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Migrator for Notes to Exchange 4.17 - Pre-Migration Planning Guide

About the Migrator for Notes to Exchange documentation Introduction Critical considerations Other strategic planning issues Appendix A: Known limitations of the migration process

Know your migration scenario

Most migrations follow a similar basic process with variations to accommodate circumstances and needs—a migration scenario. It is critical that you understand and characterize your scenario before you begin migration planning because your scenario will influence the decisions about the processes and methods you use to accomplish the migration. Most variations to the basic process result from:

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Migration Destination (Exchange target type):
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Proprietary (on-premises) Exchange network
A proprietary Exchange environment is one in which the hardware and software are under the control of the migrating organization. Ordinarily this is a local Exchange network—on the same premises as the Notes source, or near enough to use high-performance network cables. However, a proprietary Exchange target can also reside in a different location from the Notes source.
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Hosted Exchange platform (the cloud)
A hosted Exchange platform is one in which the hardware and software are owned and controlled by a third party. The hosting entity sells, as a service, access to disk space and the Exchange software features. This service model is also known as cloud computing. Most migrations to a hosted Exchange are to Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online).
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Pre-Migration State of Existing Local Active Directory: Part of the migration process depends on whether your organization already has local Active Directory running for login and security purposes and, if so, the state of any objects provisioned there.
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If migrating to proprietary Exchange: Do you already have Active Directory up and running? If AD is already provisioned, are its objects already mail-enabled, mailbox-enabled, or neither?
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If migrating to Microsoft 365: Will you use a proprietary local Active Directory to provision the hosted environment and, if so, will you keep the local AD active after the migration? This method of provisioning permits single sign-on, also called identity federation, so users can access Microsoft 365 services with the same credentials they use for local Active Directory. Alternatively, you could provision Microsoft 365 without local AD, by using Migrator for Notes to Exchange to provision Microsoft 365 directly from the Notes/Domino source.
Your scenario and circumstances might point to a particular method of provisioning the target AD, or you may have a choice. See Provisioning the target Active Directory for information to help you determine how to provision the target AD.

Different combinations of target types and existing local AD can produce an array of migration scenarios. The Migrator for Notes to Exchange Scenarios Guide describes the combinations and explains the migration procedures for each:

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Migration to Proprietary Exchange
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No existing Active Directory (or no AD objects yet exist).
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AD objects in existing Active Directory.
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Migration to Microsoft 365
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Provisioning Microsoft 365 from local Active Directory.
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Provisioning Microsoft 365 directly from Notes/Domino source.

The MNE Scenarios Guide also describes three special scenarios that can occur in combination with one of the previously listed scenarios:

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Offline Migration: A strategy in which Notes source data, previously extracted from Notes, is migrated directly to the Exchange target. An offline strategy can be valuable if
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Problematic bandwidth makes direct connection impractical (e.g., if the source and target servers are far apart—geographically and/or from a network perspective).
- OR -
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The Domino environment is managed by a third party that does not allow admin access.
- OR -
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A disaster scenario occurred in which the Domino server is destroyed but backup NSF files survive.
An offline migration can be accomplished by either of two approaches:
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Notes source data is saved to replica or otherwise-disconnected NSFs and the MNE Data Migration Wizard migrates from the NSF files directly to Exchange.
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The MNE Data Migration Wizard migrates Notes source data to PST files (rather than directly to an online Exchange target) and the PST files are imported into the Exchange target by another application. The MNE Migration Manager for PSTs would be a good choice for this purpose.
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Phased (Staged) Migration Options: A phased migration strategy is one in which all but the most recent source data is "pre-migrated" to Exchange while users remain active in Notes. The remaining Notes data (a much smaller volume) can be migrated much faster—often all users can be migrated together in a final "cutover" migration. Users continue to receive and send mail and manage their calendars in Notes throughout the transition period while their older data is migrated to Exchange. If the final cutover can be accomplished in a single day or weekend, this strategy can eliminate the need for email, calendar, and free/busy coexistence.
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Silent Mode Options: A strategy to configure the MNE Self-Service Desktop Migrator (SSDM), the per- desktop migration application, to hide some or all of its screens and retrieve its required values from a configured .ini file, eliminating or minimizing any need for interaction with the end user.

Characterize your migration scenario in the first section of your Migration Plan.

Provisioning the target Active Directory

Different target types (a local Active Directory vs. Microsoft 365) require different provisioning methods. A local Active Directory can be provisioned directly from the Domino source using Migrator for Notes to Exchange tools in combination with Quest CMN Directory Connector (or some other directory synchronizing method). For Microsoft 365 you can use Microsoft AD sync tool to copy objects into the hosted AD from a local, proprietary AD (previously provisioned locally), or Migrator for Notes to Exchange tools can provision directly from Domino.

