The PMDF MOVEIN utility migrates mailboxes from one message
store to another, or from one account to another. The supported
message stores are: VMS MAIL (the "native" message store), the
PMDF MessageStore, and the PMDF popstore. When moving from
or to the popstore, only messages in the inbox are migrated.
For migrations from VMS MAIL to msgstore, or from one msgstore
account to another, messages in all folders are moved.
Forwardings from the source message store account to the
destination message store account are automatically established
for each migrated user. Note, however, that use of the -
NOFORWARDING switch can compromise this robustness.
As it is not possible to temporarily block delivery of mail to
a user by VMS MAIL, when migrating mail from a VMS MAIL account,
the PMDF MOVEIN utility should not be run on an active system.
Running it on an active system can lead to loss of mail when the
migration utility migrates a user's NEWMAIL folder and, at the
same time, VMS MAIL delivers a new message to that same folder.
Depending upon the timing, that new message can be left behind
and not migrated. To prevent this from happening, ensure that
PMDF's local delivery channel is not running (e.g., stop the
MAIL$BATCH queue or whatever queue the l channel runs in) and
that any other VMS MAIL applications are not running (e.g., no
login users using VMS MAIL, no Pathworks users, DECnet MAIL-11
shutdown, etc.).
When migrating mail from a popstore or msgstore account, and to
a popstore or msgstore account, the PMDF MOVEIN utility performs
all of the necessary locking so as to allow migrations to be
carried out on an active system without loss of mail.
The basic inputs to the utility are: the names of the source and
destination message store; the names of the source store user
accounts to migrate; optionally, the names of the destination
store user accounts to create; and, also optionally, passwords
to set for these new accounts. The source store username is
assumed for the destination store if a desintation username is
not specified. That is, by default, the name of the account in
the destination store is the same as that in the source store.
When a username is supplied on the command line, then just that
one user account is migrated. To migrate multiple accounts,
do not specify a username on the command line and instead use
the /INPUT qualifier. Each line of the input file specifies
the username of a single source store account to migrate. In
addition, a line can specify a password to associate with the new
account in the destination store, and the username to create in
the destination store. The password and destination username, if
supplied, must be on the same input line following the username
with one or more white space characters separating each of the
three. If the password contains a space itself, it must be
enclosed in double quotes. To specify a destination username
without specifying a password, the password must be specfied as
an empty string (two double-quotes next to each other).
Comment lines can appear in the input file: a comment line is any
line which begins with a # or ! character. Leading and trailing
white space characters on lines are ignored. The following sample
input should give the flavor of input files:
! A comment line
!
! to supply a password and destination username:
angel "alex's password" alex
bailey blakes-password blake
!
! to supply a destination username, but no password:
chris "" casey
!
! to supply a password but no destination username:
dana danas-password
!
! to supply neither a password nor a destination username:
emile
When no username or input file is specified, input lines are read
from SYS$INPUT. The format of those input lines is identical to
that of lines read from an input file. Input is terminated by
typing a CTRL/Z.
When migrating to a msgstore or popstore account, the destination
account is automatically created. If a password is supplied,
then the password is set in the new account. If no password is
supplied, then the new account is marked with the PWD_ELSEWHERE
flag. Normally, that causes authentication to then be performed
against the SYSUAF database. See the popstore documentation for
further information. When migrating from VMS MAIL, the owner
field in the new account is set using the owner field from the
SYSUAF. When migrating between a popstore and msgstore account,
the owner field of the destination account is set from the source
account.
If there already is an pre-existing MessageStore or popstore
account-such as when migrating from the popstore to MessageStore-
then the migration fails unless /USE_EXISTING is specified.
Moreover, if the existing account has the MIGRATED flag set,
then the migration fails unless /FORCE_MIGRATE is specified. When
the account is successfully migrated, the MIGRATED flag is set in
the account.
NOTE
After a successful migration, the account in the source
message store is left intact with its mail in place. In
the case of migration from a popstore to MesageStore store
type with the same username (or vice-versa), the account is
changed in place from the one store type to the other.
The PMDF MOVEIN utility is extremely careful to back out of a
failed migration, leaving the user account in the source message
store in its original state. When multiple accounts are migrated,
a failure to migrate an account does not terminate the utility.
Instead, the utility backs out of the migration for the failed
account and continues on to the next account. Failures are
reported to SYS$ERROR. The /EXCEPTION_FILE qualifier can be used
to log errors in an exception file. The format of the exception
file is suitable for re-use as an input file.