Replace Domino with Exchange 2007 (P.4)

Network Administration - In this fourth part of the series, we will learn how Exchange 2007 and Lotus Domino 7 can coexist during the transition from Domino to Exchange 2007.

>> Replace Domino with Exchange 2007 (Part 1)

>> Replace Domino with Exchange 2007 (Part 2)

>> Replace Domino with Exchange 2007 (Part 3)

In the previous section (part 3), we have done some preparation for the system Fabrikam Domino can use the Free / Busy Connector. In this section, we will prepare some preparation for the Contoso Exchange system, then we will create and configure the Free / Busy Connector so that users can exchange Free / Busy information (busy / free). ) come back together.

Prepare for Exchange system

The first step is to download and install the Exchange MAPI Client CDO 1.2.1 package from the Microsoft website. At this link you need to download a file called ExchangeMapiCdo.exe to extract the file ExchangeMapiCdo.msi. The MAPI and CDO 1.2.1 applications are used to install on an Exchange 2007 server because the Transporter Suite needs their support to perform some functions (MAPI and CDO are not built into Exchange 2007). The process of installing these two application packages is very simple. After downloading, just click on the installation file and follow the instructions.

While installing Exchange 2007 you do not need to create a Public Folder Store. Outlook 2007 does not use system folders found in a Public Folder Store to store Free / Busy information, so if all workstations are using Outlook 2007, Outlook 2007 will not require creating a Public Folder Store. This is the case for Contoso because every workstation is using Outlook 2007 and has installed Exchange 2007 without configuring a Public Folder Store. Why is this important for the case of Contoso and Lotus Domino? This is because the Free / Busy Connector needs to use Free / Busy System Folder to perform some functions. So we need to create a Public Folder Store in Contoso system.

First we will initialize this public storage point on the Exchange Management Console . You can skip this step if you created a Public Folder Store.

1. Open the Exchange Management Console . In the Console tree, go to Server Configuration and select Mailbox .

2. In the worksheet, right-click the related storage group and select New Public Folder Database . in the right-click menu. You will see the New Public Folder Database wizard appear.

3. In the Public name database public folder field, enter a name for the new Public Folder Database . For example we name it Exchange Free Busy . Then click the Browse . button next to the Database file path field and make sure to save the Public Folder Store in the appropriate location on the system. After selecting the appropriate location, click on the Save button then you will return to the opening screen of the wizard. Select the Mount this database check box and then click the Next button (Figure 1).



Now Public Folder Database will be created and installed successfully. If you want to use the Exchange Management Shell to create a Public Folder Database , use the New-PublicFolderDatabase command .

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Next we will have to use the Shell interface to complete the configuration process. The Add-AvailabilityAddressSpace command will help determine the access method that applies to Free / Busy requests across the Forest. We will have to use the following parameters:

1. ForestName . This parameter must be the SMTP domain used by Fabrikam's Domino user, named fabrikam.com.

1. AccessMethod . The AccessMethod parameter needs to be set for a value of PublicFolder.

Therefore the full command syntax takes the form:

Add-AvailabilityAddressSpace –ForestName fabrikam.com –AccessMethod PublicFolder

If all operations are correct you will see a screen similar to the screen shown in Figure 2.



Turn off Public Virtual Directory SSL

Before starting the Free / Busy Connector, we need to do one more step. This operation may or may not depend on the configuration of Exchange 2007. Microsoft says that if Mailbox and Client Access Server Roles exist on the same server, you will have to cancel SSL on Public Virtual Directory in Internet Information. Services (IIS) Manager. Please do the following:

1. Run IIS Manager .

2. Go to Default Web Site and navigate to Public Virtual Directory .

3. Right click on Public Virtual Directory and select Properties. Then the properties window will appear.
Select the Directory Security tab and click the Edit . button in the Secure Communications area. And you will see the Secure Communications window appear.

4. At the Secure Communications window, uncheck the box to select Require secure channel (SSL) (Figure 3). Then click OK twice and close IIS Manager .

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Create Free / Busy Connector

We have already done a lot of configuration work for Exchange and Domino and we have not created the Free / Busy Connector yet. The process of creating the Free / Busy Connector is very simple, but before creating a little attention to the licensing process we need to keep in mind.

