German IMAP email server relocation downtime

sean

On 24 January 2023 at 0900 CET (UTC +1) our German IMAP/POP3 mail server will be physically relocated to a new data center facility in Frankfurt. The server will be offline during the relocation and the expected downtime is 8 hours.

Customer mailboxes hosted on the server will not be available during the relocation. Mail that arrives while the server is offline will be deferred and delivered once the mail server is back online (no incoming mail will be lost).

Mail forwarding addresses configured at https://my.opalstack.com/mail/ will continue to forward mail normally.

Customers will still be able to send mail during the downtime under the following circumstances:

Web applications will be able to send mail via SMTP and sendmail
POP3 desktop email clients will be able to send mail via SMTP.
IMAP desktop email clients should be able to send mail via SMTP but will not be able to store a copy of the sent message because storing messages is a function of the IMAP server.
Webmail will not be available because it uses the IMAP server for authentication.

We realize that the timing of this relocation is not ideal. If you have business-critical mailboxes and would like them to be available during the relocation then please email support@opalstack.com to make arrangements to migrate your mailbox in advance.

We'll update the status page at the beginning of the relocation window. If you would like to be informed of system status updates automatically then please subscribe at https://status.opalstack.com/subscribe.

This information is also available on the Opalstack status page at: https://status.opalstack.com/schedules/38

pembertron

Hi Sean,
I am I right in understanding that you are migrating all DE servers to new data centre facility? I know a some have already been migrated.
Thanks
John

sean

pembertron that's a great question!

Our upstream provider is phasing out their older Frankfurt data center and is slowly migrating all servers to a newer data center (modernized infrastructure, green power, etc). The DC details are available here.

So far they've not communicated a complete timeline for the entire migration, so I've asked them for that info. Once we've got all of the details we'll get the word out.

The remaining servers are:

opal5
opal6
opal9
opal15

We do have spare shared hosting capacity in the new data center right now, so if you're presently on any of those 4 servers and would like us to migrate your account at any time then please email our support team to arrange it. A single-account migration usually only has minutes of downtime or less.

ttavoy

Can I create a temporary mailbox at imap1.us.opalstack.com, edit my email addresses so they deliver to that as well as whatever else they are doing ...

and then after the relocation is complete, un-edit my email addresses and delete the temporary US mailbox?

sean

ttavoy Can I create a temporary mailbox at imap1.us.opalstack.com, edit my email addresses so they deliver to that as well as whatever else they are doing ...

and then after the relocation is complete, un-edit my email addresses and delete the temporary US mailbox?

Yes, you can do that if you prefer. You won't have access to your existing email until you switch back to the original mailbox, but you'll still be able to send and receive new mail normally.

boddie Just a note about the mail that was sent about this topic. It didn't have a valid Date header, so in my mail program it got filed along with other messages having an "Unknown" date, making it awkward to find.

Thank you for the report, we'll look into that. Can you let me know which mail client and version you're using?

boddie

Just a note about the mail that was sent about this topic. It didn't have a valid Date header, so in my mail program it got filed along with other messages having an "Unknown" date, making it awkward to find. Maybe something needs fixing in the script that sent it?

ttavoy

Thanks but just to confirm......will this work during the relocation......

Maybe the key question is, will mx1.de.opalstack.com and mx2.de.opalstack.com continue to work normally (and thus be able to deliver incoming mail to a temporary mailbox at imap1.us.opalstack.com) while imap1.de.opalstack.com is down?

nick

ttavoy As per the original notice:

Customer mailboxes hosted on the server will not be available during the relocation. Mail that arrives while the server is offline will be deferred and delivered once the mail server is back online (no incoming mail will be lost).

ttavoy

Thanks Nick. There might be something basic that I'm misunderstanding. I hope you will forgive me for trying my question again.

I've edited my email address Myname@Mydomain.com so that as well as delivering to the existing mailbox MyboxDE (which is at imap1.de.opalstack.com) it delivers to a newly created mailbox MyboxUS (which is at imap1.us.opalstack.com)

So far so good, everything seems to be working.

My question is: in order to ensure that email will continue to arrive at MyBoxUS during the relocation downtime, do I also need to edit the DNS for Mydomain.com replacing mx1.de.opalstack.com with mx1.us.opalstack.com (and likewise mx2)?

sean

ttavoy My question is: in order to ensure that email will continue to arrive at MyBoxUS during the relocation downtime, do I also need to edit the DNS for Mydomain.com replacing mx1.de.opalstack.com with mx1.us.opalstack.com (and likewise mx2)?

No, you do not need to change your MX servers.

sean

🚧 As previously announced, our German IMAP/POP3 server will be offline for relocation to a new data center facility from 0800 to 1600 UTC on 24 January 2023: https://status.opalstack.com/schedules/38

sean

✅ The relocation is complete and the mail system is operating normally.