Email Services/Zimbra to Exchange Migration

Important Links

• Exchange FAQ - Frequently asked questions about the ANL Exchange environment.
• Client Configuration Changes - Settings changes required to connect your existing email client or mobile device to your Exchange mailbox after it has been migrated from Zimbra.
• Exchange How-To Documents - A collection of instructional documents for performing common tasks within an Exchange mailbox.

Why are we transitioning from Zimbra to Exchange?

The Laboratory Information Technology Strategy Council made this decision based on analysis conducted by a cross-lab working group who worked over several months to understand the benefits and impacts of the consolidation to the programmatic areas. Your core representatives on the council are Mike Papka (CELS), Ray Bair (CELS), Bill Ruzicka (AES), John Maclean (AES), Stephen Streiffer (PSE), Tracy Rager (DIS) and Roger Blomquist (NE).

Benefits identified as part of the consolidation include:

• Flexibility - Full support for a wide variety of email clients and web browsers on Mac, Linux, Windows and modern mobile devices.
• Improved reliability/interoperability across the laboratory — Improved cross-laboratory calendaring and consistent service levels.
• Cost avoidance — Reduced management and upgrade costs.
• Improved mobile device support — Microsoft owns and licenses the de facto industry standard, “Active-Sync,” for accessing email and calendaring across a broad set of mobile devices and platforms. This will help us keep pace with release of new mobile computing devices.
• Market share — Exchange is the leading platform. Being a leading platform results in better availability of skills and support information. In addition there is a broad ecosystem for third-party support and add-on products. For example: archiving, eDiscovery and cyber security.

What is the timeline for this project?

Migrations will begin in June and continue through the end of the calendar year. Mailboxes will be migrated in small groups of about 50 users at a time. CIS will coordinate with divisional and functional group IT Administrators to determine appropriate timelines. Individual E-mail based notifications will be sent out as more specific migration schedules are established. Multiple notifications will be sent, giving users with ample time to prepare for the coming transition.

How will the migration proceed?

A cut-over style migration process will be employed to transition your mailbox. This method has worked very well in the past in our environment, especially when migrating across different e-mail platforms. Migrations will be performed each evening Sunday through Thursday, unless the following morning is a Laboratory holiday. A basic outline of the process is described below.

• You will receive notification of your migration date no less then two days prior to your scheduled migration
• At the time of first notification, you will also receive client configuration change documentation, basic how-to documentation for accessing your new mailbox, and contact information for obtaining technical support.
• On the day of your migration, you will receive an additional reminder and links to the aforementioned documentation and support information.
• On the night of your migration, your Exchange mailbox will be created. All new incoming mail for your address will be set to deliver to this mailbox only.
• Existing E-mail will begin migrating to your Exchange mailbox. In our testing, Data Migration rates have averaged about 500mb per hour. Depending on the total size of and number of items in your mailbox, a full migration may take a few hours, or several days. As a result, you may not immediately see all of your old mail, contacts, or calendar items. They will migrate in over time.
• You will be able to access the existing mail in your Zimbra mailbox during the migration, but all new mail will arrive only to your Exchange mailbox.
• E-Mail, Calendar items, Contacts, and Tasks will migrate from Zimbra to Exchange.
• Journal Items, Personal distribution lists, Message rules and filters, Mailbox permissions and Undeliverable message notifications in your inbox will not migrate.
• The morning after your migration, a CIS technical support specialist will be dispatched to your building to assist with completing your transition.
• Once the migration has completed and your e-mail applications have been connected to your new mailbox, your Zimbra mailbox will be closed.

Will all my data and mailbox settings migrate?

• Due to limitations with the migration process and compatibility issues between platforms, only data items can be migrated. For the most part, anything that you would consider a mailbox setting will have to be manually recreated. We will do our best to provide the instruction necessary or otherwise assist you with the replication of these settings to your new mailbox.
• Data that will be migrated includes e-mail items, calendar items, contact items (excluding personal distribution lists), and task items
• Some common items that will need to be recreated manually include permission settings for shared mailbox access, email filters and sorting rules.
• Journal items, Briefcase items, and Undeliverable notifications will not be transferred to your new mailbox

What should I do to prepare my mailbox for transition?

In general there is nothing the end user will be required to do for their mailbox migration. Data will be migrated behind the scenes without the need for user intervention. That being said, there are a few steps users can opt to take ahead of time that will ease the transition of their mailbox and optimize their user experience after migration.

1. If you have existing mailbox rules stored on the Zimbra server, familiarize yourself with the mailbox rule and filter creation process so you can recreate them in your new mailbox.
2. If you have rules or filters stored locally in Apple Mail or Thunderbird, you may want to export them in case you need to re-import them after your migration. You can find the Instructions for doing so below
   1. Apple Mail Message Rule Import/Export
   2. Thunderbird Message Filter Import/Export
3. If you are connected to any shared calendars, you will need to reestablish those connections within your new mailbox. Instructions for connecting to a shared calendar via Outlook Web App and Apple Calendar can be found below. Since we are only migrating twenty users each day, the shared calendar you are looking for may not yet have been migrated. You can request a shared calendar be queued for migration by contacting your Divisional IT support.
   1. Connecting to a Shared Calendar With Outlook Web App
4. Delete any mailbox items that are no longer needed. The smaller the mailbox, the more quickly it will migrate.
5. If you have a large mailbox (over 10gb), or have a large number of items in any of your critical folders (Inbox, Sent Items, Calendar, or Contacts), consider migrating older or less frequently accessed mail out of these folders and into other areas of your mailbox.
6. Review the ANL Exchange Email Client Recommendations.pdf document as it pertains to your preferred e-mail client. Note the recommendations for maximum mailbox size, folder size, and items per folder, and adjust your current mailbox accordingly before migration.