GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and transformation (Part 6)

GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and transition (Part 1)

GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and transition (Part 2)

GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and transition (Part 3)

GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and transformation (Part 4)

GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and transformation (Part 5)

Nathan Winters

This article will introduce the Exchange Server 2003 Migration Wizard. We will start by outlining the prerequisites and shedding some light on some of the more confusing issues. It will then perform the conversion process from start to finish.

After the previous 5 sections, almost everything has been installed and configured by us. Message Transfer, Directory Synchronization and free / busy lookups are working in both directions between GroupWise and Exchange 2007.

In this six-part article we will talk about the Migration Wizard of Exchange Server 2003. Start by outlining the prerequisites and shedding some light on some of the still confusing issues. It will then perform the conversion process.

The necessary

Exchange 2003 deployment tools include the Active Directory Account Cleanup Wizard and the Migration Wizard . The Migration Wizard has options to convert from previous versions of Exchange, Lotus Notes or GroupWise with many other components, as shown in Figure 1.

Tips :
If you see options for GroupWise 4.x and 5.x, then you have not upgraded Exchange Server with SP2.

Figure 1: The page to select the conversion type of the Migration Wizard

Before you can run a conversion using this Migration Wizard , you need to have some prerequisites. Let's clear up some of the messy issues here:

• You need to install Novell NetWare client. The most recent version that supports Windows Server 2003 since this article is 4.91 SP4. The transfer utility will prompt the location of the GroupWise domain database wpdomain.db , without the NetWare client you will find it very difficult to find it.

• You also need to install GroupWise client. The actual conversion is on the client side and the transfer utility simply uses the GroupWise client to open the mailboxes and copy the message. The GroupWise 7 client will work but when it is officially on the Microsoft Support Policy, you will have to install the 6.5x version.

• You do not need any Microsoft Connector, both Connector for Novell GroupWise or Calendar Connector to perform mailbox migration using the Migration Wizard. No API required on GroupWise Post Office, External Foreign Domain, Gateway or Link configuration only need these components for coexistence.

From Table 1 you can see that if you plan to co-exist and convert using the original Migration Wizard , you will need all the components installed on Exchange Server 2003 Server.

If you plan to convert without coexistence using the Quest utility, the components need to be installed all on the Migration Workstation and you do not actually require Exchange 2003 !!

Exchange 2003 only plays a role when coexistence occurs. If so, then the above column will give you prerequisites for Exchange 2003 server.

 

Quest Migration

Migration Wizard

Co-existence

Request on Exchange Server

NetWare Client

Is not

Have

Have

GroupWise Client

Is not

Have

Is not

Connector for GroupWise

Is not

Is not

Have

Calendar Connector

Is not

Is not

Have

Request on GroupWise PO

GroupWise API

Is not

Is not

Have

Gateway

Is not

Is not

Have

The External Foreign Domain

Is not

Is not

Have

Link Configuration

Is not

Is not

Have

Request on Migration Workstation

NetWare Client

Have

Is not

Is not

GroupWise Client

Have

Is not

Is not

Outlook Client

Have

Is not

Is not

Table 1: Representing components required for different conversion scenarios

Note :
There are more prerequisites for a Quest migration workstation, which we'll cover in the next section.

Proxy Access

Every mailbox that you want to convert requires permission to access proxy (Proxy Access) into a transfer account. Proxy Access in GroupWise is the same as shared access or delegate access in Outlook. The Migration Wizard uses its own GroupWise mailbox to log into GroupWise, but then it opens the selected mailboxes to be converted by the proxy. Unless you allow full proxy access to the mailboxes being transferred, the process will not work.

You enable proxy access on a separate basis using the Security options from Tools , Options . in the GroupWise client, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Open the Security options in GroupWise client

In the Security options, switch to Proxy Access tab, see Figure 3.

Figure 3: Tab Proxy Access

Use the Add User button to add in the GroupWise mailbox that you intend to use with the Migration Wizard, then in Access rights for . select all available options. In Figure 3 you can see that we have created an account called Migrate Account .

What proxy permissions will be assigned to all mailboxes? There are many ways to enable proxy access for GroupWise mailboxes.

You can change the GroupWise password for a batch of users to switch, log into the mailboxes one after the other, allow proxy access and then export GroupWise contacts. This lack of attractiveness but has many advantages.

• The Migration Wizard does not convert address lists, so it needs to be exported and converted at some point

• You do not need to request or rely on users to allow proxy access or export their own address lists.

• Change GroupWise passwords for users to prevent them from continuing to use GroupWise after the conversion process.

There are several other automated methods that can be used.

The GroupWise ProxySet utility of Caledonia is very useful. With a conversion process of less than 50 mailboxes, you can simply perform the process of changing GroupWise passwords, logging into mailboxes and allowing proxy access. With large conversions it is required to process the automatic execution.

Convert mailboxes

When all prerequisites are converged enough with other tools, components and connectors are installed, the conversion process is quite simple now.

Find the Microsoft Exchange group on the All Programs menu, then drag down the Deployment program group and run the Migration Wizard .

On the Welcome screen, click Next> .

