Notes from the field: Transporter Suite

Publiquei um post no meu outro blog com algumas notas sobre a utilização do Transporter Suite para realizar migrações do Lotus Domino para o Exchange Server 2007. Resolvi reproduzir aqui esse mesmo post, embora em Inglês (se alguém não perceber alguma coisa, pode perguntar).

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A couple of weeks ago I participated in a migration project which involved a migration from Lotus Domino 7.0 to Exchange Server 2007.

I used the (free) Microsoft tool: Transporter Suite. Transporter Suite has all it takes to perform a full mail (and application) migration from Lotus to Exchange. The latest version is v08.02.0012, but I used the RTM version (if you want to know what's new, read Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Domino Release Notes).

There are several approaches you can take in a similar migration project, but I prefer to place the Exchange Server in front of the Lotus Notes server, adding a non-authoritative SMTP domain and forward messages for the users not yet migrated. The following picture depicts the scenario I used.

Actually you can even make the SMTP domain authoritative for the Exchange Server, it will still forward any unresolved addresses to the Lotus Notes server if you configure a Send Connector.

My personal feeling is that Transporter Suite has lots of space for improvements. Probably there are some commercial tools more powerful and even more stable, but with a little bit of patience and some testing, the tool provided by Microsoft will do the job.

I would like to share my findings, hoping that they might help you. As I mentioned before, there is a new release of Transporter Suite that may have solved some of the problems I faced.

1. Install the connector components on a server with the Hub Transport (HT) role. Although the documentation mentions that it can be installed on a HT or/and CAS, without the HT role I couldn't create any connections. Here's an excerpt from the official documentation:
   "All connector components (Directory Connector and Free/Busy Connector): Can only be installed on Exchange Server 2007 servers with the Hub and/or Client Access Server (CAS) roles installed; optionally, other roles (such as Mailbox or Unified Messaging) can also be installed."
   
2. There's a small misprint on the documentation. You'll need to increase the maximum attachment size by editing the web.config file in the exchweb\EWS subdirectory of the ClientAccess directory on each CAS. The line that you'll need to add is:
   
   <httpRuntime maxRequestLength="10240" />
   
   Please don't forget the "/" at the end! (that's the misprint)
   
3. I had some problems migrating users. The error I had was:
   
   Summary: 1 item(s). 0 succeeded, 1 failed.
   Elapsed time: 00:00:01

   User1
   Failed

   Error:
   The value "SMTP:User1@DOMAIN.COM" of property "ExternalEmailAddress" is used by another recipient object "DOMAIN.COM/Domino Contacts/User1\/HQ\/Company". Please specify another value.

   Exchange Management Shell command attempted:
   'CN=User1/OU=Sede/O=Company' | move-dominouser -Quiet -DominoDirectoryServer 'SRVNOTES' -GlobalCatalog 'DC01.DOMAIN.COM' -TargetOU '.' -InitialPassword 'System.Security.SecureString' -TargetId 'DOMAIN\User1'

   Elapsed Time: 00:00:01
   
   I didn't find a way of solving this problem. I think it's related with the timings associated with the remove process of the contact created previously and the subsequent copy of all proxy addresses. So, the solution was to write my own migration code. Here it is, you might find it useful:

      1: '*******************************************************************************

      2: 'migrateUsers.VBS: Copy proxyAddresses from a Domino contact to an AD user

      3: '

      4: 'Version: 0.1    

      5: 'Date:    2008/01/07

      6: 'Author:  RUI SILVA rui.silva(a)live.com

      7: '

      8: '*******************************************************************************

      9:  

     10: Const ForReading = 1

     11: Const ForWriting = 2

     12: Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2

     13: Const ADS_PROPERTY_UPDATE = 2

     14:  

     15: Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

     16: Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")

     17: objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"

     18: objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider"

     19: Set objCommand.ActiveConnection = objConnection

     20:  

     21: objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000

     22: objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE 

     23:  

     24:     strName=InputBox("Enter username:")

     25:     objCommand.CommandText = _

     26:         "SELECT distinguishedName FROM 'LDAP://ou=Domino Contacts,dc=DOMAIN,dc=COM' WHERE objectCategory='user' " & _

     27:             "AND mailNickname='" & strName & "'"

     28:     Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute

     29:  

     30:     If objRecordset.RecordCount = 1 Then

     31:         strDN = objRecordSet.Fields("distinguishedName").Value

     32:         MsgBox(strDN & ": FOUND")

     33:     strDN = Replace(strDN, "/", "\/")

     34:         Set objContact = GetObject("LDAP://" & strDN)

     35:         arrProxyAddresses = objContact.GetEx("proxyAddresses")

     36:         nArr = UBound(arrProxyAddresses)

     37:         For n=0 To nArr

     38:             If InStr(arrProxyAddresses(n), "SMTP:") Then

     39:                 strEmailAddr = Mid(arrProxyAddresses(n), 6) 

     40:             End If

     41:         Next

     42:  

     43:         objCommand.CommandText = _

     44:             "SELECT distinguishedName FROM 'LDAP://ou=USERS,dc=DOMAIN,dc=COM' WHERE objectCategory='user' " & _

     45:                 "AND sAMAccountName='" & strName & "'"

     46:         Set objRecordSet2 = objCommand.Execute

     47:  

     48:         If objRecordset2.RecordCount = 1 Then

     49:             strDN2 = objRecordSet2.Fields("distinguishedName").Value

     50:             MsgBox(strDN2 & ": USER FOUND")

     51:             Set objRecipient = GetObject("LDAP://" & strDN2)

     52:  

     53:             objRecipient.ProxyAddresses = arrProxyAddresses

     54:             objRecipient.put "mailnickname", strName

     55:             objRecipient.put "mail", strEmailAddr

     56: '            objRecipient.MailEnable strEmailAddr

     57:             objRecipient.SetInfo

     58:             MsgBox("OK")

     59:         End If

     60:  

     61:         objContact.DeleteObject(0)

     62:  

     63:         objRecordset.Close

     64:         objRecordset2.Close

     65:        

     66:     Else    

     67:         MsgBox(strName & ": NOT_FOUND")

     68:     End If

     69:     

     70: objConnection.Close

Good luck for your migration! Don't forget to read the documentation: Microsoft Transporter for Lotus Domino End-to-End Guidance.