Priasoft's Mailbox Migration Manager

Jorge Jimenez — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:05:00 GMT

Recently I had a discussion with some of my fellow co-workers about some commonly asked questions, you know, the kind of questions that typically come up when considering using any third-party software. It gave us the idea for this blog, where we would be able to share some of our experiences and knowledge with you, the customer. This post shares some 'Frequently Asked Questions' and their answers of course, about Priasoft's Mailbox Migration Manager Version 5.4. The following dialogue is a conversation which took place between a customer and our Support team...

Q. "During co-existence I would like to know whether the forwarding address is stamped to the migrated mailbox of the old SMTP name space."
A. Priasoft ensures that all mail routing performs transparently to both migrated users and to users not yet migrated. We place X500 addresses from the Source mailbox on the contact we create, as well as on the new mailbox. We also place the X500 address of the contact we create on the Target mailbox. Furthermore, we take all secondary addresses from the Source mailbox and merge them with any address that may exist on the Target mailbox. By default the Target mailbox will have the same primary addresses as the Source had before migration. This behavior is controlled by a checkbox in the Mailbox Migration Manager Wizard.

"Thanks for this, could you please let me know whether all the below features are supported parts of this migration,"

Q. Calendar Synchronization from the Source and Target domain
A. Priasoft does not provide a specific calendar sync tool. However, because we do bring all calendar items from Source to Target, each user’s calendar is actually repopulated. There is not a specific need for a calendar sync tool. As users update and/or create new calendar items, meeting notices are sent to the attendees. There is NO LIMITATION of the product by adding unnecessary replication/synching tools such as a calendar sync tool.

Q. Public folder replication along with the permissions
A. Priasoft provides the Public Folder Migration Manager (PFMM). This application can incrementally bring data from Source to Target as is seen fit by the admin. It is not an automatic sync tool but is a migration tool. PFMM provides the following features: Copy folders, data, permissions, email address, and rules from Source to Target Public Folder stores. It can export folder ‘event scripts’ if any exist, and can add new permissions to Source and/or Target folders. For more automatic replication of data, Priasoft recommends the Microsoft Public Folder InterOrg Replication Tool. This is a supported product from Microsoft.

Q. Free / Busy schedule information from Source and Target domain
A. As in reference to above, Priasoft does not provide an automatic replication tool for public folders. It is our recommendation to use the Microsoft Public Folder InterOrg Replication Tool for syncing information, including Free/Busy data. Realize too that the necessity to sync such information is often driven by the duration of the migration. If the migration is such that it can be completed within a few days, the burden and overhead of a replication engine is really unwarranted due to the fact that once all users are in the new organization, Outlook/Exchange will rebuild the Free/Busy data automatically. Free/Busy sync is only necessary when there will be organizers in both organizations that absolutely require the ability to lookup Free/Busy status of non-local attendees.

Q. Unified Global Address list (GAL) of both the domain users
A. Priasoft does not provide a ‘GAL sync’ tool at this time. Although one is in development, its timeline is still approximately 6 months away. However, note that no such synching tool is required for migration. This is often a requirement of business process when the migration will take considerable time (weeks instead of days). In most cases organizations already have directory sync tools in place and as such Priasoft will never require such to be replaced by a more proprietary version. Also realize that as users’ mailboxes are migrated into the new organization the GAL is automatically updated with that information.

Q. Outlook client rules along with the new user profile update
A. One of Priasoft’s strengths is the transparency it provides to the Outlook/Exchange end user. Rules are migrated and also translated, meaning that the rules are ‘re-created’ in the Target in order to ensure that rules will actually work in the new mailbox. Priasoft provides tools to update Outlook profiles. Updating existing profiles, versus creating new profiles, is important because all non-exchange related features of the profile will remain intact.

Q. Co-existence Support
A. Priasoft supports co-existence by creating ‘forwarding objects’ in the Source directory for migrated mailboxes. These objects (contacts in ActiveDirectory, custom recipients in Exchange 5.5) contain all the same attributes as the original Source mailbox (display attributes such as First and Last name as well as Exchange attributes such as Custom Attrributes). The specific implementation provides a situation where any inbound mail, either externally (e.g. SMTP from internet) or internally, are properly routed to the new mailbox. Furthermore, Priasoft will add the forwarding object to the same Distribution Lists that the original Source mailbox was a member of.

Q. Mailbox Migration
A. Of Course! This is one of the aspects we excel at.

Q. Outlook profile updates
A. The simple answer is ‘yes’.

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Priasoft's Mailbox Migration Manager