Restored GroupWise Server and Messages
Hello,
Someone told me that they were able to restore a GroupWise Post Office to a data directory and access the email data using a GroupWise client. They did not have to restore the GroupWise Post Office into a live Netware system. Somehow, they just restored the data and pointed the GroupWise client to the restored data and was able to browse messages. Can this really be done, and if so then how? I would like to test this out myself.
If this requires a lot of steps then I will add more questions so that I can give points for the help along the way.
Thanks,
John
Someone told me that they were able to restore a GroupWise Post Office to a data directory and access the email data using a GroupWise client. They did not have to restore the GroupWise Post Office into a live Netware system. Somehow, they just restored the data and pointed the GroupWise client to the restored data and was able to browse messages. Can this really be done, and if so then how? I would like to test this out myself.
If this requires a lot of steps then I will add more questions so that I can give points for the help along the way.
Thanks,
John
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John,
PsiCop is correct in you'll need direct access entrance into the Post Office. That will be accomplished by restoring not only the post office but also the domain onto another server or workstation (yes you could restore all of the files onto XP if you wanted).
You need to restore the domain so you can connect ConsoleOne (after logging into a real eDirectory on your real server) to the restored domain on a different server or your workstation. You need to do this in order to modify the post office database (see below) and then be able to rebuild that database prior to using a client to access your GW data.
Assuming you've launched ConsoleOne successfully and have gone to the Tools | GroupWise System Operations | Connect Domain and browsed and connected to the restored domain you will see your GroupWise system as known by the restored domain database.
Find the post office and right-click Properties. Click the GroupWise tab and then select the Client Access Settings where you should see a box that will be set at "C/S Only". Change that to "Direct Only" and click OK. That writes the change to the domain database on the restored box (and NOT to your production system).
Now you need to rebuild the post office database by selecting the post office again and right-click GroupWise Utilities | System Maintenance | Rebuild Database. Choose Run (or OK) and then select the root of your C:\ drive and NOT the restore location listed because it will be the real server. Click OK to rebuild and once done (probably less than 10 seconds). Go to the root of your C:\ drive and find the wphost.db. Cut and paste it into the restored post office directory after renaming the existing wphost.db.
You're now ready to access the GW data with the GWclient. Go to the icon and right click properties and at the end of the target line add /@u-? including a space after the exe. Double click on the GWclient icon and you'll see the startup-login box. Change the Online from an IP address to the path where you just copied the rebuilt wphost.db.
If it works, you'll likely see a password prompt and hopefully you'll know any passwords needed because it will get a bit more complicated if you don't.
Hope that helps...
Scott
PsiCop is correct in you'll need direct access entrance into the Post Office. That will be accomplished by restoring not only the post office but also the domain onto another server or workstation (yes you could restore all of the files onto XP if you wanted).
You need to restore the domain so you can connect ConsoleOne (after logging into a real eDirectory on your real server) to the restored domain on a different server or your workstation. You need to do this in order to modify the post office database (see below) and then be able to rebuild that database prior to using a client to access your GW data.
Assuming you've launched ConsoleOne successfully and have gone to the Tools | GroupWise System Operations | Connect Domain and browsed and connected to the restored domain you will see your GroupWise system as known by the restored domain database.
Find the post office and right-click Properties. Click the GroupWise tab and then select the Client Access Settings where you should see a box that will be set at "C/S Only". Change that to "Direct Only" and click OK. That writes the change to the domain database on the restored box (and NOT to your production system).
Now you need to rebuild the post office database by selecting the post office again and right-click GroupWise Utilities | System Maintenance | Rebuild Database. Choose Run (or OK) and then select the root of your C:\ drive and NOT the restore location listed because it will be the real server. Click OK to rebuild and once done (probably less than 10 seconds). Go to the root of your C:\ drive and find the wphost.db. Cut and paste it into the restored post office directory after renaming the existing wphost.db.
You're now ready to access the GW data with the GWclient. Go to the icon and right click properties and at the end of the target line add /@u-? including a space after the exe. Double click on the GWclient icon and you'll see the startup-login box. Change the Online from an IP address to the path where you just copied the rebuilt wphost.db.
If it works, you'll likely see a password prompt and hopefully you'll know any passwords needed because it will get a bit more complicated if you don't.
Hope that helps...
Scott
Scott's got the procedure down pat - just follow what he said.
The old Direct Access mode for the POA allowed the GroupWise Client to directly access and modify the Post Office databases. Obviously, that opens up a huge potential for not only database integrity, but it also made it possible for someone acting maliciously to do tremendous damage (although I've never heard of that happening) because every mail system user had to have Read/Write access to the entire GroupWise Post Office.
They wisely implemented Client/Server mode back in v5.0 - although I wouldn't be surprised to find people still using the older method. Why GroupWise continues to support Direct Access is beyond me - although in your particular circumstance, it's good that it does.
Don't forget that GroupWise stores (or at least it did as late as v7.0) messages over 2KB in size as an attachment. That means you need to not only restore the OFMSG and OFUSER sub-directory structures, but also the OFFILES sub-directory structure. If you don't, and you go to read a message that was stored as an attachment (or read any attachments), you'll get the subject line and recipient list, and that's all.
The old Direct Access mode for the POA allowed the GroupWise Client to directly access and modify the Post Office databases. Obviously, that opens up a huge potential for not only database integrity, but it also made it possible for someone acting maliciously to do tremendous damage (although I've never heard of that happening) because every mail system user had to have Read/Write access to the entire GroupWise Post Office.
They wisely implemented Client/Server mode back in v5.0 - although I wouldn't be surprised to find people still using the older method. Why GroupWise continues to support Direct Access is beyond me - although in your particular circumstance, it's good that it does.
Don't forget that GroupWise stores (or at least it did as late as v7.0) messages over 2KB in size as an attachment. That means you need to not only restore the OFMSG and OFUSER sub-directory structures, but also the OFFILES sub-directory structure. If you don't, and you go to read a message that was stored as an attachment (or read any attachments), you'll get the subject line and recipient list, and that's all.
ASKER
I am so glad you responsed. I hoped that you would jump in because you give good answers for Netware and GroupWise. I can test this out, and need some guidance from you. I have a netware 6.5 and GroupWise 8.0.2 system running on vmware. What do I need to do to set it up with direct access on the POA? I need to understand this so that I can make sure direct access is enabled, and determine when it was not enabled.
Please outline for me the first steps I need to do in order to test this. Maybe, for each step I accomplish I will create a new question for you so that you get the points for helping me through this.
I suppose my first step is in setting up Direct Access, and then confirmation how to backup my GroupWise server so that when I attempt a direct access I have all of the files.
by the way, suppose a customer gave me a backup of GroupWise. How am I to determine the version if the customer does not know, and is there any way, from a file level, to determine if direct access was enabled?
Thanks,
John