how to uninstall dovecot?
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toml
Verified User
It is not an easy thing to do, but the gist of it is to remove dovecot from startup (chkconfig --del dovecot on RedHat systems). Add UW-IMAP and vm-pop3d to startup
undo the patch from /usr/local/directadmin/customapache/exim.conf.dovecot.patch
That is the easy part the hard part is to get all your emails back to mbox format.
All files in
I think I got all the folders and names correct. Where you see [cur|new], that means there is a cur directory and a new directory that news to be processed. The -> means that all files from the left side need to be concatenated to the file on the right side, preferablly in date order.
This can be done, but I don't recommend doing it, without thorough testing on a non-production system.
Code:
cd /usr/local/directadmin/scripts
rpm -ivh da_vm-pop3d-*.rpm
./imapd.shThat is the easy part the hard part is to get all your emails back to mbox format.
All files in
Code:
$HOME/Maildir/[cur|new] -> /var/mail/${username}
$HOME/imap/${domainname}/${username}/Maildir/[cur|new]
-> /var/spool/virtual/${domainname}/${username}
$HOME/Maildir/.${foldername}/[cur|new]
-> $HOME/Mail/${foldername}
$HOME/imap/${domainname}/${username}/Maildir/.${folders}/[cur|new]
-> $HOME/imap/${domainname}/${username}/${foldername}This can be done, but I don't recommend doing it, without thorough testing on a non-production system.
nobaloney
NoBaloney Internet Svcs - In Memoriam †
We recently tried the mailbox convesion as a test and gave up on it.
In theory all you have to do is take all the files in each of the cur and new directories and place them into a properly named and located mailbox file, ADDING A LINE AT THE TOP OF EACH FILE of the format:
As a practical matter, every time we tried it we managed to have a few emails contacatonated into one in each mailbox we tried it on.
So we gave up.
Jeff
In theory all you have to do is take all the files in each of the cur and new directories and place them into a properly named and located mailbox file, ADDING A LINE AT THE TOP OF EACH FILE of the format:
at the beginning of EACH EMAIL moved into the new file.
As a practical matter, every time we tried it we managed to have a few emails contacatonated into one in each mailbox we tried it on.
So we gave up.
Jeff
nobaloney
NoBaloney Internet Svcs - In Memoriam †
neorder,
Dovecot is working for a lot of people.
And your complaint:
completely?
From reading that I'd have to presume that when you install Dovecot you have to do a baremetal install to get your server working again; that you can't even read the hard disk to see what went wrong.
Is that what happened?
Jeff
Dovecot is working for a lot of people.
And your complaint:
doesn't give us enough information to know anything.
completely?
From reading that I'd have to presume that when you install Dovecot you have to do a baremetal install to get your server working again; that you can't even read the hard disk to see what went wrong.
Is that what happened?
Jeff
chatwizrd
Verified User
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I would like to see proof of this.
BigWil
Verified User
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2004
- Messages
- 296
What kind of "crashes" are you talking about? Server is powered down, exploited, kernel panic, congestion, all of the above? How do you define "crashes my system completely"?
We used to pay for a mail gateway solution but it got rather expensive. Since taking on the full load of our email we have seen kernel panics. We just haven't identified whether it is dovecot or exim activity doing it as it leaves no errors behind just kernel dumps. Even then one machine doesn't dump properly.
However, when we used pop3d before, the socket congrestion was huge there too. Just no panics. 6 of 1, half a dozen of another. Since dovecot does give the ability for finetuning, and people like Maildir better, I think we are going to stick with that. If I find a good config that makes the panics go away I will share.
BigWil
We used to pay for a mail gateway solution but it got rather expensive. Since taking on the full load of our email we have seen kernel panics. We just haven't identified whether it is dovecot or exim activity doing it as it leaves no errors behind just kernel dumps. Even then one machine doesn't dump properly.
However, when we used pop3d before, the socket congrestion was huge there too. Just no panics. 6 of 1, half a dozen of another. Since dovecot does give the ability for finetuning, and people like Maildir better, I think we are going to stick with that. If I find a good config that makes the panics go away I will share.
BigWil
nobaloney
NoBaloney Internet Svcs - In Memoriam †
BigWill,
You don't say if you've identified a cause of your kernel panics and you don't say if you implement SpamBlocker for all your clients or not. Implementing SpamBlocker3-beta for just my own domain I blocked almost 30,000 emails during the last week. And accepted for my own domain only 4,032.
