Note: This article also covers how to change operating systems for Kerio MailServer.

Answer

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, mailserver configurations, 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\

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

1. Install KMS on the new machine.
2. Shut down KMS on old machine.
3. Stop the new Kerio MailServer process on the new machine.


4. Move the KMS configuration files and store directory

The two methods for moving KMS configuration files and the store directory are described below. The first method involves compressing the store directory and moving it and the configuration files to the new server. The second method uses existing (and a new incremental) backup files that are moved to the new machine.

Method 1: Compressing the store

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:


1. Compress the store folder with a cross-platform compression option. gzip is the recommended compression standard to use, which is available from the command line on both Linux and Mac OS X. If using Windows, WinRAR can be used which is a free utility.
2. Move the file from the original machine to the new machine.
3. Uncompress the file into the correct MailServer directory.

Method 2: Using a KMS backup

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

1. Run a final differential backup on the old machine to save any emails sent since the last differential backup. To do this, in the Admin Console, go to Archiving and Backup → Backup and click on "Add..." and submit a Differential backup to occur in 2-5 minutes from the current time. Upon completion of the differential backup, be sure to remove the differential backup setting just created from the Admin Console.
2. Copy the latest full and your newly-created differential backup (.zip) files from the old machine to a new folder on the new machine.
3. Execute the kmsrecover command to do a full recovery according to the instructions in section 15.3 of the KMS Admin Manual. Be sure to enter the new folder (where the backup .zip files have been copied) as the last argument of the kmsrecover command.


5. You will need to regenerate your license.key file when moving from one operating system to another. To do this visit our license registration page and regenerate a new license.key file. Then copy this to the license folder on the new machine.

   You will also need to do the following additional steps:

   • Move over your sslcert folder if you did perviously create or import an SSL certificate.
   • Delete the contents of the folder "/Store/SpamAssassin/Bayes."
   • If the Store, Archive, Backup or Logs folders will be located on a different hard drive or folder 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:
     • <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>

   Note: The above directory paths are for Macintosh systems and are only examples. Your paths will likely be different.

6. Start the Kerio MailServer.
7. Verify mail can be read, sent and received. Verify any other functions needed.

Important Note: When KMS is running on the new machine, make sure that MX records, IP addresses and other network details are set properly.