Microsoft Exchange Migration

1. Microsoft Exchange Migration Process, planning, and training using Priasoft’s Migration Suite for Exchange

2. Introduction • Presenter - Eriq VanBibber • Co-founder and primary architect. • Started in 1999 (Exchange 5.5) • Expert in automation • Expert in .NET • Expert in MAPI and COM • Long history of Enterprise consulting and IT management/architecture • Priasoft • Founded in 1999 • First to market with migration tools • Focused on simplicity and performance. • Privately owned = easy to change and adapt

3. Assumptions • Assumptions • Attendees have varying levels of MS Exchange experience • Experience types: • Architect • Manager/Admin • End user – Outlook / OWA • Some attendees have prior migration experience • Experience could be • Designed • Managed • Executed • Lived thru a migration as an end user • Attendees are attending this conference in order to learn how to achieve the BEST success for an upcoming migration • Some attendees have technical experience across these areas: • Exchange • Windows Networking • File system • Windows Security • Active Directory • Some attendees have non-technical experience across these areas: • Project Management • Process Development • Help Desk Management

4. Architecting Success – Current State • Current migration plan/process • Success criteria • Does this exist? If not, should it? • Technical success vs. Business success vs Project success • Simple outline of desired/expected migration process today • What is the starting point of the current plan? • What event(s) have the most affect on success? • When is it complete? • Highlights of important or challenging aspects • Compressed timeline • Highly distributed environment • Large amounts of data - size/items • Unique accounts or objects – e.g. help desk applications • Source/Target owner interaction

5. Architecting Success – Influencers • Stakeholders and Decision Makers • Business requirements • Financial requirements • Emotional requirements • Timeline requirements • