Gandi.net Groups

Let's suggest guidelines for a new tutorial ! It is based on my own
needs by now, and I am writing down a plan to succeed. My knowledge
about DNS and Mail system are not very good so I need Gandi Community
help and improve this tutorial, and at the end it will benefit to all
and futures Gandi's costumers (and improve my English writing skill too,
do not hesitate to correct these mistakes as well !)

We have:
- domain name mydomain.com at gandi
- hosting at ProviderOnline: web and mail
- mailboxes and alias already in use with ProviderOnline

We want to transparently, first, migrate mailboxes to Gandi Mail, and
second, migrate the web. Of course without loosing any emails or any
visitors. We may need to take into account DNS propagation time, which
can vary from different ISP, and use by their costumers to access
internet and sending emails (Gandi could not manage this time).

Of course, we could add links to the FAQ or existings tutorials for some
actions (no need to explain them again)

NB: do not wait the last days of your hosting plan at ProviderOnine to
perform these migration !!


* Migrating mailboxes

1/ 	Create the same accounts and alias that you have currently in Gandi
interface
https://www.gandi.net/faq/tutorial/781/
Keep the DNS records for later

2/ 	Note the Gandi servers' names (POP, IMAP) to update later your email
software and webmail links. Choose the relevant one here
https://www.gandi.net/faq/tutorial?cat=121

3/ 	(to precise) If you already use Gandi DNS, when activating Gandi
Mail, it is immediatly associated with the domain. So what will happen
to the existing mailboxes?

4/ 	If using external DNS (ProviderOnline's ones), do not change any
settings yet. You should have in Gandi interface something like this:
ns0.provideronline.net
ns1.provideronline.net

5/ 	If you use IMAP folders, copy them on your computer. it is not safe
to transfer them directly from a server to another. 
Do not transfer too much at a time (100 messages at a time maximum), and
allow pause between 2 operations for the IMAP server.

Some links regarding this issue:
(for Apple Mail)
http://itinfo.mit.edu/answer.php?id=8067
(in Gandi groups French)
http://groups.gandi.net/fr/topic/gandi.fr....

6/ 	Let your email software open, and access regularly your mailboxes.
If not, you may loose some messages which will be on ProviderOnline mail
server: once the DNS changes are propagated, you could not access your
mailboxes there !
NB: sending email, depending on your smtp settings, may still be
possible. If you want to use Gandi smtp or another one, it is up to you,
but it will not change anything about receiving emails.

7/ 	Change your DNS zone for mydomain.com at ProviderOnline. You may
have currently some different records, including MX ones:
@  MX  10  mx.provideronline.net
@  MX  20  somethingelse

Remove these entries and add the one you kept earlier, like:
@ 10800 IN MX 10 spool.mail.gandi.net. 
@ 10800 IN MX 50 fb.mail.gandi.net. 


You may also use the following records:

pop 10800 IN CNAME access.mail.gandi.net.
imap 10800 IN CNAME access.mail.gandi.net.
smtp 10800 IN CNAME relay.mail.gandi.net.
webmail 10800 IN CNAME agent.mail.gandi.net.

(some datas like 10800 and IN may not be displayed, depending of
ProviderOnline interface)

8/ 	Once the changes are done (How to know except looking into emails
received headers?), update your software settings to access Gandi Mail
servers (POP, IMAP)

9/ 	If you still have access to your ProviderOnline mailboxes (with a
webmail or settings not linked to your domain name, like a client login)
check if any message left. Then delete them all. 


* Migrating web
I will post it later.

Thanks in advance for your help !