My suggestion is that using SpamBlocker3-beta to block all the Spam and Viruses at receipt time will do a lot to cut your exim load. I'm going to post some statistics soon on my site, and will create a link in the SpamBlocker3 threads.
Jeff
You don't say if you've identified a cause of your kernel panics and you don't say if you implement SpamBlocker for all your clients or not. Implementing SpamBlocker3-beta for just my own domain I blocked almost 30,000 emails during the last week. And accepted for my own domain only 4,032.
My suggestion is that using SpamBlocker3-beta to block all the Spam and Viruses at receipt time will do a lot to cut your exim load. I'm going to post some statistics soon on my site, and will create a link in the SpamBlocker3 threads.
Jeff
hostpc.com
Verified User
I've got Dovecot running on more than 125 servers for over a year (since day 1 of da rollout actually) and NEVER had a significant issue with it - let alone crash.
Hi all,
Sorry, I got lost in here somewhere.
The crashing parts of this thread were from a year ago. Does anyone know if by following these steps:
cd /usr/local/directadmin/scripts
rpm -ivh da_vm-pop3d-*.rpm
./imapd.sh
And editing /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf and making dovecot = "0"
Given that DA keeps the mbox files, is that all that is needed to get it back to vm-pop3d?
Sorry, I got lost in here somewhere.
The crashing parts of this thread were from a year ago. Does anyone know if by following these steps:
cd /usr/local/directadmin/scripts
rpm -ivh da_vm-pop3d-*.rpm
./imapd.sh
And editing /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf and making dovecot = "0"
Given that DA keeps the mbox files, is that all that is needed to get it back to vm-pop3d?
nobaloney
NoBaloney Internet Svcs - In Memoriam †
I don't know if it'll work or not, but in any event it won't convert back any emails that have been received since the conversion to Dovecot; they'll already be in the Maildir format mailboxes.
Jeff
Jeff
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2003
- Messages
- 8,139
Hello,
As mentioned in the install guide for dovecot, it is a one-way trip.
In theory, you can return back to mbox, but we dont have scripts for it.
Also, if you still have your old mbox files in /var/spool/virtual/*, then the process would become easier.
Things that would have to be done:
1) Tell DA not to use dovecot. Set:
dovecot=0
in your /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf, and restart DA.
2) revert all /etc/virtual/passwd files. This is fairly simple if you know how to use per regex's.. basically you take the 7 columsn (colon separated) and only keep the first 2 columns. Eg, change:
user
ass:uid:gid::/path:/bin/false
to
userass
by hacking off the end of it.
3) stop the dovecot service. Remove dovecot=ON from /usr/local/directadmin/data/admin/services.status as well.
4) reinstall vm-pop3d and imapd.
cd /usr/local/directadmin/scripts
./exim.sh
and get a fresh exim.conf while you're at it:
http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=51
obviously, don't repatch for dovecot.
5) If you *did* delete the mbox files.. then you'd need to recreate all missing domain directories in /var/spool/virtual/*
John
As mentioned in the install guide for dovecot, it is a one-way trip.
In theory, you can return back to mbox, but we dont have scripts for it.
Also, if you still have your old mbox files in /var/spool/virtual/*, then the process would become easier.
Things that would have to be done:
1) Tell DA not to use dovecot. Set:
dovecot=0
in your /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf, and restart DA.
2) revert all /etc/virtual/passwd files. This is fairly simple if you know how to use per regex's.. basically you take the 7 columsn (colon separated) and only keep the first 2 columns. Eg, change:
user
ass:uid:gid::/path:/bin/falseto
user
assby hacking off the end of it.
3) stop the dovecot service. Remove dovecot=ON from /usr/local/directadmin/data/admin/services.status as well.
4) reinstall vm-pop3d and imapd.
cd /usr/local/directadmin/scripts
./exim.sh
and get a fresh exim.conf while you're at it:
http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=51
obviously, don't repatch for dovecot.
5) If you *did* delete the mbox files.. then you'd need to recreate all missing domain directories in /var/spool/virtual/*
John
BigWil
Verified User
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2004
- Messages
- 296
Jeff,
No still haven't identified whether it is dovecot or exim causing the panics. Yes we implemented SB3 while it was still in beta on all machines. Been using it a long time and yes it does work wonders on spam.
I didn't reply here expecting an answer to the panic problems. I was merely commenting on the previous "server crash" issues and like you didn't realize they were a full year old. Disregard.
BigWil