keep on using such a program need to stay on the current system.

  
  
• Does the person use a command line news reader program such as trn or tin?

  Tin is available on the new server. People who wish to use tin need a shell account on the new system. If a user's web site on mail.sas gets migrated to the new system (see below), he or she automatically gets a shell account. Otherwise, after his/her migration, the user needs to request a shell account via the factaff account maintenance page. The account will generally be ready 20 minutes after the use submits the request.

  Trn and other news reader programs are not available on the new machine. Users who want to keep on using such a program need to stay on the current system.

• Does the person use POP?

  POP is not supported on the new server. People who want to move to the new server must migrate to imap. Users who want to keep on using POP will need to stay on the current system.

  
  
• Does the user have his/her own filter and spam rules?

  Elm filter, procmail, and spam rules will not be migrated to the new server. User will be able to recreate their blacklist, whitelist, and spam threshold via the account maintenance web page. If they want to migrate their procmail rules, please contact wks@sas.upenn.edu so we can look at them and decide if/how it can be done. Elm filter rules cannot be migrated since elm is not available on the new server.

  
  
• Does the user maintain email lists by editing files on mail.sas?

  Mailing lists are not available on the new server; they remain on mail.sas.

  All "regular" mailing lists and some majordomo lists are maintained by editing files on mail.sas.

  For people who want to migrate to new server and maintain lists this way, their LSP should email wks@sas.upenn.edu. A decision on how best to handle the situation will be made on a case by case basis. One possibility is to open a "group" account on mail.sas for the purpose of maintaining the list. This account should not be used for email (indeed, it will most likely not be able to receive email).

  
  
• Does the person use a shared imap folder?

  Shared imap folders are not supported on the new server.

  On mail.sas, shared imap folder files are owned by a faculty. If a faculty who has such files wants to migrate to the new server, their LSP should email wks@sas.upenn.edu. A decision on how best to handle the situation will be made on a case by case basis. The shared imap folder would most likely be replaced by an alias.

  
  
• How long can the user be without access to their email?

  During the migration process, users will not be able to access their email. The migration time needs to be chosen accordingly.

  Currently, the migration procedure transfer rate is about 1GB/hour. Hence, users who have 1GB or less of email (as estimated when you schedule the migration) can be migrated during the day at a time you choose (between 7am and 5:30pm) and their migration will take about an hour. On the other hand, users with more than 1GB of email will be migrated overnight.

  If the total space used by the person's mail.sas home directory and inbox is more than 1.9GB. the automated migration method can not be used. People with more than 1.9GB can be manually migrated by Workstation Services. When you schedule the migration, you will be informed if the person uses more than 1.9GB and, if he or she does, you wil be asked to email wks@sas.upenn.edu to schedule his/her migration.

  
  
• Does the person use shell commands?

  The login shell on the new server is bash. The shells sh, csh, and tcsh are available, and users can change into one of them at login time by modifying their bash login script.

  Please note that the migration process will not migrate bash settings. The user will be responsible for customizing their shell on the new server.

  
  
• Does the person have a personal web site?

  You can choose to migrate a user's personal web pages to the new server. Users whose web pages get migrated automatically get a shell account on the new system. This account provides access to their web page files via shell commands, and downalods and uploads via scp and sftp.

  
  
• Does the user help maintain departmental, project, or other users' web sites?

  People who do this are mostly LSPs, or research or departmental staff.

  If the user is the only person maintaining a site, the site can be moved to the new server. If there are other people maintaining a site, or if the user maintains several sites, a special account for the user will be created after the migration. This account will enable the user to keep on maintaining the sites, but should not be used for email (indeed, it will not be able to receive email). The username for the account will be "m_NNNN", with "NNNN" the person's PennKey (their email account username), or the first 6 characters of person's PennKey if it is longer than 6 characters.