Well, I’m still struggling with migrating my MS Exchange/Outlook users over to Lotus, but I’ve stumbled onto a specific Outlook PST (Personal Folders) file migration strategy that retains the folder structure in the PST file PLUS it successfully puts the all the folders and their contents into the user’s real live mail database instead of into a separately created database off to the side on the local disk which is a pain for the users to deal with, especially when they’re already belly-aching very loudly about having to switch from MS Exchnage/Outlook to Lotus in the first place before they’re even willing to give it a chance.
This moving of old mail messages seems to be quite a sore spot with the Migration Wizard (nupgrade 3), since you get your migrated folders and messages, but not where you really want them – in the user’s main mail database, but instead into a separate database and this problem has been discussed all over the place in the Notes 4 & 5 forum with no real good solution that I could find after searching all day… but a bit of playing around with the wizard plus some intuitive guesswork got me the result I needed and would like to share the proceedure I’ve discovered with the Notes community since I’m sure someone else will benefit from it.
I don’t know if this is documented anywhere else, I couldn’t find anything like it after looking all day, but here it is:
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change the design of your target user’s mail database on the server to the latest OpenNTF template. The standard Mail6 template seems to be totally foobarred with the Migration Wizard and the Outlook emails get converted into a notes database, but you can’t open them afterwards!!! The Mail5 template does work well too, but is downright fugly. I used OpenNTF and it works, plus it’s much prettier to look at. Make sure to put an exact copy of the template file onto your local disk because you will need it later during the nupgrade 3 process.
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make a folder on your hard drive (or on a network mapped drive) in a simple, easy to locate path like “C:\OLDMAIL” and make sure you’ve got ample disk space ahead of time to hold everything you’re about to put in it.
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create a local replica of your real live server mail database onto your local hard drive (or on a network mapped drive) into this folder and you must give it the exact filename, since it appears to be hardcoded into the migration wizard,like “C:\OLDMAIL\a_PersonalFolders.nsf” ,of course you can change the “C:\OLDMAIL” drive and directory path to something else as long as you use the same exact path in Migration Wizard but the “a_PersonalFolders.nsf” filename must be exactly. Replicate and allow replication to finish completely with the copy on the server. Open up the new local replica with this funny name and verify you’ve got all your normal stuff there before proceeding.
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Make sure all your stuff on Outlook is organized into a tree of folders within one singe “Personal Folders” message store just the way you like it. I have not tested with multiple Personal Folders “services” in outlook, only a single one.
5)Run the Migration Wizard (nupgrade 3), do not choose “Express” but instead you need to choose “Custom” (it’s the only way I’ve tested, you’re on your own otherwise) and then when it asks you for the upgrade options, only select “Personal Folders”. The wizard will now ask you for a template and a folder. Make sure you pick the exact local mail database template file you saved locally in step 1 above. Make sure you browse exactly to the “C:\OLDMAIL” or whatever folder you specified when you created you oddly-named mail database replica in step 3 above. The nupgrade 3 wizard will find the already-existing mail database “C:\OLDMAIL\a_PersonalFolders.nsf” and write your Outlook PST file contents into it, instead of creating a new database, putting all your old Outlook PST file folder trees and contents under your Notes mailbox folders just like an end user would like to have them. After the wizard is finished (may take a very long time if you’ve got a lot of stuff in the PST file like I do), then force a replication back to the server to make sure all is replicated there correctly as well. After everything confirms to be completed OK, you may get rid of the funny-named local replica since it’s not needed anymore. You can also replace the design of your main server mailbox back to normal Mail6 if you like.
Now I feel the urge to rant and rave about how I feel that Lotus should’ve put the ability to browse to an existing mail database in the nupgrade wizard program and given us a more polished and refined tool, but I won’t. I’m just glad to at least have a tool at all and to have stumbled onto the how to make it work using an unusual set of manual steps to get the results out of it that the end users desire and expect.
Now if only I could do the same for the Calendar entries, … but that’s another adventure for another day, if ever.
