Exchange Migration Action Plan

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For more information about ISC's Exchange Service, visit the Provider Web [1].

Contents

High Level Migration Planning

This document highlights the points that providers will need to think about when migrating users to the ISC Exchange Service. In addition, there are four other migration best practices documents, each pertaining to a specific segment of the migration process which providers should read in conjunction with this document.

Step 1: Create a profile of your users and organization

  • How many users will migrate?
  • How many computers?
  • What is the laptop/desktop breakdown?
  • What platforms and OS?
  • How many and what types of PDAs and smart phones are supported?
  • How many reflector lists are in use? (reflector lists will not be supported on Exchange; users will need to recreate lists on listserv.upenn.edu)
  • Who are the VIPs to consider?
  • From where are they migrating? POBOX Classic, Hosted Exchange, etc.?
  • Do you have users who need to retain their full calendar history? (ISC is recommending a Jan 2006 cutoff date for most users, because storage estimates are 2 MB per calendar year of data and the length of time required to do the migration, but of course individual users will have individual requirements).

Step 2: Read Networking & Telecommunications' Exchange Documentation

Step 3: Determine Client Software

For Windows users adopting Microsoft Outlook, an early decision point is which version of Outlook to choose. Outlook 2007 is supported and recommended at the University, while Outlook 2003 is only supported, and there are many definite areas of Outlook 2007's superiority (initial configuration is only 17 steps versus 27, initial configuration can be done from off campus, etc.). Finally, Outlook 2007 will be supported by both Microsoft and the University for a longer period of time than Outlook 2003.

Organizations that have recently deployed Office 2003 may wish to retain it for compatibility reasons, as Office 2007 introduces new default file formats for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word along with a significantly revised interface, which may require training (see Technology Training Services). However, since ISC's Exchange service is running Exchange 2007, ISC recommends that all organizations migrating to Exchange also consider moving to Office 2007 to enjoy the full feature set of Exchange 2007.

Some organizations may wish to continue operating with Exchange in a manner similar to how they have worked with POBOX Classic and Meeting Maker, using Supported IMAP Email Clients and Microsoft Outlook or Entourage for calendaring. However, this separation may not always be reliable or easy for users to understand and is discouraged.

Step 4: Determine dependences on other organizations

It may be helpful to coordinate your migration with other departments who are also considering migration. The main challenge within your unit, and across units if cross-scheduling is conducted regularly, is to minimize the length of time it takes to migrate everyone's calendar. Functioning in a two calendar environment is very cumbersome for users and not recommended for any extended period of time. In December 2007, there was a mass migration to Exchange by over 1000 users. At this point, it is possible that units that your users' schedule with regularly have already migrated.

However, if not, coordinating calendar migration is very important. View information about other units who are considering migration. Please add your own information as it becomes available.

  • What is the calendar-use like? Mostly internal? Across units?
  • With what other divisions do you regularly schedule in Meeting Maker?
  • What are their migration plans?

Also read document Working in a Two Calendar Environment.

Step 5: Determine overall migration strategy

There are two reasonable options for bringing a department or an office from a POBOX Classic/Meeting Maker environment to ISC Exchange. Work interruption will be minimized if users’ calendar migration occurs in a condensed period of time.

  1. Email for everyone first, followed by a coordinated calendar migration for everyone, second (recommended for larger groups)
  2. Email and calendar at the same time (ideal for very small organizations or for a limited number of users)

Step 6: Determine specific email strategy

See Email Best Practices document for full discussion.

Step 7: Determine specific calendar strategy

See Calendar Best Practices document for full discussion.

Step 8: Determine specific PDA strategy

Step 9: Determine contact migration strategy

It is likely that each user will have contacts stored in different places; some may have most of their contacts in Thunderbird, with others in Meeting Maker. Other users may have the majority of their contacts in their PDA. It is important to talk to each user individually about their contacts when planning their migration to Exchange and to help them converge their contacts in their Exchange account.

ISC Exchange does not support shared contacts. Please see Shared Contacts Options for a discussion about how users can go about sharing contacts with colleagues.

Step 10: Test strategies for each component

Before migrating, support providers should test their planned migration paths thoroughly. It is not only possible, but likely that support providers will discover specific use cases for email and calendaring that are not covered in ISC's documentation. In particular, support providers should make note of clients that are likely to involve “exception processing” (such as those with smartphones) and attempt to test those types of configurations.

Side Note: Support Providers are strongly encouraged to update documentation on this wiki with information, tips, tricks and gotcha's discovered during their testing and migration. Your lessons learned could greatly help other Penn staff who are working towards the same end--you're not only being a good colleague, but saving valuable university time and resources! To get an account on the Wiki, please contact the Provider Desk, 3-4017.

Step 11: Determine staffing resources necessary vs. what's available

  • Do you have an estimate of how long migration will take in your area?
    • For email?
    • For calendar?
    • For PDAs?
  • Who, locally, will be helping users to migrate?
    • How much time will they be able to devote to the migration?
    • Are there supplemental resources you can/would call on to assist?
    • Are there any competing projects going on locally that would make a move during a specific time period impractical?