 
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IMPORTANT: If you intend to configure free/busy coexistence between Domino and either a local proprietary Exchange or Microsoft 365, the timing of your pro­visioning task (within the overall migration process) will be affected by this known Exchange behavior:
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Exchange cannot send a free/busy query to Domino for any user who has an Exchange mailbox. Exchange can direct such queries only to its own mailboxes.
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The significance and implications of this limitation depend on whether you are migrating to a proprietary AD or to Microsoft 365, as explained separately below.

Provisioning includes mail-enabling and/or mailbox-enabling the objects in the target AD. An Active Directory object is said to be mail-enabled when the AD object record contains a forwarding address to which mail can be routed (i.e., to the user Notes address). An object is said to be mailbox-enabled when an Exchange mailbox is created for it.

Review the information that follows to determine your provisioning method, and note it in your Migration Plan.

Provisioning a local proprietary Active Directory

The MNE tools can provision Active Directory from the Domino source. The typical and most direct method to provision a local AD begins with an MNE directory export, followed by a directory update by the CMN Directory Connector, as illustrated.

Your organization may already have an Active Directory running for login and security purposes and, if so, Migrator for Notes to Exchange can synchronize the existing AD objects with the Domino objects and mail-enable the AD objects. In either case, this provisioning step is necessary before any users are migrated.

 

In many organizations the migrating users are already using AD security objects for network authentication prior to the migration project.Where Notes users already exist as user objects in Active Directory, the CMN Directory Connector (and other directory-update tools) will produce duplicate entities in AD. But MNE includes a Provisioning Wizard that can merge the contact information into the original AD object record and delete the contact, leaving a single mail-enabled object in Active Directory.

Other MNE wizards can mailbox-enable the AD accounts and provision groups in AD.

When provisioning a local Active Directory, be sure to provision all Notes users into AD as mail-enabled objects, without Exchange mailboxes before you migrate the first user. Provisioning mail-enabled objects into AD will facilitate Exchange-to-Notes mail forwarding, to correctly route mail that arrives (or originates) in Exchange for not-yet-migrated Notes recipients. But Exchange mailboxes would disable Exchange-to-Notes free/busy queries: Exchange cannot send free/busy queries to an external server for a user who already has an Exchange mailbox.

This Exchange free/busy restriction becomes irrelevant if you defer creating user mailboxes until before their migration, several steps later. The standard scenario procedures (in chapter 2 of the Migrator for Notes to Exchange Scenarios Guide) follow this approach for provisioning local proprietary Active Directory.

Provisioning Microsoft 365

Your organization may already have a local Active Directory running for login and security purposes and, if so, the Microsoft AD sync tool can copy objects from local Active Directory to Microsoft 365. But even where no local AD is already in place, many administrators find it easiest to first configure and provision local "staging" AD, so they can provision Microsoft 365 from the local AD with the Microsoft AD sync tool.

Provisioning Microsoft 365 from local Active Directory makes single sign-on, and identity federation possible so your users can access Microsoft 365 services with the same corporate credentials (user name and password) they use for local Active Directory.

The local AD is provisioned the same way whether your ultimate destination is the local AD (see Provisioning a local proprietary Active Directory), or Microsoft 365 to be provisioned from the local AD.

If you prefer, you could use Migrator for Notes to Exchange tools to provision Microsoft 365 directly from the Domino source, or you could use Microsoft 365 online admin tools to provision manually—usually with some scripting to automate portions of the work.

However, Exchange-to-Notes mail forwarding requires mail-enabled objects in Microsoft 365. But an Exchange-to-Notes free/busy query (an Microsoft 365 user seeking free/busy info for a Notes user) requires that the Notes user not have an Exchange mailbox. (Exchange cannot send a free/busy query to an external server for a user who already has an Exchange mailbox. Exchange can send such queries only to its own mailboxes.)

To have both Exchange-to-Notes mail routing and Exchange-to-Notes free/busy queries during the transition period, you must:

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Provision all Notes users into Microsoft 365 as mail-enabled objects, but without mailboxes, before the first users are migrated.
- AND -
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Do not create user mailboxes until immediately before their migration (per user collection).

The Microsoft AD sync tool can provision mail-enabled objects from local Active Directory to Microsoft 365 without simultaneously creating mailboxes, but other provisioning methods create Microsoft 365 mailboxes at the same time they create the mail-enabled user objects.

The Exchange free/busy restriction is irrelevant if you do not intend to configure free/busy coexistence. In that case, you can provision all users in all collections to the hosted AD in the Pre-Migration Preparations, to preserve Exchange-to-Notes mail-forwarding.

Consider these options before you begin the pre-migration preparations, and note your choices and methods in your Migration Plan.

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