Upgrading dbmail

Last week, I upgraded my production imap server from dbmail 2.0.9 to the latest stable 2.2.1. I need to upgrade because there are features I need to use. They are:

1. server-side sorting (fixed after 2.1.7)
2. sieve server-side filter (using dbmail-timsieved daemon)

The upgrade was a risky one. It was a leapfrog from 2.0.x to 2.2.1 by skipping 2.1.x. Many changes since 2.0. Since I did not have a test server so it was important to backup all emails. After too much thought, I decided to give it a go.

Stopping the mail server

These stops all necessary mail-related services. You may not want to stop httpd services to make announcement to users on the website. You have to stop services in order to migrate your system smoothly without bothering emails coming in and out and slow down the whole process.

service postfix stop
service dbmail-imapd stop
service dbmail-lmtpd stop


Backing up all emails
It is important to backup all emails before upgrading process. At least you can revert to previous dbmail if something go wrong.

mysql -u dbmail -p dbmail > dbmail-2.0.9.sql

Source
Download the source from dbmail.org and untar it.

tar xzvf dbmail-2.2.1.tar.gz
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --with-mysql --with-sieve

Note: If you want to use sieve filter (--with-sieve), you have to download libsieve at http://libsieve.sourceforge.net/. Compile it and install.

make
make install

Migrate the database
Use the provided script in sql dir to migrate dbmail tables to make it suitable for 2.2.x

mysql -u dbmail -p dbmail <>

Fix the header

/usr/sbin/dbmail-util -by

If you do not run this command, you will get unknown (for sender) and (no subject) (for subject) for all mails in mail header. Please make sure it is the latest binary you're running by issuing dbmail-util -V.

Please watch any error coming out of the upgrade process. If any, you should consult dbmail mailing list.

That's all there is to it. Restart all the process (or you may want to restart your server). Make sure all the related services start during startup with chkconfig.

dbmail-timsieved init-script
This is a script I make for dbmail-timsieved by modifying dbmail-imapd script. Clever huh? :P

#!/bin/bash
#
# Startup script for the DBMail TimSieve Server
#
# chkconfig: - 81 19
# description: DBMail is a mail server with a database backend. Unlike \
#              WUimapd it does not run through inetd.
# processname: dbmail-timsieved
# pidfile: /var/run/dbmail-timsieved.pid
# config: /etc/dbmail.conf

# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

if [ -f /etc/sysconfig/dbmail ]; then
     . /etc/sysconfig/dbmail
fi

# Path to the dbmail script.
dbmail=/usr/sbin/dbmail-timsieved
prog=dbmail-timsieved
RETVAL=0

start() {
     pid=`pidof $prog`
     if [ -n "$pid" ]
     then
             echo "dbmail timsieved daemon is already running, PID $pid"
     else
             echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
             daemon $dbmail
             RETVAL=$?
             echo
             [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/$prog
             return $RETVAL
     fi
}
stop() {
     echo -n $"Stopping $prog: "
     killproc $dbmail
     RETVAL=$?
     echo
     [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/$prog /var/run/$prog.pid
}
reload() {                                                       
     echo -n $"Reloading $prog: "
     killproc $dbmail -HUP
     RETVAL=$?
     echo
}

# See how we were called.
case "$1" in
start)
     start
     ;;
stop)
     stop
     ;;
status)
     status $dbmail
     RETVAL=$?
     ;;
restart)
     stop
     start
     ;;
condrestart)
     if [ -f /var/run/$prog.pid ] ; then
             stop
             start
     fi
     ;;
reload)
     reload
     ;;
*)
     echo $"Usage: $prog {start|stop|restart|condrestart|reload|status}"
     exit 1
esac

exit $RETVAL