TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

The Linux Qmail module is discontinued and will no longer be available for installation starting from CloudBlue Commerce 21.0. Providers willing to offer mail services need to migrate their customers from Linux Qmail to another mail hosting solution (WebHosting Plesk Mail, for instance).

This article explains how you can detach the Linux Qmail module and unregister all related data from your CloudBlue Commerce installation so that Linux Qmail mailboxes will continue working on service nodes.

Notes: 

  1. The other services of the module, such as mailing lists and anti-virus/anti-spam protection, will also continue working.
  2. If you have Atmail in your system, consult with your technical account manager (TAM) before performing this detachment procedure.

Overview of the Detachment Procedure

The procedure of Linux Qmail detachment consists of the following steps:

  1. Collect the data of the Linux Qmail mailboxes and mailing lists registered in your CloudBlue Commerce installation for future migration to another mail hosting solution.
  2. Unregister the mailboxes and mailing lists from customer subscriptions on the CloudBlue Commerce side. The mailboxes and mailing lists will continue working on service nodes after you perform this step.
  3. Remove all packages related to the Linux Qmail module and its services from your CloudBlue Commerce installation. The services will continue working on service nodes after you perform this step.

To help you perform the steps, the respective tools are provided in the internal part of the article.

Notes:

  1. The procedure does not assume subscription destruction through CloudBlue Commerce.
  2. Orders related to the module will be automatically archived by the detachment tool. To learn more about the archiving of orders, please refer to the Billing Provider Guide.

Step 1. Preparing for Detachment

To prepare for Linux Qmail detachment, perform the following steps:

  1. Enable direct sign-in to IMP Webmail (if installed):

    1. On each IMP Webmail service node, update the file /var/www/webmail/webmail/<ID>/imp/templates/login/login.html as described below.

      Either remove or comment out the line:

      <strong>This page is disabled for security reasons. You can log into webmail using your Control Panel or URL like 'webmail.yourdomain'.</strong>

      Remove DISABLED from the username and password input tags:

      <input type="text" tabindex="<tag:username_tabindex />" id="imapuser" name="imapuser" value="<tag:username />" style="direction:ltr" DISABLED/> <if:user_vinfo><strong>@<tag:user_vinfo /></strong></if:user_vinfo>

      <input type="password" tabindex="<tag:password_tabindex />" id="pass" name="pass" style="direction:ltr" DISABLED/>

    2. Prepare means of access to IMP Webmail that will be used by your customers after you perform Linux Qmail detachment.

      Typically, a customer who has a Linux Qmail subscription and a domain linked with Linux Qmail, for instance customer.com, can access IMP Webmail not only through a branded URL such as brand.com/webmail/ but also through a URL such as webmail.customer.com (after opening webmail.customer.com, the browser is redirected to a branded URL of IMP Webmail). As soon as Linux Qmail data is unregistered from customer subscriptions, both means of access will stop working. If you need to keep these means of access to IMP Webmail, you should configure your own means of access to IMP Webmail through URLs such as brand.com/webmail/ and webmail.customer.com.

  2. (Optional) Collect GDPR data of customer accounts with Linux Qmail subscriptions. To collect GDPR data, follow the instructions from the GDPR Compliance Guide.
    Note: After Linux Qmail data is unregistered, CloudBlue Commerce will not be able to collect GDPR data related to Linux Qmail.

  3. Collect and save mailbox and mailing list data:

    On your management node, run the qmail_access_data.py script, which will collect the data of the Linux Qmail mailboxes and mailing lists registered in your CloudBlue Commerce installation (the script is provided in the internal part of the article).

    # python qmail_access_data.py collect

    The collected data will be saved to a file named access_data.<CURRENT_DATE>.json. The file will be placed in the directory with the script. For every Linux Qmail subscription, the script will store the following data:

    Note: For security reasons, mailbox passwords are neither collected nor stored by the script. To set a new password for a mailbox after the detachment of Linux Qmail, use the instructions of this KB article.

    • The identifier of the CloudBlue Commerce account this subscription belongs to.
    • The catch-all configuration (either a bounce phrase or a forwarding address).
    • The mailboxes of this subscription. For each mailbox, the following data is stored:
      • The email addresses of the mailbox.
      • The addresses of the IMAP servers of the mailbox.
      • The address of the LDAP server where the settings of the mailbox are stored.
      • The user name of the mailbox user.
      • The name of the Linux Qmail server where the mailbox is placed.
      • The identifier of the CloudBlue Commerce user the mailbox belongs to.
    • The mailing lists of this subscription. For each mailing list, the following data is stored:
      • The email addresses of approvers.
      • The email addresses of this mailing list.
      • The identifier of this mailing list in CloudBlue Commerce.
      • The email addresses of owners.
      • The email addresses of subscribers.
    • The identifier of this subscription in CloudBlue Commerce.

