7 Steps for a Successful Migration from Domino to Exchange 2013

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1 7 Steps for a Successful Migration from Domino to Exchange 2013 Written by Declan Conroy, founder of Cheddon Limited [insert image here] Abstract Exchange Server 2013 is the latest version of the flagship messaging and collaboration platform from Microsoft. This new version offers improvements in cost of ownership, flexibility of integration, and ease of both use and management, as well as exciting enhancements in the areas of high availability and hybrid integration between on-premises and cloud implementations. This white paper will help you understand the process of migrating from Domino to Exchange 2013, including how the features of Exchange 2013 will affect your migration. It details the seven key steps for migration and presents a number of best practices to help ensure a seamless transition. Features of Exchange 2013 that affect Domino migrations Many of the new features of Exchange 2013 focus on providing enhanced levels of redundancy, availability and simplicity for users, and therefore do not significantly affect migration from Domino to Exchange. However, there are some important differences between migration to Exchange 2013 and migration to earlier versions of Exchange. The only way for an Outlook client to connect to an Exchange 2013 mailbox is via Outlook Anywhere. The native Microsoft Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) protocol (also known as Exchange RPC) is no longer supported. All client communication is now via RPC over HTTPS, so the only way for an Outlook client to connect to an Exchange 2013 mailbox is via Outlook Anywhere.

2 Some aspects of migration and coexistence, such as AD object provisioning and free/busy calendar lookups between Domino and Exchange, are simply not possible without third-party products. The Global Address List is the Exchange equivalent of the Domino Directory. In Exchange 2013, the Global Address List (GAL) is the Exchange equivalent of the Domino Directory. The Exchange GAL is a filtered view of Active Directory objects, showing both standard user attributes and Exchange attributes. Domino maintains its own directory, much like Exchange 5.5 used to do. The primary Domino directory is also known as the Names and Address Book (NAB) or the public address book, and it is contained in the database names.nsf. In addition to names.nsf, any number of secondary address books may also exist. No native tools are provided for coexistence or migration. Exchange 2013, like Exchange 2010, provides no native tools for establishing Domino and Exchange coexistence or performing a migration. Microsoft s coexistence tool for Domino was called the Transporter Suite, and it was discontinued after Exchange The lack of native interoperability and migration tools impacts Exchange 2013 migrations because some aspects of migration and coexistence, such as AD object provisioning and free/busy calendar lookups between Domino and Exchange, are simply not possible without third-party products. If no other method for provisioning AD objects is available, or the Transporter Suite is required for free-busy interoperability, the only option is to use an Exchange 2007 bridgehead server in the Exchange 2013 environment. Even with the native Exchange 2007 Transporter Suite, many aspects of coexistence can be problematic, such as Notes Active Mail and document links, as well as mail or calendar formatting inconsistencies. Migrating data archives An effective migration requires an understanding of the different types of data stores and archiving processes in both the old and new mail systems. The following archives are relevant in a Domino migration: Lotus Notes archives Outlook.pst files Exchange 2013 personal archives Lotus Notes archives Lotus Notes archives differ from Outlook archives and Exchange 2013 personal archives in both layout and ease of use. How the archive functionality is accessed depends on the exact version of Notes; however, the key differences are as follows: Within the Notes client, a document or multiple documents can be selected and archived; manual Outlook archival is driven by the archive wizard. Both products support auto-archive settings. The Notes archive contains the same folder structure as the mail file in its entirety; in Outlook, you can choose which folders to include in the archive. Domino archives are designed to be fully supported for local or server storage; Outlook.pst files that are used for either manual or auto-archiving are explicitly designed for local disk storage only. Notes archive settings can be managed by administrator-controlled policy settings documents. This is similar to Outlook administrative templates or Group Policies, but it is used more extensively in Domino. Outlook.pst files Organizations frequently limit the size of Exchange user mailboxes to 5-10 GB to prevent performance problems. Therefore, users often move mail from their primary mailbox into a.pst file to keep their mailbox size down. They also use.pst files for other purposes, such as to keep all mail from a certain year in a single file. Users can move mail into a.pst file manually, or Outlook Auto- Archive can automatically move mail at a regular interval. However,.pst files have important drawbacks. They can be costly to store, difficult to back up, and inconvenient to use because they are available only on the local machine where they are stored. Pst files were never designed or 2

