| Q. | What is involved in a migration? |
| A. | There are basically two approaches: single-phase or multi-phase migrations. For single-phase, the high-level steps are: - Training for administrative staff
- Selecting the migration tools
- Testing migration procedures in a computer lab and then deploying Exchange Server 2003
- Creating recipient objects in Active Directory directory services
- Deploying Microsoft Outlook and providing user training
- Migrating user data
- Decommissioning the legacy system
For multi-phase migrations where a period of coexistence is required, additional steps are needed to test, deploy, and manage the connector that enables interoperability between Exchange Server 2003 and IBM Lotus Notes or Novell GroupWise messaging systems. |
| Q. | What is meant by "coexistence"? |
| A. | Coexistence describes a scenario in which migration occurs in phases or stages. If you are concurrently on an Exchange Server messaging system and either the Lotus Notes or GroupWise messaging system, you require interoperability such as: - bidirectional message flow (including meeting requests),
- bidirectional directory synchronization so that users on all systems are visible in your address book, and
- bidirectional free/busy lookup so that meetings can be scheduled amongst users on different messaging systems.
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| Q. | What tools does Exchange Server provide for migration? |
| A. | The Exchange Server 2003 CD includes the Exchange Server Migration Wizard tool. This tool helps you migrate mailboxes and other server-based data from GroupWise and Lotus Notes to Exchange Server. You can use the Exchange Server Migration Wizard to extract and convert folders, messages, calendars, and address books, where applicable. |
| Q. | What tools does Exchange Server provide for coexistence? |
| A. | Exchange Server ships a connector and calendar connector for both Lotus Notes and GroupWise. The connector tool provides: - Bidirectional directory synchronization between Active Directory directory services and either the GroupWise directory or Lotus Notes directory.
- Bidirectional message and meeting request flow between Exchange Server and Lotus Notes and GroupWise.
- The calendar connector provides the sharing calendar free/busy information between Exchange Server and Lotus Notes and GroupWise.
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| Q. | How much do the connectors cost and where do you get them from? |
| A. | Exchange Server includes the migration and coexistence tools that can be installed directly from the installation CD at no additional cost. |
| Q. | When is coexistence needed? |
| A. | A period of coexistence of both Microsoft and non-Microsoft messaging environments is necessary if you are unable to migrate all mailboxes to Exchange Server quickly because of the number of mailboxes or because of organizational restrictions (for example, requiring a multi-phase migration). |
| Q. | What additional software products are needed for coexistence with Lotus Notes? |
| A. | Coexistence between Exchange Server and Lotus Notes requires a Lotus Notes server (release 3 or 4) or a server running Lotus Domino (release 4.5 or later) and a Lotus Notes client (release 4 or later). You must be running Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later to support migrating from the latest version of Lotus Notes. |
| Q. | What additional software products are needed for coexistence with GroupWise? |
| A. | Coexistence between Exchange Server and GroupWise requires a GroupWise API Gateway (version 4.1) along with GroupWise Patch 2 for API (downloadable from the Novell site). You must be running Exchange Server 2003 SP1 or later to support migrating from the latest version of GroupWise. |
| Q. | How scalable is the Exchange Server migration tool? |
| A. | This depends upon the size of the mailboxes and the amount of server data to be migrated. You can run the migration tool on multiple computers to increase throughput and also run the migration tool as close to the source data as possible to maximize throughput. Before executing the migration, be sure to run a simulation in a test lab environment by using sample mailboxes that represent mailboxes in their production environment. This gives an indication of how many mailboxes can be migrated per hour. Tools from Microsoft’s partners are also available and might provide faster migration than the Exchange Server migration tool because they operate multi-threaded. |
| Q. | How scalable is the Exchange Server connector tool for message and meeting request traffic? |
| A. | This depends upon the typical message size and traffic patterns. You should test and measure performance that simulates the anticipated traffic in your environment. In theory, you need only a single server running Exchange Server to use the connector for Lotus Notes or GroupWise. However, there might be performance issues with connectors on an Exchange server hosting mailboxes because the added processing requirements for message conversion and transfer can adversely affect system performance during peak hours. Before actually implementing the connectors, you should either use dedicated servers with connectors or perform additional testing to measure impact. |
| Q. | How many connectors can be installed in a mixed Exchange Server and non-Exchange Server environment? |
| A. | Multiple connectors can be installed and can be configured between Exchange Server, GroupWise, and Lotus Notes. In addition, connectors can be configured for one-way traffic. For example, one connector is configured for Exchange Server to GroupWise and another for GroupWise to Exchange Server, which helps to isolate traffic to different servers and to load- balance the messaging traffic. Exchange Server connectors for Lotus Notes and GroupWise can also coexist in the same Exchange Server environment if you must interoperate with all three messaging systems. |
| Q. | What versions of Lotus Notes are supported by the Exchange Server tools? |
| A. | Exchange Server tools support Lotus Notes versions 4, 5, and 6.x. |
| Q. | What version of GroupWise is supported by the Exchange Server tools? |
| A. | Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 support Novell Groupwise versions 4.1x, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2x, 5.5x, 6.xand 6.5x. |
| Q. | What are some known limitations of the Exchange Server migration tools? |
| A. | There are some items that the migration tool does not migrate, such as archives, personal address books, phone messages, and proxy rights and signatures. However, tools offered by Exchange Server Partners support the migration of these additional items. Also, some of these partner’s tools are also multi-threaded, which might provide faster data migration rates, enabling you to migrate more mailboxes and server data within a block of time. Moreover, with the Exchange Server migration tools, an additional administrative step is necessary to complete the importing of calendar objects. In some of these partners’ tools, this step is eliminated, while other steps are supported in the migration. |
| Q. | What are some known limitations of the coexistence tools for GroupWise? |
| A. | GroupWise supports several specific types of messages, such as e-mail messages, appointments, notes, tasks, forms, presentations, and documents. MAPI message types are mapped to corresponding message types in GroupWise when possible. In other words, e-mail messages appear as e-mail messages, meeting requests as appointments, and so on. Message types that are not supported in Exchange Server 2003, such as GroupWise phone messages, are converted to regular e-mail items. The Connector for GroupWise is able to track delivery confirmation reports, read receipts, and non-delivery reports (NDRs). For complete details, read the Exchange Server 2003 Interoperability and Migration Guide, available on the TechNet site. |
| Q. | What are some known limitations of the coexistence tools for Lotus Notes? |
| A. | Some message properties, when sent from Lotus Notes to Exchange Server, might not be fully converted (for instance, superscript text or bulleted text within an e-mail message). For complete details, see the Exchange Server 2003 Interoperability and Migration Guide, available on the TechNet site. |
| Q. | What about migration tools for Lotus Notes applications? |
| A. | Migrating Lotus Notes applications to Microsoft solutions, including Exchange Server, are supported with partner tools. Before considering migrating your applications, use the Exchange Server Application Analyzer 2003 for Lotus Notes, available from the Microsoft Download Center, to inventory and report on the number and types of Lotus Notes applications. |
| Q. | Where can I find more information about why and how to migrate from GroupWise or Lotus Notes to Exchange Server? |
| A. | For general information, see Comparing Exchange Server to Other Messaging Solutions. For detailed technical and deployment information about Exchange Server migration and interoperability tools for Lotus Notes and GroupWise, download the Exchange Server 2003 Interoperability and Migration Guide from the TechNet site. |