Step 2. Unregistering Linux Qmail Data from Customer Subscriptions

To unregister Linux Qmail data from your CloudBlue Commerce installation, perform the following steps:

  1. On your management node, run the qmail_access_data.py script as described below (the script is provided in the internal part of the article).

    # python qmail_access_data.py cleanup
  2. Confirm the operation.

The script will remove all Linux Qmail data from customer subscriptions in the CloudBlue Commerce database. All Linux Qmail mailboxes and mailing lists will continue working, but your CloudBlue Commerce installation will not be able to manage these mailboxes and mailing lists.

Step 3. Unregistering the Linux Qmail Module

To unregister the Linux Qmail module from your CloudBlue Commerce installation, follow the instructions of this section.

Step 3.1 Preparing Your Installation for Running the Detachment Tool

Prepare your installation by following the instructions in this article.

Step 3.2. Preparing the Detachment Tool

Obtain and prepare the detachment tool as described in this article. Then, go to the directory where the extracted contents are placed.

Step 3.3. Deactivating Service Templates

This is an optional step, but we highly recommend performing it. Deactivate all service templates related to the Linux Qmail module to make buying and provisioning new Linux Qmail subscriptions impossible. After deactivating a service template, all service plans based on it become no longer available for purchase. To remove these service plans from online stores, you must make them unpublished and synchronize the online stores.

To deactivate all service templates related to the Linux Qmail module, run the script as follows:

# python clean-up-qmail-module.py [--check-only] deactivate-service-templates

where:

--check-only is an optional parameter. If specified, the script performs all checks without making any changes.

Note: The script deactivates a service template if it includes resources of Linux Qmail, regardless of whether it contains resources of other services or not. If you have a service template that includes resources of Linux Qmail and resources of other services, you must manually activate that service template after you complete the detachment procedure.

Step 3.4. Synchronizing Online Stores

This is an optional step, but we highly recommend performing it. You should unpublish the service plans that are based on the deactivated service templates to make buying and provisioning new Linux Qmail subscriptions from online stores impossible. Note that during the synchronization, all other settings, even those that are not related to the service plans, will be synchronized as well. If you do not want to synchronize some of the online stores at this moment, synchronize online stores manually.

To synchronize all online stores, run the script as follows:

# python clean-up-qmail-module.py [--check-only] synchronize-online-stores

where:

--check-only is an optional parameter. If specified, the script performs all checks without making any changes.

Step 3.5. Removing Packages from Service Nodes

To remove all packages related to the Linux Qmail module from service nodes, run the script as follows:

# python clean-up-qmail-module.py [--check-only] remove-packages-from-service-nodes

where:

--check-only is an optional parameter. If specified, the script performs all checks without making any changes.

Step 3.6. Removing Packages from the Management Node

Note: During this step, the pa-agent service on your management node and the pau services on your management node and UI servers will be restarted. We recommend that you perform this step outside business hours.

To remove all packages related to the Linux Qmail module from the internal repository on the management node, run the script as follows:

# python clean-up-qmail-module.py [--check-only] uninstall-module

where:

--check-only is an optional parameter. If specified, the script performs all checks without making any changes.

Step 3.7. Unregistering Service Nodes

If the Linux Qmail service nodes are not used by other services, unregister them.

Outcome

After you perform the procedure, you will receive the following:

  • Linux Qmail mailboxes will continue working on service nodes and can be accessed by mail users through the IMAP and POP3 protocols.
  • Mailing lists, as well as anti-virus/anti-spam protection, will continue working on service nodes.
  • Your CloudBlue Commerce installation will not be able to manage Linux Qmail mailboxes, mailing lists, and anti-virus/anti-spam protection.
  • If installed, IMP Webmail will be accessible to mail users. IMP Webmail access points may be changed (see the section Preparing for Detachment for details).
  • If provided, Open-Xchange will be accessible to mail users through the same URLs. Typically, these URLs are similar to open-xchnage.brand.com, where brand.com is the FQDN of the brand that a subscription account is bound to. You can find these URLs in CCP on the Open-Xchange screen, in the tab Open-Xchange context, in the General section.

Internal Content

See this article