3 intended for network storage and can detrimentally affect server performance. Moreover,.pst files represent a significant compliance risk, since there is no easy way to recover and present.pst data to auditors or regulators. Exchange 2013 Personal Archive To address the problems with.pst files, Exchange 2013 maintains the Personal Archive (which was introduced in Exchange 2010). This operates as a secondary mailbox that can be stored on either the same or a different database as the primary mailbox. Mail is moved automatically from the primary mailbox into the Personal Archive based on the policies you set, so users can meet mailbox size requirements without creating new.pst files. Archived.pst files can be imported into the archive, so they can be managed, backed up and searched as required by your organization. Unlike.pst files, the Personal Archive is fully discoverable and can even be put on litigation hold to prevent changes and deletions from destroying evidence. The Exchange Personal Archive works just like a user s regular mailbox, so no additional training is required. It works with Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013 and Outlook Web App, and is available anytime you have a connection to the Exchange server. How these archives affect migration How do these archives affect migration? One key to a successful move to Exchange is to bring all of your data under the control of Exchange so it can be managed, backed up and searched. Dell offers tools that can migrate Notes archives into Exchange Personal Archives. Exchange 2013 enables you to host the primary mailbox on-premises and the archive mailbox in the cloud. This means you could allow a third party (Microsoft) to manage your legacy archive data, including backups and storage, while you maintain closer control over your live business data in mailboxes. Migration tools like Notes Migrator for Exchange support adoption of these hybrid on-premises/cloud environments by enabling migration to Exchange Server and Exchange Online. Migration challenges There is more to a successful migration than installation of the correct software and patches. Migration challenges tend to fall into three broad categories: Technical Logistical (processes) Cultural (people) Technical challenges Migration to an existing target Exchange 2013 system typically involves two technical challenges: Ensuring coexistence Migrating data Ensuring coexistence Domino is more than just a mail server, and Notes is more than just a mail client. Migration of from Lotus Domino to Exchange will not necessarily render Domino or Notes obsolete, and therefore interim or long-term retention of Notes and Domino, as well as coexistence with Exchange, is far more likely to be needed than with migrations from other products. A migration from Domino to Exchange is complicated because the Lotus Notes client is used for both and application access in the source environment, and the integrated nature of the client makes it possible to link, display and access documents within databases, and to display active content. Separating the mail element from the integrated application aspects of the Notes client introduces challenges with live content where messages expect a Notes client to display and function properly. This content can include document links, embedded buttons, tabbed tables and even encrypted content. Migration of these applications to an alternative such as SharePoint Migration of from Lotus Domino to Exchange will not necessarily render Domino or Notes obsolete, and therefore interim or long-term retention of Notes and Domino, as well as coexistence with Exchange, is far more likely to be needed than with migrations from other products. 3

4 Domino distribution groups can contain external SMTP addresses. Notes Migrator for Exchange can automate the creation of contacts for these external addresses as part of the provisioning process. using a product such as Dell Notes Migrator for SharePoint can often be a separate project in its own right. Coexistence during a mail migration requires that the two systems behave, look and feel to the end users as a single system. This requires some thought in three areas: Directory synchronization Mail flow Calendar and free-busy lookups Directory synchronization The first key coexistence step is provisioning of objects in Active Directory. If the AD object doesn t exist, it won t get a mailbox or appear in the Exchange GAL. Getting AD right is critical. When Domino and Exchange 2013 exist in parallel, both systems should have the same view and agree on the definition of users, groups and resources. Both systems need to display the same address book or GAL. One challenge to watch out for is that Domino distribution groups can contain external SMTP addresses. This isn t possible in Exchange, where distribution groups must contain mailboxes, mail contacts or other distribution groups. Notes Migrator for Exchange can automate the creation of contacts for any external addresses as part of the provisioning process. Mail flow Ensuring accurate and continuous mail flow requires planning for the following four cases: Mail from a non-migrated Domino user or application needs to be properly routed to users already migrated to Exchange Mail from migrated users needs to be routed correctly to users still on Domino. Mail from the outside needs to be routed correctly to Domino or Exchange, depending on which mail system the recipient is using. Mail from either Domino or Exchange needs to be routed properly to the outside world. If you treat the combined mail system of Domino and Exchange as a whole, then you can reduce these four cases to two simpler scenarios: Mail within the system Mail to and from the system Calendar and free/busy lookups Legacy Domino calendar content such as appointments and meetings can be migrated easily to Exchange, but collaborative use of calendaring between Domino and Exchange 2013 is not delivered by either product natively. Because the Transporter Suite was discontinued after Exchange 2007, free/busy calendar lookup between Domino and Exchange 2013 can be accomplished only by using Exchange 2007 as a bridgehead server, or via thirdparty products such as Dell Coexistence Manager for Notes. Even with free/busy calendar lookup, only basic meeting requests will work natively; certain calendar data may not translate properly. For example, updates to recurring meetings may process incorrectly, attachments in calendar invitations may be lost, and users may have difficulty reserving resources across systems. Migrating data After planning for coexistence, you can begin moving data. This step is usually the longest and most visible to the user community. Begin by asking the following questions: How much data do you intend to move? How much space does it consume now? How much space will it consume after it s moved? Where will the migrated data reside after migration? The choices for migration include: Not migrating data every Domino user gets a new, empty mailbox in Exchange 2013, with no data migration. 4