Select the Migrate from Novell GroupWise option . as shown in Figure 1.

The next screen, Figure 4, retooles what we introduced in the previous section on prerequisites for GroupWise client and Microsoft Connectors.

Figure 4: Reminder for prerequisites

Click Next>

The next screen, shown in Figure 9, gives you the option to perform a one or two step conversion. The one-step transfer process will extract data from GroupWise and import directly into Exchange mailboxes. The other process is more flexible because it allows you to edit the converted files to control what is transferred, as described below.

Any option you choose creates a series of Primary conversion (PRI) and Secondary (SEC) files along with a Packing List (PKL) file. These files are usually created in a directory called GrpWise.001, you can see in Figure 5, the value will grow each time you run the conversion utility.

Transfer files are used during the creation of PST files or during data import into Exchange mailbox.

Figure 5: GrpWise.001 directory with conversion files

The PKL file can be edited in notepad, shown in Figure 6. It lists the PRI and SEC files extracted during the conversion process.

Figure 6: Editing PKL file

Removing lines in this PKL file will remove the corresponding mailboxes being imported into Exchange if the Migration Wizard is run using the Import from Migration Files… option as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Start the conversion and select the import option

Note :
You should disable the virus scanner for TMP, PRI, SEC and PKL files. It is very likely that there will be mail and virus infected attachments inside the GroupWise database, quarantining and cleaning up antivirus or email attachments during GroupWise extraction can lead to problems later during import. Scanning of the antivirus program also reduces the speed of the system, so we turned off antivirus software during the conversion process. When the transfer process is done, perform a scan of the entire Exchange system to remove any viruses that were infected during the conversion process.

You need some place to place the converted files, we create a directory structure as shown in Figure 8 in a disk partition with more free space than the size of the entire GroupWise PO database .

Figure 8: Directory structure for converted files

If you do not need the flexibility to edit the converted files, select One Step Migration (Recommended) and specify the location for the transfer files as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Select a one or two step conversion

Click Next>

The Migration Destination screen is shown in Figure 10, giving you two options and you should consider which option to choose here.

The first time we run the Migration Wizard, select Migrate to a computer running Exchange Server , but for the next switch we choose Migrate to .pst files , (so have the PST files folder we created. as shown in Figure 8).

Figure 10: Select the destination of the converter, Exchange server or PST file

Note :
In case you extract GroupWise data and create .pst files, the conversion will fail if these .pst files exceed 2GB. Remember that the Migration Wizard is before the Unicode PST file.

Note :
Do not install Outlook 2003 on Exchange Server to increase the limitation of PST by MaxLargeFileSize 's registry value. It will not work and will stop the conversion utility. If you see the mailmig.exe error - Unable to Locate Component MMFMIG32.DLL , download MMFMIG32.DLL from DllDump.com.

Now, let's assume that we can make a direct conversion. Select Exchange 2003 Server running the Microsoft Connector. If there is only one, it will be selected automatically. Select Information store: and click Next> .

The GroupWise Domain screen, shown in Figure 11, will require the location of the wpdomain.db GroupWise database file along with the GroupWise mailbox name and password.

Figure 11: Specify the location of GroupWise Domain

Click Next> .

The GroupWise Postoffice screen, shown in Figure 12, will list the PO you are converting.

Figure 12: Select GroupWise Postoffice to switch from there

Click Next> .

On the Migration Information page, shown in Figure 13, you can choose whether or not to choose to convert information that can be used to create mailboxes using the Information to create mailboxes checkbox. This option is provided because the Migration Wizard can be used to perform a conversion where there is no co-existence, in which case you leave the status of the check box checked.

In our situation, the user object in Active Directory has been created by the Microsoft Connector for Novell GroupWise. However, there is no harm in leaving it in a saved state, as a precaution in case GroupWise users do not have AD accounts!

Figure 13: Select the information to convert

Click Next> .

On the Account Migration screen, shown in Figure 14, select the accounts you want to convert then click Next> .

Figure 14: Select accounts to convert

The Container For New Windows Accounts screen, shown in Figure 15, is the place to provide the necessary for creating new accounts if they do not exist. If they do, the conversion utility will find and match them on the next screen and show any inconsistencies for you to resolve. In our situation, all Active Directory accounts are created in the GroupWise Users OU, so we choose differently from our habits. It is completely independent of which OU is selected here because this container / OU is only used during the creation of new accounts.

Figure 15: The screen contains items for new Windows accounts

Click Next> .

The next window, shown in Figure 16, allows you to check account similarities. The Migration Wizard will find a match for all GroupWise mailboxes with Active Directory user objects, then the Find Existing Account and Create New Account options will be grayed out.

Figure 16: GroupWise Mailbox to Active Directory accounts

Here, click Next> , go back and allow the conversion to start as shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17: Transformation process

The conversion process ends here, with the options we have chosen to do the first thing: extracting GroupWise mailboxes, then importing these extracted conversion files into Exchange. Events are logged in the application event log for the test process.

Conclude

After this part 6, we have completed a transition! In the next article we will show you how to migrate GroupWise's address list into Outlook before moving on to look at how to migrate using the Quest migration suite.