Step 12: Construct a migration time line

There are many factors to consider when putting together a migration time line for your unit. Here are a few to think about.

  • What staff resources are available for the migration?
  • How many users do you need to migrate?
  • What is the scope of the migration?
  • Are there competing projects on your list or the list of your users to consider?
  • Is your supervisor in agreement with your proposed time line?
  • When are other units that you interact with migrating?
  • Is the migration part of a larger project (hardware upgrade, new hand held devices, etc.)
  • Do you users need training prior to or shortly after migration?
  • Is there enough time built into your schedule for good project communication?
  • How much time will your users need to prepare for their migration?

Step 13: Coordinate time line with other units as needed

Depending upon what you discover in Step 4, above, you may or may not need to coordinate your migration with other units. As mentioned earlier, coordinating calendar migration is much more important than email migration. Working in a two calendar environment is sure to be frustrating for users, so whatever can be done to minimize that time will aid in a smooth transition. Follow this link to view information about other units who are considering migration. (Please add your own information as it becomes available.)

Step 14: Develop communications plan

Users should understand that this is a significant transition, both in the clients they use and (probably) in the way they work at Penn. In particular, they should not be transitioned when there are major other work-related stressors, such as when they are out of town on University business, making other major technology changes, etc. Communication should set reasonable expectations and time lines. It should make clear that the transition is not a one day process and that not all users will be making the transition at the same time.

Step 15: Determine training needs

End user and provider level training is available through [www.upenn.edu/computing/isc/tts/ Technology Training Services]. Visit their site for dates, times, and registration information.

  • ISC's Technology Training Services offers Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003, and Office 2007 courses. Microsoft's 2007 suite has a new interface, which is considerably different than the 2003 products. If you are upgrading to 2007, it is very likely at least some of your users will need assistance.
  • Training for IT Staff is also available related to being an ISC Exchange Account Administrator and supporting the Outlook client.

Step 16: Deactivate old accounts

Requests to change POBOX Classic accounts to forward only accounts should be requested through the Provider Desk. It is important to make sure that users are *ready* to have their accounts deactivated (which includes deleting all data) before making the request.

  • Have they migrated all their mail to Exchange and/or made a local backup of everything?
  • Have they moved all html files to a different web host and/or made a local backup?
  • Have they transitioned all reflector lists to either a POBOX group account or the ISC Listserv service?
  • Do they have any procmail recipes which require consideration?
  • Have they created a local backup of their Meeting Maker calendar?

Implementation Checklist: Email

For full discussion see Email Best Practices Document

  1. Determine Strategy
  2. Test strategy
  3. Execute communications plan
  4. Determine which data is appropriate to migrate. Needs will vary by user, but it is easier to "spring clean" mailboxes and contact data prior to migrating than after. Even independent of space constraints and migration time, users may not want all of their previous email, calendar items, or contacts migrated. Many are now in their second, third, or fourth Penn client email configuration and their older email has usually lost much of its original metadata (and perhaps some of its reason for existence). Contact data can also be expected to be aged and inaccurate.
  5. Back up data: At a minimum, users should have one full backup of their email and calendar files. Instructions for making these will be included in ISC's technical documentation but typically involve saving the respective data folders for the user's email client and for Meeting Maker. See Making Local Backups.
  6. Decide where existing reflector lists and html files will reside
  7. Install and configure new software as needed
    1. How to configure Outlook 2003 for Exchange
    2. How to configure Outlook 2007 for Exchange
    3. How to configure Entourage for Exchange
  8. Create Exchange Account with temporary password
  9. Migrate email
  10. Migrate contacts
  11. Test functionality and verify folder organization with user
  12. Remove POBOX account from client view (do not delete account)
  13. Point users to client documentation
  14. Help users recreate filters, signature and personal account preferences/options
  15. Ask users to change password

Implementation Checklist: Calendar

For full discussion see Calendar Migration Best Practices

  1. Read background documentation, specifically Working in a Dual Calendar Environment
  2. Determine Strategy and Timing
  3. Test Strategy
  4. Execute communication plan
  5. Setup LSP Migration Station
  6. Backup data: At a minimum, users should have one full backup of their email and calendar files. Instructions for making these will be included in ISC's technical documentation but typically involve saving the respective data folders for the user's email client and for Meeting Maker. See Making Local Backups.
  7. Install new software as needed
  8. Create Exchange account with temporary password (if necessary)
  9. Prepare Calendar for migration
  10. Migrate calendar
  11. Migrate contacts
  12. Test functionality
  13. Point users to documentation
  14. Help users merge contacts

Implementation Checklist: PDA

For full discussion see PDA Best Practices Document

  1. Create a user profile
  2. Read documentation
  3. Determine strategy
  4. Determine software
  5. Develop Communications Plan
Retrieved from "http://prowiki.isc.upenn.edu/wiki/Exchange_Migration_Action_Plan"
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