5 Using the Exchange 2007 Transporter Suite. Using a third-party tool, such as Notes Migrator for Exchange. Logistical challenges The logistics of managing a Domino migration to Exchange include the following three areas: Migration schedule User training and support Deploying Outlook to the desktop The migration schedule In its simplest form, a migration schedule needs to include a list of names and dates. Start with a definitive list of users, mailboxes and resources, and then, with some careful coordination by office location and department, draft a migration schedule. Finding the right time for each department can be a challenge: you should consider the role that the department plays and any calendar or scheduling deadlines they may have, such as end-of-month for sales people, financial year-end for accounting departments, or shift schedules for businesses that operate outside of regular 9 5 office hours. Coordinating and managing migration logistics is a full-time job. Migrations go far more smoothly when this role is assigned and taken seriously than when a more laid-back and reactive approach is used. User training and support Notes and Outlook behave differently. As you migrate users to Outlook and Exchange, your processes and help desk staff needs to be able to support them. The best way to smooth the transition for staff is to provide basic training at the right time. You don t want to train users too late, but if you train them too early, the training will be forgotten. Don t underestimate the work involved in coordinating training schedules as you migrate batches of users. Make allowances for each department s scheduling constraints, including sick leave and vacations, as well as for new employees. The content of the training is also critical. The vast majority of help desk calls after a migration fall into the following two categories: Training requests Users will ask: How do I do in Outlook what I already knew how to do in Notes? Inconsistencies between source and target address lists These lead to non-delivery reports (NDRs) caused by missing users or missing distribution lists or membership. To minimize training requests, choose a training course or trainer who doesn t simply cover textbook Outlook, but is familiar with issues for users moving from Domino and Notes. The most confusing topics to Domino users new to Outlook are delegate and shared access, send on behalf of and send as. Also be sure to train users on the Domino and Outlook features that sound similar but behave differently, such as mail tracking and message recall. The second type of support calls can be minimized by careful object and resource provisioning in Active directory. Deploying Outlook to the desktop Don t overlook Outlook deployment and configuration. Outlook 2013 is the client of choice for Exchange There are several ways to deploy Outlook: Group Policy, System Centre Configuration Manager or manual install. There are also many configurable options that can be customized and tailored using the Office Customization Tool, which has replaced the Custom Installation Wizard. It s very likely that in addition to deploying Outlook, Lotus Notes will remain on the desktop for continued access to Notes document links, Domino databases, Domino applications and Active Mail. Active Mail consists of Notes messages with live content that require a Notes client to function properly. Active Mail can include Notes encryption, stored forms, embedded buttons, hotspots, collapsible sections and tabbed tables. Coordinating and managing migration logistics is a fulltime job. Migrations go far more smoothly when this role is assigned and taken seriously than when a more laidback and reactive approach is used. 5

