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Lotus Notes Resource Rooms to Microsoft 365 Migration Guide

This is the complete onboarding task flow for migrating mailboxes from On-Premises Lotus Notes, or On-Premises Lotus Domino, to Microsoft 365.

MigrationWiz

MigrationWiz is a migration tool, not a syncing tool. If changes are made at the source after migration, they will not sync to the destination, nor will changes made at the destination sync to the source. We do not have “live” monitoring of changes (as with a sync agent) and we cannot handle scenarios such as conflict resolution without user interaction.

MigrationWiz supports the capability to share migration projects across a Workgroup. Migration projects are no longer tied to individual accounts, they are tied to Workgroups. When Workgroup Administrators turn on the Project Sharing feature, all Agents besides those who are Inactive are able to view all migrations projects. For more information, visit Project Sharing in MigrationWiz.

First time?

This migration guide contains the necessary steps to perform the actual migration, but there are many steps to preparing for migration. If this is your first time performing a migration, we have created a Migration Planning & Strategy Guide to walk you through planning, set-up, and general migration best practices.

Prerequisites

It is important to highlight and meet the following prerequisites for a smooth migration project.

Lotus Extractor

Lotus Notes requires local software installation to use MigrationWiz, as there are no remote APIs for the messaging system. The Lotus Extractor is a small console application (a standalone .exe file) responsible for extracting data from the Domino server and securely streaming this data to the MigrationWiz platform. The steps to install this extractor are included in the Prepare the Source Environment section of this guide. After installing the Lotus Notes Extractor, you can then manage the migration from the MigrationWiz web portal (e.g., to stop/start migrations, view statistics, etc.).

Lotus Domino is unique in that it can store multiple Resource objects within a single database file, also referred to as a Notes Storage Facility (NSF) file. The MigrationWiz Lotus Extractor software cannot directly access the Resource NSF. To facilitate this, a fake person document is created and linked to a copy of the Resource NSF. The Extractor software will access this fake person document, which is tied to the Resource NSF, to pull the data. Within MigrationWiz, a filter is specified for each Resource migration thread so that the proper information is filtered from the NSF and migrated to the Destination.

Migration of Lotus Domino Resource objects requires the following to be taken into consideration:

  • We always recommend migrating Lotus Domino Resource objects at the end of a mailbox migration project plan. For instance, we recommend waiting to migrate Resource object data until the MX and mail flow cutover is completed and all users are utilizing the new mail system. This will ensure that the latest Resource data is migrated.
  • Make a new migration project for all the Resource objects you plan to migrate. Within the Advanced Options of this project, set the concurrent migration value to 3 or lower. This setting will ensure that the NSF file is not overloaded on the Domino Source.
  • Be aware that certain steps in this process MAY require a reboot of the Domino environment.

Limitations

The maximum file size for migration through MigrationWiz varies by migration type and environment, but may never exceed 60GB.

Migrated Items

Please click the bars below to check the migrated and non-migrated items. We are constantly working to create a better migration experience for you so these items may change over time.

What items are and are not migrated?

Migrated

  • Inbox
  • Folders
  • Email
  • Contacts
  • Calendars
  • Tasks

Not Migrated

  • Lotus Distribution Groups
  • All Documents view
  • Lotus Mail Groups
  • Journals
  • Items in the Trash folder
  • Resources field inside a Calendar event
  • Task alarms & reminders

Prepare the Source Environment

Prerequisites

  • Deploy each Lotus Extractor within the Local Area Network where its target Domino server is located.
  • The Lotus Extractor will require ports 80 and 443 to be open.
  • Do not deploy Lotus Extractor on a machine on which the Domino Server is deployed.
  • Do not deploy more than one instance of Lotus Extractor on the same machine.
  • Running the Extractor now will result in a message that the Extractor is unable to find a mailbox connector. This is an expected message and is not a problem for this step.

Once met the prerequisites above, please follow the steps below.

