Migrator for Notes to Exchange 4.15.2 - Pre-Migration Planning Guide

Quest Coexistence Manager for Notes (CMN)

Coexistence Manager for Notes (CMN) is a separate Quest product designed to provide rich directory, email and calendar coexistence features between Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange (including Office 365). To accommodate the three primary issues of a Notes–Exchange coexistence, CMN provides these three primary components:

CMN is not a part of Migrator for Notes to Exchange, but may be purchased separately from Quest. For more information contact your Quest Sales representative.

SMTP email routing

SMTP mail routing can be configured for either single-domain or multi-domain environments, as described separately below. In either case, Notes person documents and Active Directory object records are configured prior to migration to permit internal mail-routing during coexistence.

Mail routing by SMTP addressing within a single domain is accomplished using smart hosts in both directions. Exchange can be configured to route mail to a smart host if Exchange determines the recipient is not in the local internet domain. Exchange routes such mail to the smart host, via the targetAddress attribute in the Active Directory object record. Meanwhile, Domino is configured to do the same thing in reverse for a recipient whose local internet domain address is not listed in any Domino person documents.

To configure smart-host SMTP routing with Quest's CMN, both smart hosts are configured to point to the CMN server. Within CMN, one set of SMTP IN and SMTP OUT queues is configured to accept mail from Domino and deliver it to the receiving Exchange server, while another set is configured to accept mail from Exchange and deliver it to Domino. Multiple CMN servers can be deployed for load balancing and redundancy. The CMN User Guide explains this scenario in more detail (see Coexistence Mail Routing Basics in chapter 3). And see also your Domino and Exchange documentation and online resources for more information about configuring smart hosts for those servers.

Mail routing by multi-domain (subdomain) SMTP addressing is somewhat more complicated, but still straightforward to implement. By this method, Domino and Exchange are assigned different subdomains to differentiate the two internally (within your network) during the transition, so email can be routed between the two servers by SMTP addressing and your organization's DNS configuration.

For example, if your original domain is domain.com, then assign a new notes.domain.com subdomain to the Domino server, and assign a new exch.domain.com subdomain to the Exchange server. Then, when internal mail from other Notes users arrives in the Notes accounts of already-migrated users, the mail can be forwarded to the appropriate Exchange mailboxes using the exch.domain.com subdomain.

A subdomain routing method may introduce a risk that the assigned subdomain names will escape your organization’s internal communications, which in turn can cause bounce-backs on replies to those addresses. To prevent this, set the Notes forwarding address attribute to user@subdomain@notesdomain, which causes Domino to set the reply address for external email to the user's primary SMTP address (internet address field value).

About Notes 8.5 Compatibility Mode

Beginning with Lotus Notes version 8.5, IBM offers a configuration called Compatibility Mode to streamline iCalendar interoperability with other mail systems. This is accomplished by limiting the functionality within the Notes calendar to those functions that will be seamlessly supported by other mail systems. Some have wondered if Notes' Compatibility Mode might be a reasonable alternative to Quest’s CMN for calendar coexistence.

Quest acknowledges this configuration option may suffice for organizations that use only basic, simple calendar functions, but it will limit calendar functionality for all users. IBM concedes in its own documentation that, with Compatibility Mode, "you will not be able to update more than one repeating meeting instance at a time, use custom repeating meetings, or specify weekend rules for repeating meetings." A quick comparison shows Quest Coexistence Manager for Notes delivers a much richer, higher-fidelity calendar coexistence without placing limitations on end users.

In addition to preserving a high level of calendar functionality, Quest CMN also processes Active Mail from Notes, converts DocLinks for use in Exchange, remediates other email incompatibilities, facilitates directory updates, and enables free/busy functionality between the two systems.

If you would like to see a more detailed comparison, please contact your Quest Sales representative.

Directory updates

If updates of coexisting directories is not a high priority, you may simply add and delete users and update user data in the Exchange environment (only), using Exchange administration software. Otherwise, if it is important to keep the two directories coordinated throughout the transition period, you can do that and also update the SQL Server database, as described in Appendix A of the Migrator for Notes to Exchange Administration Guide (see How Do I Update Directory Data and Update the SQL Server Database?).