Reference Materials for Migration 8.15 - Tips and Tricks

Skipping Attributes

You can skip certain attributes from directory synchronization. However, although Migration Manager allows you skip the majority of object attributes from its interface, you should never skip the following attributes from synchronization:

The Directory Synchronization Agent service attributes (extensionAttribute15, extensionAttribute14, adminDescription, AdminDisplayName, by default)

• objectClass
• objectGUID
• userAccountControl
• objectCategory
• objectSID
• msExchMasterAccountSid
• msExchMailboxSecurityDescriptor

Otherwise, you may experience problems during directory synchronization.

Pre-installing the Resource Updating Agents

The Resource Updating Agents are used for resource update. The agent is normally installed to the computer when you start processing from Resource Updating Manager.

If desired, Resource Updating Agents can be pre-installed using Group Policy or SMS.

This also allows you make sure that you have enough rights over the workstation or server to perform update and Windows Firewall is turned off on these computers.

Migrating Services

To minimize service downtime when you move your production servers to the target domain, you need to make sure that the service processing operation happens immediately after the computer move operation for those servers.

Suppose your source domain has a server where a critical service runs under sourcedomain\serviceaccount. If you process services along with other resources prior to moving the server, this will cause the service to stop working. The service will switch to using targetdomain\serviceaccount and will not be available until you have moved the server.

The recommended steps are as follows:

1. Process non-critical resources.
2. Move the computer.
3. Process the critical services using a task that immediately follows the move task.

Interoperability with Quest Collaboration Services

If you have previously established Global Address List and free/busy synchronization between the source and the target Exchange organizations using Quest Collaboration Services, the recommended migration procedure is the following:

1. Stop and disable Collaboration Services in both the source and the target domains.
2. Configure directory synchronization to merge source objects with the stub objects created in the target directory by Collaboration Services. Use the matching rule by e-mail address to match source objects with their stubs in the target domain.

The Directory Synchronization Agent enables the disabled stub account and creates a mailbox for it (if configured).

Also note that you need to migrate legacyExchangeDN attribute values of all stub objects created by Collaboration Services in the source directory to the original objects in the target directory. Otherwise, migrated users will get a non-delivery report (NDR) if they reply to an older email for which one of the recipients was Collaboration Services stub object. There are special custom add-ins for migrating these values.