Overview

This article is intended to clarify how to migrate a GFI MailEssentials installation from Exchange mode to Gateway mode.

Steps

Preliminary considerations

GFI MailEssentials behaves differently when installed in Exchange mode than when installed in Gateway mode. For more details regarding that, please read the Typical MailEssentials deployment scenarios article.

It is essentials that the installation path of the new and the old GFI MailEssentials installation are the same.

There are two installation modes within GFI MailEssentials: SMTP or Active Directory. If the previous installation of GFI MailEssentials retrieved users from the Active Directory, the new machine needs to be part of the same Active Directory domain.

The same build of GFI MailEssentials should be installed on the new server. If an upgrade is required, make sure to upgrade the installation on the old server before moving the installation to the new server.

Migration process

1. Install GFI MailEssentials on the new server. As the new server will not be an Exchange server, you will need to Install MailEssentials on an Email Gateway.
   
   Note

   • Pay attention to Step 5 in the KB Article mentioned above, to enable your mail server to route emails via GFI MailEssentials.
   • Pay attention to Step 6, you will need to change domain MX record to point to mail relay server
2. Ensure that the old and new installations are on the same version and build. The check can be done from the GFI MailEssentials configuration > General Settings > Version Information
3. Moderate all quarantined emails which were quarantined on the old server. By doing this the size of the quarantine store will decrease, thus minimizing the chances of any data inconsistencies and corruption during the migration process.
4. Stop all the GFI MailEssentials services and the IIS admin service, taking note of the dependencies that are stopped. This should be done on both servers. 
5. Move the following files to the new location, ensuring that the same path is retained:
   • AutoWhitelist database: <...GFI\MailEssentials\AntiSpam\Autowhitelist.mdb>
   • Bayesian Database: <...GFI\MailEssentials\AntiSpam\data\weights.bsp>
   • Whitelist database <...GFI\MailEssentials\AntiSpam\data\controlLists.sdf>
   • You can move the Anti-Spam log files if these were being saved to the same location. By default, these will be found in <...GFI\MailEssentials\AntiSpam\DebugLogs\*.*>.
   • If the reports data was archived to a Microsoft Access MDB file, you can continue to use the same reports database. The default location for this database is <...GFI\MailEssentials\AntiSpam\data\reports.mdb>. If you were using Microsoft SQL Server, you can configure in the new installation of GFI MailEssentials to start archiving report data to the same Microsoft SQL database.
   • If the archive data was archived to a Microsoft Access MDB file, you can continue to use the same archive database. The default location for this database is <...GFI\MailEssentials\AntiSpam\data\archive.mdb>. If you were using Microsoft SQL Server, you can configure the new installation of GFI MailEssentials to start archiving data to the same Microsoft SQL database.
   • If you had any Newsletters or Discussion lists configured, the subscribed users will be saved to a database. If you choose to store subscribers to a Microsoft Access database, you can move the Microsoft Access database to the new location. The default location for these databases is <...GFI\MailEssentials\AntiSpam\ata\ListName.mdb>. If you were using Microsoft SQL Server, you can configure the new installation of GFI MailEssentials to start using the same Microsoft SQL database. 
   • Export the manual Whitelist / Blacklist lists from the GFI MailEssentials configuration -> Anti-Spam -> Whitelist / Email Blocklist. Re-import the exported lists to the new GFI MailEssentials installation. 
   • You can move the Anti-Malware log files if these were being saved to the same location. By default, these will be found in <...GFI\MailEssentialsEmailSecurity\DebugLogs\*.*>
   • Copy <..\GFI\MailEssentials\EMailSecurity\Data\avapicfg.mdb> from the old machine to the new machine. 
   • Using Microsoft Access, open avapicfg.mdb that has just been copied and perform the following steps:
   • Open the tb_ldapsettings table
   • Delete the contents of the user and password fields
   • Close the tb_ldapsetttings table
   • Double click the tb_autoupdate table
   • Delete the contents of the proxyuser and proxypw
   Note

   Make sure that the fields are really empty and do not contain any blank spaces

6. Start all GFI MailEssentials related services
7. Re-configure the GFI MailEssentials Directory harvesting module:
   • GFI MailEssentials Configuration > Quarantine > Malware Options > Nonexistent recipients
8. Reconfigure the proxy settings:
   • GFI MailEssentials Configuration > General Settings > Settings > Updates
9. Once the configuration is completed on the new server, you can disable the Mail processing from the old MailEssentials server, before finally uninstalling it.