Transcending Frontiers

There is a scheduled network outage planned for this Sunday which will affect all customers:

Outage Details
Sunday 24th May 2009

Outage Window
7:00am – 11:00am

Actual Outage
7:30am – 8:00am

Just moments ago, we sent out a newsletter (view here) to all our customers introducing them to our February web site give-away. If you or someone you know is thinking about building a web site, this may come in handy. The condition? If 5 or more web sites are commissioned this month, we will draw one lucky winner out of the coveted TFG stubby holder to have their site paid for by us.  

You can get in contact with our team here to get your site underway. At the end of the month if you’re the lucky customer, any monies paid to that date will be refunded.

The winner of this give-away will receive a standard business web site (valued at $4,500) free. We’ll also couple this with a 12 month subscription to our flagship product AuroraCMS. AuroraCMS will enable you to maintain and update your site for the next 12 months with no more to pay. 

Also this month we’ll be donating $250 from every web site commissioned to the NAB Victoria Bushfire Relief Fund to help those in need.

If you’re interested in signing up to our regular newsletter, please do so at our web site. You can also follow us on Twitter or on our Facebook page for more updates.

I’ll update this post as progress is made on the migration. Newest updates will be at the top of this page. If you notice that something doesn’t appear quite right with your email be sure to let our support team know via the Support Portal or by calling (08) 9322 3055 during office hours.

3:21AM - The migration is as good as completed, with the final two mailboxes transferring and all other services operational. 

1:51AM - I spoke too soon… make it three finished and the fourth underway.

1:46AM - Two of the seven IMAP accounts have been transferred so far and we’re onto the third. Mail services have been operating for almost two hours without any issues on the new mail server. In fact, initial (and very rough) calculations show a speed increase of almost 25x, which has me quite satisfied.

Unless you own one of the remaining five mailboxes then as far as you’re concerned everything is done. If you do own one of these five outstanding accounts then you’re mail is working fine, but a few message might be missing on the new server, until I finish this migration and it’s a mirrored copy of your old set up.

12:01AM - Then it struck on me… we don’t need to use the --delete2 flag for these mailboxes that use IMAP! I can change the DNS now and leave those seven mailboxes syncing over the next few hours.

11:03PM - The migration is going as well as planned. The migration script has moved over 250 mailboxes, without issue. We’re waiting for the final seven mailboxes to transfer, though these are the largest of all our customer mailboxes. When these last few are done we can change the DNS and let the mail flow again. We’re definitely on track for our 3:00AM deadline.

9:39PM - Our email migration has commenced. Mail delivery has been suspended and mail is spooling on our IronPort.

Below are the steps you’ll need to take to change your email client to use the correct mail server, mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au

Outlook 2002

From the menu select Tools, E-Mail Accounts. View or change existing email-accounts. Next. Change “Server Information”, “Incoming mail server (IMAP)” or “Incoming mail server (POP3)” to mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au

Outlook 2007

From the menu select Tools, Account Settings. E-mail tab, highlight the account. Click “Change” button. Set the “Incoming mail server” to mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au

Outlook Express

From the menu select Tools, Accounts. Highlight the account. Click “Properties” button. Change “Incoming mail (POP3, IMAP or HTTP server)” to mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au

Apple Mail

From the menu select Mail, Preferences, Accounts. Select the account and change “Incoming Mail Server” to be mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au

Key points

• We’re migrating to a Zimbra server which is the same platform that Yahoo! Mail uses. It has a much nicer web interface and will allow us to scale our mail systems in the future.
• There should be no service disruption. Mail cannot be lost based on the migration plan we have. At worst it’ll be delivered to your old mailbox when you check your new mailbox, and we can rectify that.
• Your outgoing mail server (SMTP) does not change. This is very important. The Frontier Group does not send mail on your behalf.
• Your incoming mail server for all Frontier Group accounts should (already) be mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au
• hotrod.thefrontiergroup.net.au is being deprecated and any accounts that reference this server should be updated to mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au immediately.

Who does this impact?

Only customers that are collecting email directly from The Frontier Group’s mail servers will be affected. If you use a local Microsoft Exchange server or have the email for your domain forwarded from The Frontier Group to another mail server (like your internet service provider) then this will not affect you.

NOTE: This does not affect your SMTP server setting. It may only affect your incoming mail (POP3 or IMAP) setting. Do not make any changes to your SMTP settings or you will be unable to send email.

What’s going on?

Currently email comes into our network via our IronPort anti-spam and anti-virus appliance. That email is then delivered to a Frontier Group mail server or is sent offsite to a third party. In the case that your mail is delivered to a Frontier Group mail server, you may need to update the account details within your email client to accommodate the new server.

Do I need to change anything?

Possibly. Now is a good time to ensure you are collecting your email from mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au because mail services on other servers will be shut down in the coming week.

If you are collecting your mail from another server, like hotrod.thefrontiergroup.net.au adjust the server entry to be mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au.

If you are collecting mail from a third party, like a Microsoft Exchange server or your ISP then you don’t need to adjust anything.

The process

We have configured a new mail server to mirror the current configuration, which means that your domains, accounts, passwords, aliases and distribution lists have been converted and migrated. Over the coming week we will be synchronizing your mailbox to ensure that your old mail is available on the new Zimbra server.

Just before we “throw the switch” we will send out another email indicating that the change is happening immediately. This will be at midnight on a weekday.

Then we will be updating the DNS records so that mail.thefrontiergroup.net.au points to the new mail server.

Lastly we’ll send an email indicating that the change over has been completed. If you receive that email then you’ll know everything is working fine.

Because we’ve set your new account up with the same username and password, the first time you check your mail after we make the change it should be from the new mail server. You shouldn’t have to change a thing.

You may need to enter your password again. Our staff can reset your password if you have forgotten it.

Your immediate next steps

If you have an IT department or use the services of an IT consultant, forward this information to them and ask that they check you are configured correctly to handle this change. That way, when we enact these changes you won’t experience any disruptions.

Our staff are able to assist you with any queries you may have regarding this. You can contact them via (08) 9322 3055 or email support@thefrontiergroup.com.au.