6 A good way to handle Active Mail is to encapsulate it into an attached.nsf file delivered to the Outlook client for migrated users. Clicking on the.nsf file allows Active Mail to be correctly rendered and actionable from within the Notes client. A good way to handle Active Mail is to encapsulate it into an attached.nsf file delivered to the Outlook client for migrated users. Clicking on the.nsf file allows Active Mail to be correctly rendered and actionable from within the Notes client. Cultural challenges The migration can cause great stress to both your IT department staff and your end users. Not everybody is going to welcome Microsoft Exchange. Users may have strong loyalty to Notes and Domino, and you may have to deal with fear, uncertainty, doubt, and possibly passive or even active resistance. Administrators may resist the change, especially if the migration to Exchange 2013 is likely to reduce the number of IT staff required. Don t underestimate the work involved in communicating and managing this culture change. The seven steps to a successful migration Overview A successful migration should include the following steps: 1. Perform a pre-migration assessment. 2. Establish Domino and Exchange 2013 coexistence. 3. Provision your Exchange 2013 mailboxes. 4. Set a migration baseline. 5. Run a pilot migration. 6. Plan data storage. 7. Migrate your data and track migration progress. Step 1. Perform a pre-migration assessment. Before you begin your migration, try to gain a clear understanding of what will be involved and what criteria you will use to measure success. Agreeing that you are finished can be difficult if you don t agree up-front on the definition of finished. Be realistic. In particular, understand that it is unreasonable to expect 100 percent of your data to be migrated. Not every Domino message type has an equivalent in Exchange. Also messages that remain encrypted cannot be migrated unless you use Notes Migrator for Exchange s Self Service Desktop Migration (SSDM) utility. Therefore, the reality is that not every message in Domino will exist in Exchange after the migration. Pick an achievable goal, such as that 98 percent of messages should be migrated for 98 percent of mailboxes. Tracking the percentages is a key measure of a successful migration, and tracking results is possible only if you start with a pre-migration assessment. In addition to establishing completion criteria, a pre-migration assessment should ask the following questions: How many Domino domains, Domino Mail servers and physical servers exist? How many mailboxes do you have? How many of these orphaned or inactive? How much data is there between the combined mailboxes and archives? How much data is encrypted? Which users have encrypted data? How many private folders exist? Which users have document links? How many? How much data do you intend to migrate, for example: all of it, two years worth, or only the last six months of data? Will Notes archives be migrated to Exchange 2013 Personal Archives or to Outlook.pst files? How much storage do you estimate you will have after migration? Prior to migration, it is important to have a definitive list of mailboxes, an approximate number of items and an estimate of data size. Knowing the mailbox sizes is important; it enables you to batch mailboxes together with confidence in a properly scaled migration infrastructure, to estimate quota requirements in the target, and to estimate migration timings per batch. 6

7 Step 2. Establish Domino and Exchange 2013 coexistence. You need to identify how you intend to provide directory synchronization between Domino and Exchange 2013 to ensure that the Domino Address Book and the Exchange Global Address List reflect the same users, distribution groups, and resources. You should also give consideration to calendar integration and free-busy information sharing. The options available are: No free/busy or coexistence functionality between Domino and Exchange 2013 Basic free/busy information sharing via the Exchange 2007 Transporter Suite Feature-rich calendar coexistence and collaboration (including free/busy) provided by a third-party vendor Use SMTP routing to route mail between Domino and Exchange, and between the combined Domino/Exchange hybrid system and the outside world. Take note of message size limits and message formats. Mail flow with the outside world works as follows: In order for two mail systems to share a common mail domain, one system needs to be authoritative, and the other needs to be non-authoritative. Mail is passed to the non-authoritative system first, which delivers mail for any mailboxes it owns, and then passes (or forwards) mail for unresolved recipients to the authoritative system. The authoritative system is the end of the line: if it has a matching mailbox, it delivers the mail; if it doesn t have a mailbox, it generates a non-delivery report (NDR). Mail flow between Domino and Exchange can be achieved in either of two ways: Modified Forwarding address field Modified Mail Server field Both of these mail flow options are implemented per migration batch at the time of migration. Option 1: Modified Forwarding Address field Probably the simplest way to pass mail from Domino to Exchange is via the Domino user s Forwarding Address. Forwarding Address works much the same as targetaddress does in Exchange: it forwards mail that should have been delivered locally to the specified address in the Forwarding Address field of the user s Person document. Once a user has been migrated, his or her Person document is configured with a Forwarding Address that uniquely resolves to his or her new Exchange mailbox. Both Forwarding Address and targetaddress can be set and cleared from Dell Notes Migrator for Exchange, and Notes Migrator can be used to manage mail flow before and after migration. Note that Forwarding Address is a server-side forward and the message never reaches the user s mail file. So be careful: if the Forwarding Address specified is invalid, the user won t receive the mail. Also be aware that due to the way in which Domino resolves and displays mail addresses for internal mail sent to users with Forwarding Address set, this address can and will leak out of the organisation onto the public Internet, so it ideally needs to be intuitively recognizable and publically resolvable. Option 2: Modified Mail Server field More recent versions of Domino (from v6 onwards) offer a slightly more seamless or transparent solution to the user population for mail forwarding from Domino to Exchange for migrated users. It involves some configuration in the Domino environment and modification of a field of the Person document that can t be set by the Dell tool, but is easily set via a simple Lotus agent or via LDAP command. Dell MessageStats Reports for Lotus Notes can provide invaluable pre-migration assessment and reporting, and it integrates with Notes Migrator for Exchange to provide real-time reporting throughout the entire migration project. 7