  1. Set up an administrator account for migration on the Domino server. For more information, see How do I set up an admin account on Lotus Notes or Lotus Domino server?
  2. Set up the Lotus Notes Extractor. For more information, see How do I set up the Lotus Notes Extractor?
  3. Create the Resource person document. MigrationWiz must have a person document to use as a migration endpoint on the Lotus Domino Source for the Resource objects. In this step, a fake person document will be created which will be used for all Resource user migrations.
    • Open the Domino Administrator App and navigate to People & Groups > Domino Directories > People. Right-click on People and then click on Register Person.
    • Under the Basics tab, give the fake person a First name, Last name, and a password. Checkmark the Advanced box, and then click on Address. Assign a unique internet address to the fake person, such as resourcemigrationuser@yourdomain.com. This value will be used in the source email field within MigrationWiz. Click on Register All.
  4. Make a copy of your current Resource NSF. Resource data is predominately calendar-based items. This step needs to be completed during the final Full migration pass of the mailbox migration to ensure that you capture and migrate the latest version of your Resource data. Calendar data changes frequently, and if that data is migrated prematurely, you may not migrate crucial changes to these items. Use these steps:
    • Locate the current Resource NSF file. Typically this file is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Lotus\Domino\data and will be called resource.nsf. Your file and location may vary; to verify the Resource NSF location, open up one of the Resource document files in People & Groups > Domino Directory > Mail-In Databases and Resources > Rooms. Within the Resource document, you should see a File name attribute.
    • Make a copy of the Resource NSF file found in the previous step, and place it into the C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Lotus\Domino\data\mail directory. This new file can be renamed if you choose. If the file is renamed, make note of the new name.
  5. Link the fake person document to the Resource NSF copy. MigrationWiz will be using the fake person document as a migration item for the migration of the Resource objects. To make this work, the newly created person document must be linked to the Resource NSF file that was copied to the C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Lotus\Domino\data\mail directory.
    • Open the Domino Administrator App and navigate to People & Groups > Domino Directory > People. Find the fake person document that you created and double-click on the name.
    • Once the person document is open, click on Edit Person, and navigate to the Mail File attribute. Replace the current mail file entry with the location and name of the copied Resource NSF file. The attribute syntax should be mail\yourfilename.nsf since the Resource NSF file was copied to the C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Lotus\Domino\data\mail directory in Step 2 above. Click on Save & Close.
  6. Set up ACL entry on Resource NSF copy. The administrator account used to connect the MigrationWiz Lotus Extractor to the Domino server must be given manager rights to the Resource NSF copy to allow the Extractor to pull data from the file. This is typically the account that is used to log into the Domino Admin application.
    • Open Domino Administrator App and navigate to Files > mail. Find the Resource NSF file that was created/copied. Right-click on the NSF file and navigate to Access Control > Manage.
  7. Under the Basic tab, ensure that the People, Servers, and Groups selection is set to Show All. Within this list, find the user that is being used for the Lotus Extractor local server administrator. Click on this user set the Access permissions to Manager and checkmark the box for Delete Documents. Click on OK to set the permissions.

    Important

    At this point, a reboot MAY be required of your Domino environment. Attempt to open the newly linked Resource NSF by going to People & Groups > Domain’s Directory > People. Find the fake person document that was created and had the Resource NSF copy linked to it. Click on the person document and then click on Open Mail File. If the mail file opens correctly, proceed to the next step. If the NSF does not open, reboot the Domino server.

Prepare the Destination Environment

Modern Authentication Requirements

The steps listed in the Required Permission for Performing M365 Mailbox and Archive Migrations article apply to both the source and destination tenant when they are Exchange Online, in regards to Exchange Web Services (EWS) in the mailbox, and archive mailbox. Use a Global Administrator for the configuration steps.

Please review the documentation before preparing the source.

Create an Administrator Account

Create an administrator account in Microsoft 365 to be used for migration or use the global admin account for the tenant. The administrator account must have full access to the user mailboxes, have the required API Permissions, or be granted impersonation rights.

We recommend adding the necessary API permissions to the Modern Authentication app you are using for your O365 mailbox or archive mailbox endpoint. You can follow the steps outlined in this guide, as this is BitTitan's recommended approach.

However, you can still use the BitTitan impersonation approach if you already have a service account with the Application Impersonation role already assigned. Microsoft is phasing out RBAC Application Impersonation in Exchange Online and no longer allows the assignment of this role to new accounts.

