Gmail Migration

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As you might have heard, the department has officially decided to migrate away from running our in-house email services and instead rely on the Google Apps for Education offering CIS negotiated. The Computer Science Department was the first entity on the Brown campus to offer email services; it is with mixed feelings that we perform this migration.

While Tstaff is providing support for the overall email migration effort, each user is ultimately responsible for actually migrating their individual email. Tstaff has prepared a script which should take care of migrating any email available via CS IMAP servers. Users are responsible for migrating any additional content (e.g., mail contacts and filters) on their own. A wiki page has been started for community to document any additional tips not covered in this migration document:

https://wiki.cs.brown.edu/mediawiki/index.php/Gmail_migration

After the migration, any email sent to your @cs.brown.edu address will be forwarded to an alternate service hosted outside the CS department. In this way, the migration will be completely transparent to your contacts, as email they send to your @cs.brown.edu will continue to reach you. If desired, it may even be possible to configure your client to continue sending email as though it appears to come from your @cs.brown.edu. People who choose to use Brown's Gmail service will access their email via the Gmail web interface at:

https://gmail.brown.edu

Questions about the use and functionality of the Gmail interface or other questions about using Gmail should be directed to the CIS Helpdesk (863-4357 or help@brown.edu).

Alternatives to Migrating to Brown's Gmail Service

If you do not have a Brown Gmail account or you do not want to use Brown's Gmail service, you can have your mail forwarded to a different email account of your choice. See http://cs.brown.edu/about/system/email/forwarding.html for instructions on how to forward your email.

Tips for a Smooth Transition:

  1. Read this document from beginning to end before starting the process. 2.
  2. Depending on how much email you have, it can take a long time (~ 500MB/hr transfer rate) for the script to migrate all email. To help keep you functional while the script is running:
    1. Try to leave a day's worth of important emails in your inbox for easy access
    2. The script migrates your Inbox first and then any additional folders in alphabetical order. Folder hierarchy is maintained after the migration, although Gmail provides a slightly different representation (see http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10708 for more information on Gmail labels)
  3. Remove or archive any emails that are no longer needed.
  4. Empty your deleted messages/junk/spam folders before starting the migration.
  5. If you have not already done so, convert to the Maildir format. (http://www.cs.brown.edu/system/email/dovecot/maildir_migration.html)

Test Your Accounts:

  1. Try logging into your Brown Gmail account by going to gmail.brown.edu (see the Email section at Google Apps Help for Brown for more information.)
  2. Try logging into your CS email by going to http://webmail.cs.brown.edu to be sure you have the correct password.

Email Migration Instructions:

After a migration has started, you should avoid making any changes to your CS email. You can still read existing emails using your current email client and webmail, but any changes you make may not be reflected in Gmail.

  1. Check under your Brown account's settings to make sure that mail going to your @brown.edu address is no longer forwarded to your @cs.brown.edu account. (Instruction on how to disable Gmail forwarding can be found here: https://sites.google.com/a/brown.edu/google-migration-project-site/how-to/forwarding)
  2. Forward your @cs.brown.edu account to your @brown.edu account. (For instructions on forwarding please see: http://cs.brown.edu/about/system/email/forwarding.html.)
  3. Log into a Linux machine and do the following:
    1. Make note of the machine you are logged into. This is useful if you later get disconnected and need to reconnect.
    2. Run /usr/bin/screen. This will create a virtual session within your shell, ensuring the process will continue even if you are disconnected.
    3. Run /local/bin/migrate-to-gmail. This will begin the actual email migration. This script will prompt you to:
    4. Enter your CS Email password
    5. Enter your full Brown email address. (Be sure to include the @brown.edu)
    6. Enter your Brown email password.

Notes:

Known Issues: