Collective Wisdom from the Experts 31
New System
Old System- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
(Original, unchanged migration entry
that was overlooked after the wedding.)
When emails were sent to Sally from users still on the old messaging system,
they created a loop: 1) Messages were created and sent on the old mail sys-
tem to [email protected]; 2) old mail system checks Sally’s account
and sees that forwarding is set to [email protected] and
forwards the messages; 3) the new mail system looks for someone with an
email address equal to [email protected], but it doesn’t
find it, since that address was renamed when Sally got married, so 4) the new
mail system forwards the messages for the unknown recipient back to the old
mail system; 5) the old mail system knows to forward all messages with an
@migrate.mycompany.com address, so it forwards them to the new mail
server; and 6) lather, rinse, repeat.
Every time the messages loop, the corporate legal disclaimer is added to the end
of the messages. The legal disclaimer is only about 100 words, but when each
message is looping between systems several times a minute, this adds up quickly.
Evidently, Sally was very popular. There were so many messages sent to Sally that
the size and volume of the messages brought the mail system to a grinding halt.
Moral of this story: document your processes and make sure the process is fol-
lowed. Although the name change process had been documented, it was not
being followed. Otherwise, Sally’s user account on the old mail server would
have been updated with her new, married name migration email address, and
the issue would have been avoided.