Working with Mail Service Data Storage
Mail service stores each message as a separate file in a mail folder for each user. This is the user’s mailbox.
Incoming mail is stored on the startup disk in the /var/spool/imap/dovecot/mail/ folder. Dovecot mail storage can also be split across multiple partitions. This can be done to scale Mail service, or to facilitate data backup.
You can do the following with the mail files:
ÂÂ View and specify where the mail files are stored.
ÂÂ Backup and restore the mail store.
ÂÂ Convert mail files from a previous version of Mac OS X Server.
ÂÂ Create additional mail stores.
These tasks are described in this section.
Viewing the Location of the Mail Store
You can view the location of the mail store as well as the size of the mail store. You might need to track the current size of the mail store to plan mail server resources.
To change the location of the mail store, see “Specifying the Location of the Mail Store” on page 79.
To view the location of the mail store:
1In Server Admin, select Mail in the Computers & Services pane.
2Click Advanced.
3Select the Data Store tab.
Specifying the Location of the Mail Store
If you’re starting Mail service for the first time and you have no mail store, you can specify where the mail message files will be stored. By default, the mail store location is /var/spool/imap/dovecot/mail.
Note: Changing the mail store location of an existing mail system doesn’t move the mail from the old location to the new one.
If this server is part of a mail server cluster, the mail store is kept on the Xsan cluster and their locations cannot be changed.
To specify where mail is stored on the server:
1If Mail service is running, stop Mail service. See “Managing Mail Service” on page 20.
Chapter 3 Mail Service Advanced Configuration
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