Hi everyone,

I'm switching to a new VPS provider and am looking to transfer all my data over. While I have no trouble moving databases and files, I'm not quite sure how to transfer pending emails (not yet downloaded from server as well as pending but not yet sent) and Horde email accounts to the new server. I believe my server uses qmail.

Is it is simple as copying a particular set of directories? Both VPS providers should be on roughly the same version of Plesk. If it is this simple, how would I download the appropriate files from my old server and place them on my new server? SSH? A global administrator FTP account?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. At this point I just want to make sure no emails are lost and that I can make a smooth transition by copying all email related items over.

Thanks,
- Matt.

Why not use Plesk backup and restore?
Details: http://download1.sw-soft.com/Plesk/Plesk7.1/Doc/html/plesk-7-reloaded-backup-restore/index.html

Or, if both providers using Virtuozzo, you may be able to use it's backup/restore features.

I'd thought about that, but worry about any corruption from my existing/old VPS provider being passed over to my new VPS provider. From what I've been reading, it looks like I can fairly easily just copy any files and directories over for qmail, but I'll do a backup first just in case.

Thanks for the reply!

I believe qmail uses Maildir, at least by default, so you'll have to copy the Maildir directory in each user's home directory over to the new server, and set up permissions appropriately. Your Horde data (configurations and such) are probably stored in a database.

Thanks error404. I'll try that soon and will see how it works. Ideally it would be nice to merge in any new emails and settings from the old VPS email and Horde. I'm assuming Horde reads email directly from qmail and does not store its own copy?

that's right. just check your mailserver connection log - each time someone is checking their mail through webmail a connection from localhost is being created.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I was able to get my email transferred over. Thanks! I ended up using sftp to transfer from one server to the other. I did end up having to change permissions to 644 or emails would not show up in Horde webmail.

Considering how little I knew about qmail and Horde before, I feel like I've learned a lot!