Keep in mind that in this article we are using the default Domino admin account when connecting back to Domino. The account that made the connection back to Domino requires Editor access to the Domino names.nsf file. Fortunately, the default Domino admin account has Manager access, which meets this requirement. And Microsoft also suggested that the account used to connect back to Domino requires at least Reader access to the free information database file on Domino Local named busytime.nsf .

Here we will create the Free / Busy Connector in the Transporter Management Console . These steps include:

1. Select the Connect option from the console tree.

2. Next right-click the Connect option and select Create Free / Busy Connector from the context menu, or select this option in the Action panel.

3. You will then be taken to the Create Free / Busy Connector wizard Introduction page . Here click Next and then click Create button on the Progress page. Then click Finish to close the wizard.

4. The result is a new Free / Busy Connector that has just been created but it has not been configured (under the Domino Directory Connectory created earlier in Figure 30).



To create the Free / Busy Connector in the Transporter Management Shell, simply run the New-DominoFreeBusyConnector command.

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Configure Free / Busy Connector

Like the Directory Connector, you can configure the Free / Busy Connector during creation using a number of different command line parameters. Next we will configure the Free / Busy Connector via Transpoter Management Console and Transporter Management Shell.

First we will configure the Free / Busy Connector in the Transporter Management Console .

1. Click on the Free / Busy Connector you just created, right-click it and select Properties from the context menu. Or you can select Properties in the Actions menu.

2. The properties window of the Free / Busy Connector will appear, where you will see two tabs for configuration. The default General tab is selected, you configure this tab as follows:

1. Schedule . Set the schedule for the Free / Busy process. You have several options here including: never (off); every 30 minutes (every 30 minutes); hay every 1, 6, 12, or 24 hours (after 1, 6, 12, 24 hours). In this article we will choose every 30 minutes.

1. Days of Free / Busy Information . By default Free / Busy information will be retrieved within 60 days but you can change it if necessary. Our example will use this default value.

1. Maintain Information in cache (when storing information on the cache - in seconds). The default amount of time is set to 900 seconds, corresponding to 15 minutes. Retrieval scheduling information will be stored on the cache for 15 minutes if this default value is used, meaning that if the user requests to retrieve information within that 15 minutes, the information will be returned from caching without having to perform retrieval.

1. Timeout (duration - in seconds). The Exchange server will wait 15 seconds while connecting to the Domino server to get Free / Busy information. If the connection fails in 15 seconds, a Timeout error will appear.

1. Domino Server running the ExCalcon.exe task. In this field we will enter Fabrikam's Domino server name and we have installed excalcon.exe . You need to enter this information using the hierarchical Domino server name, in our example domino / fabrikam .

1. Notes Password and Confirm Password . Here we need to enter the Notes ID password for the account configured on the Note client installed on the server containing Transporter Suite.

Next, go to the Advanced tab, click the Add button and enter all SMTP domains connected to Domino. In the example in the article we will enter the SMTP domain name as fabrikam.com .



After all parameters and fields are configured, click OK to close the properties window and return to the Transporter Suite main window.

You can also create and configure the Free / Busy Connector on the Transporter Management Shell using the New-DominoFreeBusyConnector command. Like the Directory Connector, the Free / Busy Connector offers a number of parameters and syntax similar to the one shown in Figure 7. The Transporter Suite help file contains all the necessary information.



After completing the configuration, launch the Microsoft Exchange Free Busy Connector for Lotus Domino service on the Exchange server. You should install the auto launch mode for it.

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Check Free / Busy Access

In Figure 1 of Part 3 we saw the situation where Exchange User 1 wants to hold a meeting with the Fabrikam user named Domino Administrator . Without the Free / Busy Connector Contoso users will not see any information when performing Free / Busy information retrieval. But now what happens when users query Free / Busy information? Let us see in Figure 8 below.



As we can see, Exchange User 1 is now able to see that at the time they scheduled the meeting, Domino users were busy, and through that they could schedule meetings on another day.

Conclude

In this article, we have completed the installation and configuration of a Free / Busy Connector between Exchange 2007 and Lotus Domino. And we have seen that the query information is shared between the two systems when viewed in Outlook Web Access. In the next section, we will move the Domino user to Active Directory to prepare for the process of moving their mailbox data.