Using dbcopy for in place migrations of GroupWise from NetWare to Linux.

  • Document ID:7003162
  • Creation Date:29-Apr-2009
  • Modified Date:10-Jul-2013
    • Micro Focus Products:
      GroupWise

Environment

Novell GroupWise 8
Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 (OES 2) Linux Support Pack 2

Situation

GroupWise running on Linux requires all databases and files to be changed to lowercase.

Dbcopy can be used to change the case of all the post office and domain files to lowercase without moving the data. This will also make the necessary changes to the NGWGUARD.DB. 

Resolution

Use the following syntax to run dbcopy on a groupwise post office or domain for an in place upgrade:
dbcopy -l <source location>

Note: The GroupWise 8 dbcopy has this functionality, however GroupWise 7 dbcopy does not. It is safe and recommended to run the GroupWise 8 dbcopy for GroupWise 7 in place migrations. 

Additional Information

One workaround is to use dbcopy -m option and copy data in a different directory location instead of doing in-place upgrade. The new directory can reside also on the same NSS volume.

Another workaround would be to change the default name space for the NSS volume from Long to Unix. Then dbcopy -l <source location> should work.
After changing the default name space from Long to Unix, restart the server for the change to take effect.

In Long name space, the file system is Case Insensitive (therefore dbcopy -l can not do its intended job). In Unix, the file system IS Case Sensitive, (therefore dbcopy -l CAN NOW do its intended job). dbcopy is not at fault here. Note: The GWPOA CAN run in Long Name Space mode with the mixed Case file names and Directory names. When you switch to Unix, you need to change to lower case all the files and directories to make life easier for the GW admin.