Test Administrator Access

Test that the administrator can access the user mailboxes. Test access to the tenantname.onmicrosoft.com addresses, not to the domainname.com addresses. Make sure that the tenantname.onmicrosoft.com account is attached to each mailbox in Microsoft 365. By default, it should be attached, but if not, it will need to be added as an alias to each account. This can be done through the Microsoft 365 admin portal or via PowerShell scripts. 

Set Up User Accounts

Set up user accounts on the destination Office 365 tenant and assign licenses. These can be created in several ways. (The following links are to external articles.)

Prepare the Tenant to Send and Receive Large Mail Items

Increase Message Size Limits

This is a two-step process. The reason for this is that if the message size limits of Exchange are increased, the IIS limits will also have to be increased to allow increased payloads. There are other non-standard settings that can also cause size restrictions for the IIS or EWS connections, but we are unable to troubleshoot or identify specific environment restrictions outside of these settings.

To display current message size limits:

  1. Open the Exchange Management Shell.
  2. Enter the following commands:

Get-TransportConfig | Format-List -Property MaxReceiveSize, MaxSendSize
Get-SendConnector | Format-List -Property Identity, MaxMessageSize
Get-ReceiveConnector | Format-List -Property Identity, MaxMessageSize
Get-MailBox | Format-List -Property PrimarySmtpAddress, MaxSendSize, MaxReceiveSize

To increase message size limits on the Exchange Server:

  1. Open the Exchange Management Shell.
  2. Enter the following commands:

Set-TransportConfig -MaxReceiveSize 150MB -MaxSendSize 150MB
Get-SendConnector | Set-SendConnector -MaxMessageSize 150MB
Get-ReceiveConnector | Set-ReceiveConnector -MaxMessageSize 150MB
Get-Mailbox | Set-Mailbox -MaxSendSize 150MB -MaxReceiveSize 150MB

 

Increase IIS Limits to Allow Accepting Payloads

There are three limits that should be increased in IIS:

  • maxRequestLength
  • maxAllowedContentLength
  • maxReceivedMessageSize

Follow these steps to increase the Exchange message size limits on your client access server:

  1. OpenWindows Explorer.
  2. Navigate to %ExchangeInstallPath%FrontEnd\HttpProxy\ews\
  3. Open the file Web.Config in a text editor, such as Notepad.
  4. Find the XML tag starting with for each change.
  5. Change the existing value to maxRequestLength="200000" -- this occurs in one place in the Web.Config file.
  6. Change the existing values to maxAllowedContentLength="200000000" -- this occurs one place in the Web.Config file.
  7. Change the existing values to maxReceivedMessageSize="200000000" -- this entry occurs up to 12 times. This needs to be changed for each Authentication method.
    For example:
    <httpsTransport maxReceivedMessageSize="200000000" authenticationScheme="Anonymous" maxBufferSize="81920" transferMode="Streamed" />
    <httpsTransport maxReceivedMessageSize="200000000" authenticationScheme="Basic" maxBufferSize="81920" transferMode="Streamed" />
    etc.
  8. If you are running IIS7 and Windows 2008, it may be necessary to increase WCF settings.
  9. Save the file.
  10. IIS Reset is not needed, web.config changes are picked up by the next connection.

Follow these steps to increase the Exchange message size limits on your mailbox server:

  1. OpenWindows Explorer.
  2. Navigate to %ExchangeInstallPath%ClientAccess\exchweb\ews\
  3. Open the file Web.Config in a text editor, such as Notepad.
  4. Find the XML tag starting with for each change.
  5. Change the existing value to maxRequestLength="200000" -- this occurs in one place in the Web.Config file.
  6. Change the existing values to maxAllowedContentLength="200000000" -- this occurs one place in the Web.Config file.
  7. Change the existing values to maxReceivedMessageSize="200000000" -- this entry occurs up to 12 times. This needs to be changed for each Authentication method.
  8. If you are running IIS7 and Windows 2008, it may be necessary to increase WCF settings.
  9. Save the file.
  10. IIS Reset is not needed, web.config changes are picked up by the next connection.
Increase Maximum Accepted Content Length

You may increase the maximum accepted content length by following these directions:

  1. Open Windows Explorer.
  2. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\ClientAccess\exchweb\ews
  3. Open the file Web.Config in a text editor such as Notepad.
  4. Go to the end of the file.
  5. Insert or edit the following XML code before the </configuration> tag:
    <system.webServer>
    <security>
    <requestFiltering>
    <requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength="104857600" />
    </requestFiltering>
    </security>
    </system.webServer>

If XML code is already present in the Web.Config file, edit it to match what is shown above.

