Migrator for Notes to Exchange 4.16.3 - Scenarios Guide

Step 3: Install and configure the Migrator for Notes to Exchange software

The Getting Started section of the MNE Quick-Start Guide explains how to install Migrator for Notes to Exchange. The topics that follow describe the configuration tasks that should be performed now as part of the Migrator for Notes to Exchange configuration before the first run of any MNE component application. (All but the first are optional or conditional.)

NOTE: The user account used to run the MNE console must belong to the Local Administrators group. You can add the user account to Domain Admins group as the Domain Admins group belongs to the Local Administrators group by default.

Consider also whether the MNE Self-Service Desktop Migrator (SSDM) will be used as part of your Migration Plan. If so, it should also be installed and configured.

IMPORTANT: Any antivirus software on the admin workstation must be configured to not scan the Quest program files directory or %temp% directory, or can be turned off prior to running any Quest admin application. (Although it may be restarted after the program runs.) MNE program calls will not succeed if an antivirus scan tries to "clean" an Migrator for Notes to Exchange temporary file that it misinterprets as a threat.

Most the features and wizards of Migrator for Notes to Exchange (MNE) require access to the information stored in a central database on the SQL server. Most also require access to the Notes server, Exchange server, Active Directory, and the shared directories that contain the Self-Service Desktop Migrator (SSDM) and its log and status files and application log files. The MNE wizards need to know the pertinent server names, locations, configuration options, access credentials, and so on for the various servers.

Enter these Default Settings into Notes Migration Manager (the MNE console) before other you use other MNE features or the wizards so that the information is available and need not be entered again. If the information is not entered upon installation, the wizards prompt for the values as needed and most of the values must be entered more than once—entered for each feature and wizard that needs them.

NOTE: Quest recommends you access all five of the Edit Default Settings screens in Notes Migration Manager now to enter this information. The Notes Migration Manager is described in chapter 1 of the Migrator for Notes to Exchange Administration Guide.

Migrator for Notes to Exchange tasks are defined by wizards, most of which let you schedule tasks. The Manage Scheduled Operations screen in Notes Migration Manager lets you revise these task-run schedules. However. the wizards and Manage Scheduled Operations screen only manage the task schedules since the schedules are saved in the SQL database. A scheduled task does not run by itself. Tasks are run by the MNE Task Scheduler (qsched.exe).

The task scheduler is a separate command-line application that runs the scheduled MNE tasks. The program checks the SQL database to see if any tasks have been scheduled to run since the last check and runs the tasks. You manage the task scheduler as any other Windows service using the Windows Service Manager. Instructions for configuring a Windows service can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms681921(v=vs.85).aspx

For information about configuring and using the task scheduler, see the section titled “Using the Qsched.exe task-scheduling utility” in the Migrator for Notes to Exchange Administration Guide.

If you using Migrator for Notes to Exchange to create user objects in the target AD, use a text editor to edit the following parameter settings in the Global Defaults:

The MNE Provisioning Wizard includes the ability to retry transmissions to Active Directory when issues occur. In some environments, transmissions to AD can be occasionally interrupted which can lead to incomplete provisioning. If you expect your provisioning may be significantly affected by such issues, use a text editor to configure these program parameters in the [ActiveDirectory] section of Task Parameters and Global Defaults:

The PSRetryAttempts parameter tells the Provisioning Wizard how many times to retry the transmission at intervals specified by the PSRetryWait parameter. If the error persists through all retry attempts, the wizard logs an error, skips the current message property or element, and continues to process the next item. Depending on the Log level setting (on the Specify Run Information screen), the retry attempts can appear in the program logs with no other documented error or warning. The default settings (PSRetryAttempts=3, PSRetryWait=15) tell the wizard to retry an AD transmission to a maximum of three attempts at 15-second intervals.

IMPORTANT: If you set the PSRetry parameters to values higher than the defaults, consider adjusting the WatchDogMinutes parameter. WatchDogMinutes specifies the number of minutes (default=180) of inactivity the Data Migration Wizard waits before concluding the connection has timed out and ending the process. Quest recommends you set WatchDogMinutes at the greater of: its 180-minute default, or a setting of 10 minutes for every 30 seconds of retry waiting (PSRetryAttempts x PSRetryWait).

A Notes message contains several standard attributes such as the From, To and Subject fields, and can also include user-defined fields. The MNE Data Migration Wizard and SSDM can migrate custom Notes attributes from email messages and Notes contacts to unused properties in Exchange, but only if the migration software knows which properties in the target correspond to which attributes in the source. The migration of custom attributes requires that you map these source-to-target attribute associations in a tsv data file, before the migration, so the migration apps can refer to that file to migrate the attributes.