8 One key to a successful move to Exchange is to bring all of your data under the control of Exchange so it can be managed, backed up and searched. Dell offers tools that can migrate Notes archives into Exchange Personal Archives. In very simplistic terms, a Notes Named Network (NNN) or Domino Named Network (DNN) is created to represent the Exchange environment. A Connection document is created to control mail flow to this NNN. The destination server specified in the Connection document for this NNN is actually the Exchange 2013 Client Access Server. A real server document for this destination server needs to be created in the Domino directory. Mail flow is restricted so that mail flows over the SMTP protocol only and not using the native Notes Remote Procedure Call (NRPC). Once a user has been migrated, the Mail Server field in the user s Person document is updated to reflect the value of the destination server in the connection document for the NNN that represents Exchange. Domino tries to reach the NNN using the only allowed protocol (SMTP), and passes the mail directly to the Exchange organisation. Care must be taken with this approach as to when the Person document is modified, because the modifications could impact access to and hence data migration from the Domino mailbox. Step 3. Provision your Exchange 2013 mailboxes. There are two options when provisioning in Exchange 2013: Users can initially be pre-provisioned in Exchange as contacts that route mail back to Domino. These contacts are then converted to mailboxes as part of the migration process. Alternatively, users can be pre-provisioned as full mailboxes that route mail back to Domino. The net result is similar, although each option has strengths and weaknesses. These options tie in closely with coexistence; provisioning and coexistence can in fact be done in either order, or in parallel. The simplest way to provision Exchange 2013 mailboxes is to pre-provision users in Exchange as contacts that route mail back to Domino. These contacts are then converted to mailboxes as part of the migration process. Pre-provisioned contacts are simpler to work with and understand. A mailbox will only ever exist in one place, and this is as it should be. Contacts in the target become mailboxes at the same point that mailboxes in the source become contacts, and mail flow is simpler because there is only one place for mail to be delivered. Contacts appear in the Exchange GAL differently than mailboxes, so it s very apparent who is live on Exchange and who isn t. Pre-provisioning full mailboxes in advance also enables you to avoid many Outlook-related issues with nickname caching and auto-completion, as well as timing issues with offline address book generation and client download. These can arise depending on how you choose to create contacts or to convert contacts to mailboxes. When provisioning your Exchange 2013 mailboxes, pay particular attention to the following: In order to mailbox-enable a user or resource in Exchange 2013, the user or resource must be provisioned in AD. When creating AD objects, remember that Domino distribution groups can contain SMTP addresses; these will require special consideration before Exchange distribution groups can be populated. Be aware that Domino mail-in databases are essentially mailboxes without corresponding users; they are databases that are configured to receive mail. The closest Exchange equivalent to this is the resource mailbox, which requires an associated but disabled AD user object. Step 4. Set a migration baseline. After you obtain a definitive list of mailboxes for migration from your 8

