simonpie

Q: Move all data related to mail to different drive

Hello,

 

I would like to set up a mail server on mavericks using the standard email applications provided by apple : Dovecot and postfix.  But, for performance and reliability, I would like to move everything mail related to a zfs mirror.  What would be the best way to proceed.  I can see two options :

1) soft link /Library/Server/Mail to my mirror drive, 2) Change all settings for postfix and dovecot so that they go to my new drive.

 

Options two seem very error prone to me and not reliable on the long term.  Option one seems the way to go.

 

Any other suggestions ?  What do you think ?

Posted on Feb 3, 2016 7:14 PM

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Q: Move all data related to mail to different drive

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  • by pterobyte,Solvedanswer

    pterobyte pterobyte Feb 4, 2016 1:57 AM in response to simonpie
    Level 6 (11,101 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Feb 4, 2016 1:57 AM in response to simonpie

    In Server.app -> Your Server -> Settings you can change the location of Service Data. This gives you the benefit of option two while staying Server.app/serveradmin compatible.

    It will move all data, not just mail, but that is advisable anyway if you use an external RAID.

  • by simonpie,

    simonpie simonpie Feb 4, 2016 8:08 AM in response to pterobyte
    Level 1 (38 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Feb 4, 2016 8:08 AM in response to pterobyte

    Thank you very much, it seems to be the correct solution.  Is there a list of files/services that are moved to the new device ?  I have read in a book that the Spools are left on the boot disk.  It seems to me they should go on a device which is as fast as possible.

     

    One final question on that same subject.  I had the intention of using openZFS to build my RAID so that I would get the easyness of snapshots and snapshot syncs to other system.  Would it work with this global option ?  Or am I back to the softlink solution ^

  • by pterobyte,

    pterobyte pterobyte Feb 4, 2016 8:13 AM in response to simonpie
    Level 6 (11,101 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Feb 4, 2016 8:13 AM in response to simonpie

    You are essentially moving the contents of /Library/Server

     

    Haven't checked in a while, but as far as I can tell, current version of OS X Server will move everything you need.

     

    Haven't tried using ZFS with OS X Server. Was messy in the past, so I never tried again. Probably best to open a ZFS thread and see if anybody else can chime in.

  • by simonpie,

    simonpie simonpie Feb 4, 2016 8:15 AM in response to pterobyte
    Level 1 (38 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Feb 4, 2016 8:15 AM in response to pterobyte

    I should open a thread here or on openzfs ?  or both.

     

    Where is the documentation on these function ?  I have had difficulties yesterday to find an admin manual past 10.5 on apple's web site.

     

    And thank you very much for answering.

  • by pterobyte,

    pterobyte pterobyte Feb 4, 2016 8:17 AM in response to simonpie
    Level 6 (11,101 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Feb 4, 2016 8:17 AM in response to simonpie

    Probably on both forums.

     

    Here you go:

    https://help.apple.com/serverapp/mac/5.0/#/

  • by simonpie,

    simonpie simonpie Feb 27, 2016 1:58 PM in response to simonpie
    Level 1 (38 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Feb 27, 2016 1:58 PM in response to simonpie

    So I can add some substance here.

     

    The answer is No, see details here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7449610.  I also tried the softlink and that did not work either as the Server App would no longer work. 

     

    So I guess its only option 2 with rewritting all dovecot settings if I insist on ZFS.

  • by simonpie,

    simonpie simonpie Mar 6, 2016 7:55 AM in response to simonpie
    Level 1 (38 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Mar 6, 2016 7:55 AM in response to simonpie

    Answering my own question again.

     

    Thanks to a nice gentlement on openzfs forums I got my answer.  Open ZFS on mac has an option in the datasets (filesystem) that will mimic hfs behavior : com.apple.mimic_hfs.  It is seen by the finder, and the server app,  as hfs+.  End result is you can now choose that disk to migrate the server data with the server app.  It has work without a glich for a few days.  Yeah, I have snapshots, compression, and error correction for my emails.

     

    Hope it helps someone.