This mapping file must be a Unicode (not ANSI) file named customattrs.tsv located in the installation folder for the Data Migration Wizard (by default C:\Program Files\Quest\Migrator for Notes to Exchange) and also in the folder containing the notesdtapp.exe file if you want to migrate Notes custom attributes via the SSDM. The migrator applications can refer to this file to map the source attributes to free (unused) properties in Exchange.

Migrator for Notes to Exchange installs a Unicode attrs.tsv file, with the same column headings required for customattrs.tsv that you can use as a template to create the customattrs.tsv file.

IMPORTANT: If any data rows remain in the original attrs.tsv file, ensure that no ID value in customattrs.tsv is the same as any ID value in attrs.tsv. Custom attributes will not migrate correctly if any ID value appears in both files.

For example, a typical customattrs.tsv file might look as shown in the following table:

You can use the Microsoft MfcMapi.exe utility to view the property and its value. (The utility is a free download from Microsoft. You can search in Google for "mfcmapi" and visit the www.microsoft.com/downloads link.)

Most problems in migrating custom attributes can be diagnosed by these quick tests:

A named property name is a property-set GUID and an ID that is either a 32-bit integer or a string. A 16-bit integer alias in the range 0x8000 to 0xFFFF is assigned to the named property by MAPI. That alias is mailbox-specific.

An unnamed property name is a 16-bit integer in the range 0x0001 to 0x7FFF. That 16-bit integer is valid in all mailboxes. Examples of unnamed properties are 0x0070 (i.e., PR_CONVERSATION_TOPIC) and 0x6656, both of which are used by MAPI. So you cannot use these two examples as target property values for message attributes since they are already used though they may be used to map Notes contact attributes to Exchange.

A custom property can be unnamed or named.

If the custom property is unnamed, select a 16-bit integer TargetProperty in the range 0x0001 to 0x7FFF that is not already in use by MAPI. The following values are reserved by MNE:

If the custom property is named, select any property-set GUID. If you select a property set that is already in use, you must choose a 32-bit integer or string ID that is not already in use in that property set. If you select a brand new property-set GUID, you need not worry about IDs already in use because there will not be any.

If you want named custom properties, Quest recommends you use the PS_PUBLIC_STRINGS property-set GUID, (PS_PUBLIC_STRINGS being an alias for {00020329-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}), and use string IDs with a prefix that is unique to your application (like "Quest-").

Step 4 (if mail routing using domain differentiation): Configure mail routing domains

Whether your organization is implementing SMTP mail connectivity only or full coexistence with Quest CMN, most organizations use temporary SMTP domains to route traffic between Notes and Exchange. Other administrators prefer to configure SMTP mail routing with smart host servers for single-namespace environments. The routing method must be configured at the server and user levels. At the user level, Notes person documents and AD object records are configured later in this procedure when you provision the target AD and synchronize the two directories.

Notes-to-Exchange mail routing is configured so that new mail in Notes, both external inbound mail and internal mail from not-yet-migrated Notes users, is routed to already-migrated recipients in Microsoft 365. The Notes-to- Exchange routing domains must be configured (but not yet activated) before the first user collection is migrated to Exchange. The forwarding rules are activated for each user collection as that collection is migrated.

External inbound mail can be switched (by MX record) to arrive in Exchange instead of Notes any time after mail-enabled objects are provisioned into AD—before, during or after the migration. Many administrators prefer to minimize changes before and during the migration process so they update the MX record only when the migration is complete. Others prefer to minimize the forwarding "hops" by switching halfway through the migration process. And some administrators make the switch as soon as the target AD objects are mail-enabled.

Whenever the DNS switch occurs, the Notes routing domains for Exchange-to- Notes mail routing must be configured before the switch so Exchange can route mail for not-yet-migrated recipients to their Notes mailboxes.

The routing domains may be subdomains of the primary domain (e.g., notes.domain.com and ex.domain.com) or completely separate SMTP domains. As long as they are unique to the respective mail systems, they will suffice for routing purposes. To configure subdomains:

Step 5 (optional): Configure coexistence strategy

Configure your coexistence strategy:

IMPORTANT: If you have existing mail-enabled objects in AD, enable the MNE Compatability Mode for the CMN Directory Connectors that will populate AD from Notes to avoid duplicate entries in AD. The CMN Mail Connector and Free/Busy Connector can be configured similar to other scenarios. See the Coexistence Manager for Notes User Guide for more information.

Define the free/busy and mail domains in the Domino Administrator:

NOTE: These procedures do not create user Exchange mailboxes until prior to migration (in the Batch migration process) due to the Exchange free/busy limitation (as explained in chapter 1—see the Important note under Provisioning and mailbox creation for Microsoft 365). If you create Exchange mailboxes earlier in this procedure, be aware that free/busy data for not-yet-migrated Notes users are unavailable until the users are fully migrated to Exchange.

Step 6 (for Exchange 2010 or later target): Configure throttling policy

Some migrations to Exchange 2010 or later have achieved improved throughput using a custom throttling policy. This topic is discussed in detail in this article.