9 pre-assessment, you need to know how fast the data can be moved. This information comes from a migration baseline that is obtained by performing a controlled migration of a known quantity of production Domino data on a single migration server. Production data and production systems are critical for several reasons: You need to understand how the production environment is going to behave; a baseline in a lab environment does not provide that information. You can gain some level of expectation about encrypted messages, the number of instances of message types that don t exist in Exchange, and target thresholds to aim for based on your sample data. The migration baseline comes down to a number: the throughput in GB/hour. The throughput dictates how long the total data volume will take to migrate, and therefore how long the project will run. Throughput is a function of several factors, including the bandwidth available to Domino in a WAN environment and server performance as limited by memory or CPU. There are several ways to help optimize throughput. Notes Migrator for Exchange is multi-threaded, and each thread moves a certain amount of data per hour; increase the number of threads and you increase your migration performance. Another option is to scale out instead of scaling up: if the migration server starts to get stressed, run two or more in parallel. However, scaling up or scaling out the migration infrastructure can overcome bottlenecks only up to a certain point. Somewhere along the line you are likely to hit an optimal throughput. Exchange 2013 Server by default will allow only 32 MAPI sessions for each migration account, and the legacy Domino server can cope with only so many client connections before the CPU exceeds 80 percent. Other factors that affect throughput are server and mailbox placement. Multiple Domino Mail Servers will give you better performance than having all of your mailboxes on a single server. In collocated on-premises Domino to Exchange migrations, we ve often seen throughput of 20 GB/hour on a regular basis, but the figures vary, and we ve seen anything from 2-24 GB/hour. In general, 6-10 GB/hour is a good target to aim for. The migration baseline feeds into several other migration and planning activities, including: Planning the migration schedule The baseline throughput per server multiplied by the number of migration servers dictates the volume of mail that can be moved, and hence the number of mailboxes per migration batch, as well as the number of required batches to complete the project. Establishing success criteria The test migration used to establish the baseline will also help you estimate the number of errors to expect from the Domino data. Notes Migrator for Exchange logs errors related to failed and skipped messages, so you can set expectations with users about what data will migrate, what won t, and what issues should be expected. Step 5. Run a pilot migration. The goal of a pilot migration is to identify challenges you might face once full migration starts, and to determine how to prevent or resolve them. Therefore, you should expect and even welcome problems during the pilot migration. A pilot migration must be large enough to capture a representative sample of the issues that can be expected during migration. If the number of mailboxes you are migrating is in the low thousands, including about five percent of the total user population should give a good sample; for extremely large migrations, the percentage can be smaller. Be aware that Domino mail-in databases are essentially mailboxes without corresponding users; they are databases that are configured to receive mail. The closest Exchange equivalent to this is the resource mailbox, which requires an associated but disabled AD user object. 9

10 To measure migration success, you can use the sum of error count plus skipped mail count as a percentage of total mail. If that percentage is 98 percent or higher, you can confidently sign off on the mailbox as a success. Step 6. Plan data storage. Before you begin migrating data, be aware that the amount of disk space required on the target can vary greatly from the source. Domino database indexes can account for significant percentages of database size and it s not uncommon to see indexes in the region of percent of total database size. View indices are created when a view is accessed, and the more views that exist of the data in the database, the larger the view indices are as a percentage. We ve seen reductions in data volume from 380GB in Domino before migration to 318GB on Exchange after migration based on index reduction alone. Obviously the only way to know how your data is going to behave is to test it. Step 7. Migrate the data and track migration progress. After migration of each collection, Notes Migrator for Exchange produces, among other summaries, a user migration status per collection that lists the total mail count, migrated mail count, skipped mail count, and the total number of errors or warnings per mailbox. Interpreting this data is not rocket science, but is worth agreeing up front what constitutes success for each group or department. Notes Migrator for Exchange summarizes key migration statistics so you can evaluate migration progress. The results from a batch of migrated mailboxes can be dropped into a spreadsheet and graphed within minutes of completing the migration. Figure 1. Tips and best practices for migration to Exchange 2013 Over many migration projects, we ve picked up some general tips and advice that make a migration project from Domino to Exchange go more smoothly. Recognize the difference between Outlook and Lotus Notes. The Notes client and Domino server have many more features and capabilities than Outlook and Exchange Server. Try to take this into consideration from day one. It may be necessary to retain Lotus Notes on the desktop for some time in order to provide ongoing access and support for existing applications and databases and Active Mail. Know your numbers and your limits. Run enough test migrations to understand the performance limits of the Domino and Exchange systems and the migration infrastructure. Spend time with the logs and the numbers to understand the percentages of messages that migrate or fail to migrate, and how fast data is moving. Pay attention to message, mailbox and database size limits, since mismatched limits can result in large messages failing to migrate or messages failing because mailbox limits have been reached. Scale your Exchange transaction log volumes during migration. Exchange database changes are written to transaction log files. In a migration scenario, all migrated data is new data to Exchange and gets written to logs Figure 1. Notes Migrator for Exchange summarizes key migration statistics so you can evaluate migration progress. 10