Sample Web.Config before changes Sample Web.Config after changes
<configuration>
<system.web>
...
...
</system.web>
</configuration>
Increase Maximum Received Message Size

If you are running IIS7 and Windows 2008, you may need to increase WCF settings:

  1. Open Windows Explorer.
  2. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\ClientAccess\exchweb\ews
  3. Open the file Web.Config n a text editor like Notepad.
  4. Find all XML tags starting with maxReceivedMessageSize=
  5. Change existing values to maxReceivedMessageSize="104857600"
  6. Save the file.
  7. Open a Command Prompt (cmd.exe).
  8. Type: cd %windir%\system32\inetsrv
  9. Type: appcmd.exe set config "Default Web Site/ews" -section:requestFiltering -requestLimits.maxAllowedContentLength:104857600
  10. Run: iisreset

MigrationWiz Steps

  1. Set up a new mailbox migration project. A migration project for only Resource objects should be set up to allow customization to the project that is geared toward Resource migration utilizing the MigrationWiz Lotus Extractor.
  2. After creating the new migration project, click on Edit Project and select Advanced Options.
  3. Within the Advanced Options page, find the Maximum Number of Concurrent Migrations setting and set this to a maximum of 3. Any higher than 3, and there is a risk of potential corruption of data due to overloading of the Source NSF file. Once all settings and credentials have been entered, click Save to complete the project.
  4. Create a Resource object migration entry for each Resource within the NSF.
    • Resource object migration entries within the project will always use the address created from Step 2 of the "Create Resource person document" section above for the Source email field.
    • The Destination email field will be the Destination Resource email address where the objects will be migrated to.
  5. Each Resource “user” must have a support option customization to filter out the appropriate objects for that specific migration entry. One at a time, for each “user”, click on the Edit icon.
    • Under Support Options add:
      LotusNotesRoomResourceFilter=xxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxx
      Replace the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxx with the Resource Name/Site Profile of the object to be migrated. For example, “LotusNotesRoomResourceFilter= ConferenceRoom1/BitTitan Bellevue” would migrate any data found within the Resource NSF copy file that has a Resource name of "ConferenceRoom1/BitTitan Bellevue".

      Important

      A unique support option is required for every resource object to be migrated. Be sure that each resource migration has the option in place before attempting a migration pass.
    • Repeat this procedure for every migration entry in the project and ensure that the filter put in place is correct for the Destination mailbox you are migrating data into.
  6. Start the Extractor and run a Full Migration. The MigrationWiz Lotus Extractor will generate a CSV the very first time it is started for user mapping. The CSV is generated by an exploration of the Domino directory. Once the CSV is generated, it will not be modified or regenerated without first deleting it.
    • Open LotusExtractor.exe and log in with the administrator credentials from the Domino server and the MigrationWiz credentials where the project created in Step 5 was made.
    • Once the Lotus Extractor is ready for processing, select the migration entries in the project and select Start > Full Migration.

      Important

      • The Lotus Extractor requires that you have the .NET Framework version 4.6.1 or later installed on the computer on which you install and run the extractor. To determine the .NET Framework version currently installed, follow instructions provided by Microsoft: How to: Determine Which .NET Framework Versions Are Installed.
      • If you have already run the MigrationWiz Lotus Extractor before this step, it will be necessary to delete the lotusextractor.csv file, which is in the root directory where the Lotus Extractor was unzipped. Make sure that no migrations are currently processing and delete the lotusextractor.csv file. Once the CSV file is deleted, restart the Extractor and let it regenerate the CSV file.
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