Deciding whether to transfer mail files
If you currently use IBM® Notes®, an important aspect of planning to move to the service is deciding whether to start with new Notes mail files or to transfer current mail files.
About this task
You can combine approaches. For example, you might create new mail files for a majority of users and transfer the mail files of remaining users.
- Users can use the service quickly because the steps to prepare and transfer mail files are unnecessary.
- No company IT resources are required to prepare mail files for transfer.
- If you have users who infrequently use past mail and calendar entries, or if your company mail retention policy is to retain mail for only a short period, a new mail file might not be an inconvenience.
- Notes client users can export contacts and selected calendar entries from their original mail files to a Calendar (.ics) file, and then import the entries into their new mail files after they are provisioned.
In some cases, it might be important to transfer mail files. For example, you might want to transfer the mail files of users such as company executives or managers who work heavily with past and current mail messages and calendar events. If you transfer mail files, users access their original mail files in the cloud after they are provisioned for the service. Users continue to use their existing Notes IDs after switching to the service. As a result, they can continue to access private content such as encrypted mail data.
Options for transferring mail files
About this task
You can pay for the services of a professional transfer manager to work with your company to transfer mail files. The transfer manager must be a IBM Software Services for Collaboration representative or IBM Certified Business Partner. Hiring a transfer manager is useful for large, more complex transfer projects. The transfer manager helps you perform tasks such as preparing mail files and developing a transfer schedule.
A transfer manager has access to the Onboarding Planning Tool (OPT) and Onboarding Transition Tool (OTT). When OPT and OTT are used, the transfer manager sets up an on-premises IBM Domino® server that is provided by your company to use as a staging server for the transfer.
When you transfer mail files, you can choose whether to transfer full mail files or to selectively transfer just some of the content. Selective transfer is helpful for expediting the transfer of large mail files and also for preventing large mail files from exceeding the mail file quota in the service. The mail file quota is 50GB. You decide whether and how to preserve data that is not transferred. For example, you might retain the original on-premises mail files. The original files and transferred files have different replica IDs and do not replicate.
When you selectively transfer mail files with the Mail Onboarding Manager, you specify the number of days of past messages and calendar entries to transfer. All types of data are transferred, for example, mail rules, synchronized contacts, group calendars, to-do's, embedded Notes IDs, and so forth.
- Contacts (Requires to be selected in the mail file before the transfer.)
- Mail rules
- Group calendars
- Draft documents
- Calendar events, optionally including events up to a specified number of days in the past.
- Messages, optionally including messages sent and received up to a specified number of days in the past.
- To Do's, optionally including To Do's with due dates up to specified number of days in the past.
- Preferences settings
- Embedded Notes IDs
- Folders, which can be empty after the transfer if content is older than the transfer criteria