11 before it is committed to the database. Every 100GB of database is also 100GB of log files. Therefore, without correctly scaled log volumes, you run the risk of log volumes filling up during migration. Other options include circular logging or more frequent backups to clear down the log files during busy migration windows. During the migration, you should give Exchange 2013 the low-cost disk that it needs to allow for transaction logs to grow. Be flexible with maintenance windows, but don t cancel them. Don t neglect regular maintenance of both the source and target systems during migration. Expect that maintenance and administration activities may need to change. In particular, remember the following: Domino maintenance has likely been scheduled to coincide with low productivity hours, such as evenings and weekends. These same low productivity hours will most likely be the first preference for migration, so the maintenance window may have to move, but it should not be simply cancelled. Exchange backups may have to be run more frequently to handle increased transaction logging with on-premises Exchange. Don t overlook replication. One of the most powerful features of Domino is its built-in database replication. User mail files and the Domino Directory may have multiple replicas in multiple places. Notes Migrator for Exchange can be configured to work with mail file replicas. Coordinating the migration of mail content and the updating of mail flow via either of the two methods mentioned in Step 3 above must allow for replication latency to avoid a window no matter how brief when mail is effectively lost by being delivered to a source mailbox after the source mailbox content has been migrated but before the mail routing updates have been replicated for the mailbox. Outlook client configuration The Outlook client configuration that works for one organization may not work for another. However, there are a handful of configuration options that are often very important: The file size limits of Outlook 2013 (and 2010) are now significantly larger than Outlook 2007 and 2003 and can grow to 50GB by default, and even larger if required. Before enabling Outlook to run in cached mode, be aware that it may consume large volumes of local disk space. The second important Outlook configuration I recommend is to include the Outlook Address Book as a service in the default Outlook MAPI profile. This service controls the availability of the Show this folder as an Address Book check box on the Outlook Address Book tab for contacts migrated from Domino. Without the MAPI Address Book service installed, migrated users can t actually use any of their migrated address books for automatic recipient resolution, which is a source of real frustration. Two small configuration options that tend to be popular are to enable Spell Check by default and to set the default mail format to HTML. Finally, Coexistence Manager for Notes is well worth consideration and evaluation for the increased Notes functionality it will enable in the Outlook client during coexistence. Summary Exchange 2013 offers important new functionality, including the ability to closely integrate on-premises and online deployments. For this reason, migrating from Domino to Exchange can offer significant benefits. Understanding the common challenges of migration and following the migration procedure outlined in this document will help ensure that your project is successful. Allow for replication latency to avoid a window no matter how brief when mail is effectively lost by being delivered to a source mailbox after the source mailbox content has been migrated but before the mail routing updates have been replicated for the mailbox. 11

12 About the author Declan Conroy has worked with Microsoft messaging solutions since MSMail and has been a messaging consultant for over 15 years, working in both Compaq and Hewlett Packard. Declan is the founder of Cheddon Limited, an IT consultancy company that specializes in technology adoption and technology migration with a focus on and mail migration projects from platforms such as IBM Lotus Notes/ Domino, Novell GroupWise and previous versions of Exchange. Before enabling Outlook to run in cached mode, be aware that it may consume large volumes of local disk space. In his spare time, Declan is a keen barefoot distance runner and likes to swim in open water. For further detail on any of the advice, tips, and experiences in this article, please feel free to contact Declan at dconroy@cheddon.co.uk. 12

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