Upgrade from 7 to 8.5.1 with new Domain

HCL Domino Domino Forum
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Hi friends,

perhaps anyone could help me at my question…

We want to upgrade to Domino 8.5.1 from Domino 7.0.3… But we want to create a new Domain or rather we need an new public Names.nsf…

The new Domain should based on certifer from the old Domain… The domain name should be the same…

To set up the server its no problem… To Access the new server is no problem.

Use the new server is no problem too…

My problem is the following:

When i use the “move database” or “move to another server” process in the people → tools tab i get a message back in the console which means that i have no connection documents for replication and the databases could be not consitent after the moving process has finished.

But it replicates and it works… Interesting is, that i get this message although i have connection documents on the 2 servers…

The next is, when i have used people → move to another server and the process has finished, i see the database on the new server, i can access them and use it… but i get no deletion request in the admin4.nsf on the old server, the person document has not be updated…

Only a database replication. And this database has the 7.0.3 server as administrationserver in the acl’s… When i change this manualy i can access the databse and use it… But replication will never works, with the error “You are not authorized.”

So it looks that my way is not the best or not correct, to set up a new server, clean names.nsf and move the users from server 7.0.3 to 8.5.1…

Do you have any idea, what i could do to make this successful…

I know the best practise but this includes that i upgrade first the 7 server and then i must use an additional server, which inludes an names.ndf replication… This is not, what we want.

Any ideas?

My idea was to use the actually certifier to make alle databses accessable on the new server… And this works, but the rest…???

Best regards,

Sebastian

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Subject: Why do you need the new Domino Directory

G’Day Sebastian,

The biggest question here is WHY do you need the “new” Domain (ie:names.nsf)?

I am guessing here that you are implementing new hardware at the same time as upgrading.

All you need to do is shut down the old 7 server (Domino console ->“Exit”), copy the data folder and Notes.ini to the new box, install the software (Domino) on the new machine, pointing the install to the location of the data location on the new box, and start Domino.

You won’t have to do a server move for your users, and as long as your network is able to locate the domino server on the new machine you won’t have to change anything about your users configuration.

Hope this helps,

Mat

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Subject: WHY a good question

Hi Mat,

this a good question… I will explain it…

The Administrator before my colleague and me has made so much changes in the directory…

For example he has made changes with the designer in the directory… OK, you can replace the design but then we have certificates in the directory which no one knows, what it is and miss configurations and so on…

This is, why we decide lets build a new one.

The Administrator before us didn’t know what he does…

Regards,

Sebastian

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Subject: Could lead to more problems…

G’Day Sebastian,

I have recently been through this process from a slightly different angle.

A client had their environment MIGRATED to Notes 8.5 by someone with little/no Domino experience who had simply used their “Microsoft” knowledge of how to migrate a Domain to a new box. It looked like they followed the Exchange Migration Step-by-Step Guide to the letter!

They set up the new machine, created a new domain, created a new certifier, and then copied all of the mail files across and recreated the users from scratch in the new domain.

It wasn’t until things didn’t work that we were asked to get involved.

You can imagine the security issues (Server/ACL/Certifier, etc) that we had to get around, not to mention that because it was a new Domain with a new Certifier we weren’t able to use the Administration Process to fix things until we pulled all the stuff we needed from the old domain to get that working.

I can’t tell you what a pain it was over a three week period to “fix” everything in the new domain so that the organisation was back where they were (with a working Domino environment) before the other consultant started the process.

This is just an example. I obviously don’t know anything about your existing infrastructure, but I would advise you to carefully analyse what is already there, and consider repairing the problems before going down the path you have indicated.

Starting from scratch, even with your existing Certifier and Domain name can be fraught with problems, especially if you have any custom Applications (Databases) or external stake-holders (both might use the cross-certificates you indicated) currently configured.

A custom Domino Directory isn’t that much of an issue, just identify any forms/views/agents/etc that are different from the standard template. You could potentially find that some of these extra elements are possibly used in some custom applications.

It’s a double edged sword. Starting from scratch with a “clean” environment might seem like the easiest thing to do - until a lot of things break and you have to work out what is going wrong. Trying to work out what is going on in the existing Domain - and then fixing it - can also be fraught with problems.

Let me know if you would like some help: twitter DM @matnewman.