How to Upgrade to Axigen X4

Before upgrading, we need to take into account that Axigen X4 comes with a number of supported operating systems changes.

Newly supported operating systems in X4 include:

• Red Hat Enterprise 9
• CentOS Stream 8 and 9
• Rocky Linux 8
• Alma Linux 8 and 9
• Oracle Linux 9
• Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS
• Windows Server 2022

Please scroll down for no longer supported operating systems. Or, if you want to see the full list of what’s supported, you can visit the supported platforms page. Depending on your current OS, you might need to perform an OS upgrade or install new machines with supported operating systems.

Note: In order to upgrade to Axigen X4, you need to have a valid software maintenance.

Steps to Upgrade to Axigen X4

1. Download the corresponding package from our downloads section
2. Stop the Axigen service

3. Create a backup of the Axigen working directory using the suggestions in our related knowledge base article

   Note: If needed, here's more info on the Axigen working directory restoring process

4. Please note that the downloaded Axigen X4 package is an installer. Run the installer and follow the on-screen installer instructions to complete the upgrade process.

   • On Linux (RPM based distros): dnf install <path>/axigen....x86_64.rpm
   • On Linux (DEB based distros): apt install <path>/axigen....x86_64.deb
   • On Windows: run the Axigen msi.
5. Since this is only an upgrade, please make sure that you skip the post-install configuration wizard.
6. Start the Axigen service.

Upgrading to Axigen X4 on Docker

Upgrading your Axigen mail server version to X4 on Docker requires a few simple steps:

• Stop the Axigen container: docker stop <container_id>
• Remove the Axigen container: docker rm <container_id>
• Recreate the Axigen container changing the mount folder used for persistent storage from /var/opt/axigen to /axigen/var. You can use the same command as for the initial instance creation but provide an existing, populated Axigen data volume as the first parameter in the -v mapping:

docker run --name=axigen -dt -v <volume>:/axigen/var -p 443:443 -p 9443:9443 -p 993:993 -p 995:995 -p 25:25 -p 465:465 -p 9000:9000 -p 7000:7000 axigen/axigen

You can find more information on deploying and running Axigen in Docker here.

Important X4 Notes and Upgrade Info

1. Remember to back up your service before upgrading. Axigen X4 adds vital storage upgrades. We recommend performing a full Axigen backup of your current version.
    
2. Performance impact on initial index creation / upgrade. Axigen X4 introduces several index changes:
   1. the sort indexes have been changed and will be recomputed once you begin the update.
   2. in addition, we have introduced a new conversation index — used for the new conversation view — which will also be computed in sequence, after the sort indexes. 

   These upgrades are expected to last a few hours (depending on your storage size) and will require a storage capacity increase of up to 10%. WebMail and IMAP user access is conditioned by the sort indexes, while the conversation indexes are only used by the WebMail. Until they are created, users can use the WebMail in mail view.

3. Kaspersky End of Life. Starting with X4 (10.4.0), Kaspersky AntiVirus and Kaspersky AntiSpam are no longer available.
    

4. Outlook Connector End of Life. Starting with X4, the Outlook Connector is no longer supported. We've put a lot of additional effort in the Axigen WebMail email client, which is now our main recommendation. 

   Note: For users who still want to stick with Outlook or are unable to switch:

   • you can still use Outlook via IMAP; account configuration can be simplified by using IMAP / POP3 Auto-discovery 
   • for calendar support, some of our end-users are already using the CalDAV Synchronizer plug-in

5. Custom WebMail themes. As X4 brings Dark Mode support, we've also made big changes to the existing WebMail stylesheets, including an extended range of colors. 

   Note: If you or your clients are using a customized WebMail theme, you will have to extend and adapt your customizations to also apply in Dark Mode.

6. No longer supported platforms. The following platforms are no longer supported: CentOS 7, CentOS 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Oracle Linux 7, OpenSUSE Leap 15.1, Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS, OpenSUSE Leap 15.3, Debian 10, and Windows Server 2016.