MAIL AND DIRECTORY MIGRATION

Creating Notes mail files
In the mail pane of the Register Person dialog box, you specify the type of mail file to create for a user - with the standard Notes mail template, iNotes Web Access template, or a customized mail template - and whether to create the file now or to let the Administration Process create it later. To create Notes mail files for migrated users, you must create the file now. Notes mail files must be created during the registration process; you cannot choose to create them in the background with the Administration Process.

Setting mail database quotas

When migrating a user's mail file, Domino Upgrade Services ignore the size restrictions specified in the mail database quota field. Imported mail files continue to receive mail after registration, regardless of the specified size restrictions. To enforce size restrictions on a mail file, you must set a limit after the initial user registration and enable enforcement of database limits in the Configuration Settings document for the server. If size checking is enabled, the user cannot receive mail if it would result in the quota being exceeded.

Migrating duplicate messages

Mailboxes in the old mail system may contain duplicate copies of a message, one in each of several folders. After migration, duplicate messages may display in multiple Notes views, corresponding to the folders on the legacy system, but only a single copy of the message is migrated.

Users migrating from other systems should understand how message storage works in Notes. On mail systems that use true folders to store messages, copying a message from the Sent folder to another folder creates a duplicate copy of the message.

A Notes mail file, by contrast, stores messages in a single database that has multiple folder views. Each view of the database displays messages based on a set of selection criteria, such as sent messages. However, although a message may display in several views, Notes maintains only a single copy of it in the mail file database.

In particular, users should be careful about deleting messages from the Notes Sent view. Although a message in the Sent view can be displayed in other secondary views, it cannot be moved out of the Sent view. Deleting it from the Sent view removes it from all other views.

Migrating folders and subfolders

Folders in a Notes mail file behave differently from folders in the mailboxes on other systems. In some cases, folder names may be truncated during migration and nested folders are not migrated to the same location in the folder hierarchy as in the source mail file.

Subfolders in the Inbox and Sent folders

The Notes Inbox and Sent mail views cannot contain subfolders. As a result, subfolders in the Inbox or Sent folders of a legacy mailbox are converted to top-level folders in the Notes mail file during migration.

Maximum length for folder names

A Notes folder name cannot exceed 64 characters. During migration, folder names longer than 64 characters are truncated.

Maximum length for subfolder names

Notes mail files support the use of hierarchical, or nested, folders. In the folder hierarchy, the subfolder name includes the name of its parent folders. For example, in the following folder hierarchy:

Projects/1998/Q3/July/Letters

Notes considers the full name of the Letters subfolder to be 25 characters long, because it includes the names of the Projects, 1998, Q3, and July folders.

If the complete path for a subfolder (that is, the name of the subfolder and all of its parent folders) contains 64 characters or fewer, the folder hierarchy is migrated intact. However, subfolder paths that contain more than 64 characters are shortened during migration. Domino Upgrade Services replicate the path up to 64 characters, truncating the name of the last subfolder created, if necessary. The remaining subfolders are not migrated, but the messages in them are migrated to the last subfolder that was migrated.

So, for example, if a subfolder in the source mail file is nested seven levels deep and the path name for a subfolder nested four levels deep exceeds 64 characters, then the migration tool creates folders 1 through 3, preserving the existing folder hierarchy. Folder 4 is also created in its original place in the hierarchy (nested within folder 3), but its name is truncated. All of the messages contained in the folders nested within folder 4 (folders 5 through 7) are migrated to folder 4.

See Also