GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Part 1: Ability to collaborate and convert

Nathan Winters

In this small tutorial, we want to introduce you to the task of converting from Novell GroupWise to Microsoft Exchange 2007. The conversion will include some key stages, in this article we will cover to all areas of transformation, including important stages, planning and preparation. This introduction will save you a lot of time in each project. And we will introduce exactly how to create a connection between the two systems and will discuss some common difficulties as well as the ability to collaborate between them. Finally, introduce a real switch, showing the use of both third-party tools and tools, namely Quest GroupWise Migrator for Exchange. The purpose of this article is to support the transition from GroupWise to Exchange.

Plan

Any transformation project includes three main phases:

GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Part 1: Ability to collaborate and convert Picture 1
Figure 1: The main stages of a conversion plan

1. The Discovery Stage includes an assessment of existing infrastructure and an investment to increase understanding of weaknesses, challenges and goals.
2. The Solution Design stage is where you offer an optimal solution to overcome the challenges that challenge and achieve all those goals.
3. When we understand the current state of a task and get the optimal solution, the Migration Plan can be drafted to make the transition from an existing environment to a new one. that you need.

All we want to emphasize in this section is that there is absolutely no elaborate guidance on planning and testing, absolutely things that you can most easily accomplish. Therefore, the detailed planning for the project goes beyond the problem of the lesson, but in this section we have emphasized some common problems that can be encountered when planning a project. and some issues you should care about:

1. Stages
   Allow more free time between stages. A common mistake that people often encounter is to put plans into periods that are too close to each other. The blank time between stages is to allow unforeseen and over-run problems.
2. Resources and scheduling
   Identify the core transformation team. It seems to be obvious, but put the members' holidays into a plan. Make plans in high-level tasks and time periods, you can see where the resource deficits and plans to deal with them are.
3. Check and review
   There is a small point in making a plan if it is not checked and upgraded later. The plan here is to help and guide you through your transition. Make sure your upgrade is done with its progress, so you can plan first to keep a monitor on your project.
4. Verification concept
   You also need to thoroughly examine both the new Exchange system design and conversion plan, see how it appears here. Each person often executes their Exchange add-on and then proceeds with their conversion. This will not lead to the best impact.
5. Educate
   When working with a fundamental change in technology, you need to be trained not only for administrators but also users.
6. Separate existing systems
   At this stage, your project is almost done, however, if you want to consider exactly how to remove old systems, make sure that any protection requirements still have to be done in a way. satisfactory.

These involve switching to Exchange

With switching from GroupWise to Exchange, what we must and want to do is defined to a great extent. We simply by selecting a best conversion plan.

We will focus on the specifics of moving from GroupWise to Exchange at the end and in this series, but let's start from a general technical perspective. To switch to Microsoft Exchange, you need to do the following three steps. These steps are not interested in the source system or inherited from the previous one and are clearly shown in Figure 2.

GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Part 1: Ability to collaborate and convert Picture 2
Figure 2: Steps of a transition

- Create objects in Active Directory . Unlike Exchange 5.5, all versions of Exchange from Exchange 2000 onwards are integrated with the Active Directory component. This means that before you accept for someone to have an Exchange mailbox, you need to provide them with a user account.

In the scenario we will use Connector for GroupWise to provide Active Directory objects. The options available on the Import tab of the Microsoft Connector let GroupWise handle what actions are used when a GroupWise directory object is not found in Active Directory. We will choose to create a new user object.

We will introduce the Active Directory object in the second part of this series.

- Integrating two mail systems . With the exception that is mentioned for a large transition, (converting all mailboxes and resources at once for a short period of time), you will need to consider general and integrated existence. . During this coexistence period, two separate mail systems must look and feel like a common system.

You need to make considerations for:

1. Directory integration and synchronization for internal address solutions
2. Streaming and routing SMTP mail
3. Information about busy / free schedules

- Conversion data . Most people think that there will only be one requirement for converting everything, and the manager must say that it is the worst scenario for all possible scenarios, so need to note.

Transfer from GroupWise, challenges and difficulties

Let's consider what will be faced during the transition from GroupWise to Exchange.

Switching from GroupWise to Exchange is done by the design decisions that Microsoft made when building Exchange 2007. Previous versions of Exchange often had tools to enable migration from GroupWise. These tools are provided by Exchange 2003 to enable co-operation and migration for GroupWise introduced below:

1. Connector for Novell GroupWise
   This tool provides the ability to route mail to GroupWise and Exchange systems so that GroupWise address space can be understood. When configured, it can also allow two directories to be synchronized to ensure a consistent address book in both systems.
2. Calendar Connector
   This tool allows users from both systems to view information about the other system's schedule.
3. Migration Wizard
   There is an option for switching from Novell GroupWise . In this section we will look at Quest transfer tools.

With Exchange 2007 these connectors are no longer provided, which means that to provide an integration and co-operation with GroupWise you must use Exchange 2003. You cannot install an Exchange 2003 server into one. Exchange 2007 systems exist, so if integration and co-operation are required during this transition phase, you must first install Exchange 2003 into your organization.

Figure 3 shows how the two systems are integrated and communicated through Connector for GroupWise and Calendar Connectors.

GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Part 1: Ability to collaborate and convert Picture 3
Figure 3: GroupWise and Exchange integration and integration

User experience and expectations

It may not be clear but fair to say that the GroupWise client on GroupWise will provide other features and user experience for an Outlook client on the Exchange system.
• It may not always be a one-to-one relationship with the way things are used to implement in a new client.
• There may not be a one-to-one conversion relationship for certain client features or formatting.

That makes us take the next consideration

Choose conversion technique

You should take a look at the conversion options. The two options we will focus on in this series are the existing Exchange 2003 Migration Wizard and Quest GroupWise migrator for Exchange. Both of these tools provide most of the same features at a basic level. The third group tool (Quest) provides some more advanced features than the conversion utility available in converting certain GroupWise features, such as proxy access, split directory permissions. and more importantly, the GroupWise internal Archives.

The comparison of what can be converted with each of these tools is listed in Table 1. If you find that additional conversion options provided in Quest tools are not beneficial, can be found in the Migration Wizard.

You can perform migration with Quest Migration WizardInboxYesYesEmailYesYesDirectories and subfoldersYesYesAttachmentsYesYesScheduleYesYesJobs / TasksYesYesList of contactsYesNoAccess ProxyYesNoShared folder permissionsYesNoArchives (Archives)YesNoList and members are allocated in GroupWiseYesNoPrinciplesNoNo

Table 1: Comparison of conversion tools

In fact, your requirements have been defined during the review and evaluation process of the project will favor a conversion tool. If you want to migrate GroupWise internal repositories to Exchange and there is no free disk space, bandwidth or time to copy this internal content into GroupWise prepared for conversion, there is only one option you will do it is Quest!

Conclude

In this first part, we only mentioned the main issues that were taken at the beginning of a transformation project and then introduced some of the concepts needed to move from GroupWise to Exchange. In Part 2 of this series, we will dive and work on technical issues by showing you how to create and test connectivity between the two systems.

GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Part 1: Ability to collaborate and convert Picture 4 GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and transition (Part 2)
GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Part 1: Ability to collaborate and convert Picture 5 GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and transition (Part 3)
GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Part 1: Ability to collaborate and convert Picture 6 GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and transformation (Part 4)