pre9-backup-convert doesn't handle mailing lists

[rsiddall]

Is it just me, or does pre9-backup-convert not handle mailing lists?

I'm trying to migrate a Plesk 8.3 server to one with Plesk 9.x, and I'm following the instructions in the KnowledgeBase: http://kb.odin.com/en/5864. The problem is that if the domain dump contains any mailing list archives, pre9-backup-convert outputs an error "Unable to determine type of cid at element 'maillist'" and then dumps the mailing list archive to converted_<domain>_unknown_<date>.tgz. (If the domain has multiple mailing lists, it overwrites this file with each one.) The resulting Plesk 9 backup file cannot be restored. You get "Backup file has wrong format
Dump has critical errors."

You don't see this if the mailing list has no archives, or at least if nobody has ever posted anything to the mailing list.

 

[Ragefast]

I have the exact same issue. I'm trying to migrate from Plesk 8.2 to a fresh Plesk 9 install, both servers running rhel5.

Have you managed a way around it?

 

[rsiddall]

Not yet. I've been working on the Postfix configuration.

I did not see any way of omitting the mailing lists when I back up on the Plesk 8.x system, so I assume I'm going to have to do something along the lines of:

1/ Rsync all the mailing lists on the old system to a temporary folder on the new system.
2/ Dump all the mailing list configurations on the old system, and rsync those files across.
3/ Immediately before the migration, turn off mail on the old system and re-rsync the files.
4/ Delete all the mailing lists on the domains being migrated. (Might be an idea to back up before this.)
5/ Do the backup.
6/ scp the backup to the new system.
7/ Run pre9-backup-convert.
8/ Restore the backup.
9/ Run a script to add the mailing lists to the domains.
10/ Use the rsync'd configuration files to re-configure the lists.
11/ Overwrite the mailing list archives from the temporary folder.
12/ Check everything.
13/ Turn e-mail back on.

That or wait until Parallels fixes the problem.

 

[Ragefast]

Hm, I got it running after I moved the mailing list's archives to a temp location. I did not disabled anything, only moved the archives under /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/*/, created another backup and followed all of KB's steps again, and it worked.

 

[rsiddall]

Wow, that's great!

It makes perfect sense too. pre9-backup-convert has trouble with the archives, not the existence of the lists, so if you just move the archives over manually everything else should work.

Thanks for the tip.