Phew

A big day and busy week! Moving to live customer testing on the database/directory project that has been in the works for the past few months, the Excelerate Conference site has their schedule of events calendar ready to go and should be completed and launched today, I have the mail server set up and ready to go and am actively transferring about 40,000 emails (from one client) to it using a new IMAP migration script I completed yesterday. I’m also doing wine labels for the wedding, prepping another new computer to donate to the Fraser Valley Humane Society,  and tonight will be migrating the final 3 domains and 30 email users to the new server. The plug will be pulled on the old one tomorrow. We aren’t even halfway through July here, people!

IMAP Migration PHP Script

So after a bit of digging I was able to complete a working IMAP mailbox-to-mailbox migration script to help move accounts between servers. A lot of time and effort will be saved, as it is run directly on the server rather than linking your mail client to two accounts and transferring it using drag and drop. You can use it to sync your emails using IMAP, however it won’t check if emails already exist before transferring, so you will end up with duplicates.

It uses imap_append (part of php) including the 5th date variable so there is a 1:1 copy of your email between both servers. The only downside to it at this point is script timeouts and running out of memory on the server, as it uses quite a lot. If you limit it to 1000 emails at a time it has no issues.

Here’s the PHP script if you want to try it out:

<?php

$fromMboxServerPath = “{servera.com/notls/imap:143}”;
$fromMboxMailboxPath = “INBOX”;

$toMboxServerPath = “{serverb.com/notls/imap:143}”;
$toMboxMailboxPath = “INBOX”;

$fromMboxMailAddress = “username”;
$fromMboxMailPass = “password”;

$toMboxMailAddress = “username”;
$toMboxMailPass = “password”;

$fromMboxConnStr = $fromMboxServerPath.$fromMboxMailboxPath;
$toMboxConnStr = $toMboxServerPath.$toMboxMailboxPath;

//Increment these (ie: 1001 to 2000) to continue transferring
$fetchStartSeq = 1;
$fetchEndSeq = 1000;

function myLog($str)
{
echo “Log [“.date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’).”]: $str\n<BR>”;
}

myLog(“Connecting to mailbox”);

function mboxConn($connstr,$addr,$pass)
{
if(!($mbox = @imap_open($connstr, $addr, $pass)))
{
myLog(“Error: “.imap_last_error());
die;
}
else
{
myLog(“Connected to: $addr $connstr”);
return $mbox;
}
}

function mboxCheck($mbox)
{
if(!($mbox_data = imap_check($mbox)))
{
myLog(“Error: “.imap_last_error());
die;
}
else
{
myLog(“Mailbox check “.$mbox_data->Mailbox.” OK”);
myLog($mbox_data->Nmsgs.” messages present”);
return $mbox_data->Nmsgs;
}
}

$fromMbox = mboxConn($fromMboxConnStr, $fromMboxMailAddress, $fromMboxMailPass);
$toMbox = mboxConn($toMboxConnStr, $toMboxMailAddress, $toMboxMailPass);

$fromMboxCount = mboxCheck($fromMbox);
$toMboxCount = mboxCheck($toMbox);

/**
* Loop on mails
*/

$fetchStartUID = imap_uid($fromMbox,$fetchStartSeq);
if ($fromMboxCount < $fetchEndSeq)
{
$fetchEndSeq = $fromMboxCount;
}
$fetchEndUID = imap_uid($fromMbox,$fetchEndSeq);

/**
* Loop on mails
*/

myLog(“Do stuff and backup from UID [$fetchStartUID] to UID [$fetchEndUID]”);

for ($i=$fetchStartSeq;$i<=$fetchEndSeq;$i++)
{
$pfx = “Msg #$i : “;
$h = imap_header($fromMbox, $i);
$fh = imap_fetchheader($fromMbox, $i);
$headerinfo = imap_headerinfo($fromMbox, $i);
$internal_date=date(‘d-M-Y H:i:s O’,$headerinfo->udate); //important!
$fb = imap_body($fromMbox, $i);
$message = $fh.$fb;

$msgUID = imap_uid($fromMbox,$i);

$struct = imap_fetchstructure ($fromMbox, $i);

/**
* We do some logging
*/

myLog($pfx.”Date: [“.$internal_date.”]”);
myLog($pfx.”UID [“.$msgUID.”] SEQ [“.imap_msgno($fromMbox,$msgUID).”] Flags: [“. $h->Unseen . $h->Recent . $h->Deleted . $h->Answered . $h->Draft . $h->Flagged.”]”);
myLog($pfx.”From: [“. htmlspecialchars($h->fromaddress) . “] To: [“.htmlspecialchars($h->toaddress).”]”);
myLog($pfx.”Subject: [$h->subject]”);

/**
* Transfer email using imap_append – All will be marked as read using 4th variable SEEN
*/
if (!($ret = imap_append($toMbox,$toMboxServerPath.$toMboxMailboxPath,$message,”\SEEN”,$internal_date)))
{
myLog(“Error: “.imap_last_error());
die;
}
else
{
myLog(“everything ok, mail [$fetchStartUID:$fetchEndUID] downloaded and moved in $newMailboxNameMOVE”);
}
}

/**
* End
*/

imap_close($fromMbox);
imap_close($toMbox);

myLog(“Connection closed”);

?>

Tech Support

Arguing with tech support yesterday and today – trying to explain to them that emails can be sent between accounts on the same server, which bypasses any spam filtering I have in place. They don’t get it.

This is one of the reasons I’m moving servers. I also won’t have to ask to remove blacklisted IPs, increase storage space, fix email problems, etc. It will be great all around to have this much control over everything, rather than going through intermediate tech support in India that needs you to explain every little detail.

Softaculous

I set up Softaculous on the server today. Did you know it’s only $12 a year? Only $1 a month, to save the amount of time and effort each manually created WordPress installation takes. Not to say there’s not still time involved but it is considerably less, and absolutely worth that amount.

New Server

After a lot of searching and comparison, I’ve decided to purchase a new VPS server for my clients and my own personal sites. I’ve run into a few email issues in the past few months, and despite the fact I’ve been with d9 for three years, and their service is great, I need to think about what’s best for the 50 or so domains I currently host and manage. A VPS means faster sites, more bandwidth, and more control overall of the server. I look forward to setting everything up and moving everyone over!

Hello world!

Ah yes, a little cliche, but that’s what you get from a developer.