Jaruzel writes:
"I have an on-premises Microsoft Exchange system that hosts my families personal email, which has gone through several upgrades over the years. However Exchange 2013 is now too bloated for my needs, and I find myself wanting to migrate my email services to a cloud provider.
The kicker is that although I only have about 5 live accounts, I have over 200 email aliases attached to those accounts. Most of the cloud providers out there do not support this configuration, or charge per 'address' which makes the cost prohibitive for personal email.
Do any SoylentNewsers know of, or can advise the best way to migrate this lot out of my garage without losing all my aliases or having to pay through the nose?"
(Score: 5, Informative) by neagix on Thursday March 20 2014, @09:19PM
Build your own IMAP/SMTP server. Dovecot+Postfix+spamd
(Score: 4, Informative) by mechanicjay on Thursday March 20 2014, @10:10PM
While this setup is rock-solid and reliable, its kind of a PITA to setup (I've done it a few times). Especially if you're used to the pointy/clicky interface of Exchange. I might recommend something like Zimbra if you're looking for a whole enterprise setup for your home.
If you go the OSS route, don't forget postfixadmin, which really takes the pain of managing postfix aliases and squirrelmail for your webmail needs.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Friday March 21 2014, @02:53AM
Am I the only one that read "migrate to the cloud" as "I don't want to maintain a server anymore"...?
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3) by neagix on Friday March 21 2014, @08:05AM
Until Dark Mail Alliance [linuxbsdos.com] is ready with their services, no other option sir.
(Score: 1) by Tork on Friday March 21 2014, @03:59PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 21 2014, @08:46AM
I set up my own mail server two years ago and it was unbelievably painful. Days and days of scouring logs and tweaking settings trying to figure out why the step by step guide I followed to the letter did not work. Falco, the guy who wrote the guide, was incredibly helpful, but in the end it still all came down to black magic. Here we are 35 years after I sent my first email and setting up a mail server remains ridiculously overcomplicated.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by tomtomtom on Friday March 21 2014, @10:18AM
It's not all that hard - if you go with the prepackaged versions in your favourite Linux/BSD then most of the defaults should be sane. Setting up things like DKIM is about the trickiest part. If you really are struggling though then you could look at something like iRedMail [iredmail.org] which makes it pretty much trivial to do.
What is non-trivial is getting groupware-type features ie calendars etc working. For that you could try Kolab [kolab.org] although last time I looked at that it looked difficult to deploy it in a component-by-component fashion which made things more difficult.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Jaruzel on Friday March 21 2014, @10:32AM
I'm not scared of command line, or Linux. I'm just a veteran of MS Tech due to my job. However, my reason for looking at Cloud/SaaS type solution is that I don't want to be faffing with my own server any more.
People suggesting Dovecot/Postfix et al. - although your responses are 100% valid and appreciated, for me you are basically just saying 'Swap Server Technology X in your garage for Server Technology Y in your garage'.
Grinding away in your basement with custom personal installs of services is all well and good, especially when it's only your own data at stake, but as I get older, and am less inclined to waste the remaining years of my live on software installs, I find myself looking at other providers who can do it much better than I, and with much less hassle. Less than a few months ago, I was the biggest anti-Cloud person you'd find. Things change.
Whether we like it or not, 'Cloud' type solutions are here to stay, and as a community we should at least let them over the threshold and consider what they bring to the party. Surely, the best solution is the right solution, regardless of how it's provided?
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mechanicjay on Friday March 21 2014, @11:13AM
Yes, they are here to stay and it's a damn travesty. The Personal Computing revolution created a distributed power base in the computing world. We're rapidly ceding all our power to fewer and fewer large corporations who are controlling the horizontal and the vertical of our computing. And all it costs you is your privacy, but hey, that's not worth anything anyway,right? If you're going to use a hosted solution, at least pay for it. Then you have the illusion of not being the product.
I completely agree with the first part of your statement, the problem is getting people to agree on what "best" means. For me, running my own postfix/dovecot etc is the best solution because I have complete control and am 100% responsible for it.
Regardless of how it's provided? Sounds like a deal with the devil to me.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Friday March 21 2014, @12:15PM
The real problem i have with cloud, is once you put the information into it, the legal language the provider runs under is pretty grey. Yes, you own your information (legally), but they have access to it 24/7 and for all intensive purposes the provider "owns" it (controls access).
I'm sure the email you have in store isn't "all that important" or "not a security concern" but I cringe every time more of us give up the later form of Ownership.
(Score: 4, Informative) by rufty on Thursday March 20 2014, @11:01PM
Well, I did dovecot/exim4/spamd/greylistd/clam but yeah, that's the way to go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20 2014, @11:35PM
To running postfix.
Not bloated.