Hi everybody,
I’m working on a big project of cloning 2000 XP machines in my company. Our messaging software is Lotus domino and we are using as e-mail client Notes 6.5.1 in a big Active Directory environnement.
We will clone our XP workstations with Symantec Ghost and before cloning and restoring system images, we will collect client profiles,settings,documents etc. with Symantec Client Migration.
We made some tests, almost everything was ok except Lotus Notes. We can collect some files and registry settings bu we cannot restore it succesfully on a new machine.
So my questions are :
1- Is there a native IBM tool for Lotus Notes to collect and export client settings, and to restore another computer ?
2- If not, do you know the manual procedures and steps to export Notes settings and files and to restore another computer ? What are the requirements and To DOs ?
3- Has anybody used Symantec Client Migration 3.1 to collect Lotus Notes settings ?
4- Can you direct me to the migration and exporting pages of Lotus Notes ?
I will be so happy if anybody can help me.
Best regards.
Shadowfax
Subject: Exporting Client’s Lotus Notes Settings
“Settings” is a kind of vague term in Notes. Elements are held in:
notes.ini – general client settings and Notes-specific environment variables
desktop.ndk (or desktop.dsk in R5 and below) – this contains the user’s database usage history
bookmark.nsf – user-created bookmarks/shortcuts and home page settings
names.nsf – contacts, location settings and connection settings
user.dic – if you forget to bring in the users’ carefully-crafted list of additions to their spell chacker, they will be somewhat miffed.
Many more settings are maintained in the user’s mail database, but they will be available when the user reconnects from the new machine. There is also perweb.nsf, which maintains a history of internet visits, but it will be rebuilt on the new machine automagically (and most users wouldn’t mind losing the seemingly-indelible history). Their important links will be in bookmark.nsf.
Oh – are you the same Shadowfax from the Daily WTF?
Subject: RE: Exporting Client’s Lotus Notes Settings
Thanks for your response Stan,
I’m afraid I’m not the same Shadowfax. I’m from Turkey.
If I copy all these files to a new installed computer and click to Notes icon, it will run without problem ? Do I need to complete extra steps ?
(I’m actually not a Notes user, just a Exchange server and Outlook admin, but this is a part of my project 
)
Best regards.
Subject: RE: Exporting Client’s Lotus Notes Settings
Yes – if the files are in the expected locations on the new computer (and migrating using Wizip with the “keep folder names” option should do that), then the Notes client will know where to look for everything, and all of the users’ settings will be preserved.
I did forget one little detail, though – you will also need to move all of the files with a “.id” extension as well. Without the Notes ID file(s), the user won’t have access to anything. Unlike Exchange, users do not authenticate with a server. They authenticate with their id file, which holds their certificates encrypted using a hash of their password. Once they’ve authenticated with their ID file, they use their certificates to authenticate with the server.