Converting an Exchange Userbase to Unix? 54
Jwfulcher asks: "This is kind of backwards from what normal people do, which is why i'm having problems finding any documentation on it, but I have around 150 users on exchange, with distribution lists and a few custom recipients as well. The CEO wants to switch to a Unix based POP/IMAP mail solution for licensing reasons (we don't use the groupware functions anyway), I was wondering if anyone knew of a method to convert the exchange userbase and add the users on a FreeBSD system and possibly point to our Radius server (which is capable of doing NT authentication) for authentication on those accounts."
you're not going to find a canned solution... (Score:1, Informative)
Some suggestions (Score:4, Informative)
You should be able to use PAM to do authentication to the Radius server. As for converting the users, you will probably have to write a script to do that. If there are tools to convert from unix to exchange, then I'm sure you can use those as a reference to do the inverse.
Slave Exchanges LDAP service with OpenLDAP (Score:3, Informative)
One method would be to setup OpenLDAP as a slave to the exchange server to pull all the DLs and so forth to your unix platform. From there (with redhat at least) it is pretty strait forward to use Sendmail's integration with LDAP to use that OpenLDAP store.
If you don't want to leave OpenLDAP running you can use the MigrateTools from padl.com to see how you can convert that OpenLDAP store back to something usable. Or just export the sections you need via GQ.
LDAP + Cyrus + PAM (Score:4, Informative)
For moving users, enable the LDAP directory service on the Exchange server and you should be able to script (or find) some LDAP-to-LDAP migration tools. At worst, do a full directory search and massage the data into an LDIF file to be imported. Moving the mail data would be harder but I imagine something could be rigged up using the Exchange IMAP service, fetchmail, procmail and the Cyrus deliver command.
If you can find a BackOffice resource CD you should be able to create a way to access the Exchange store without even going through the LDAP and IMAP services.
Sourceforge.. (Score:1, Informative)
Between that and the import utility that someone mentioned in KMAIL, there's probably a reasonable solution in here.
Also, Bob's mail server (if I remember correctly) purports to be an Exchange replacement, too.
Been there, done that (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Some suggestions (Score:3, Informative)
Your answer would be right if the question was "How do I switch from Outlook [Express] on Windows to some other mail program on FreeBSD?"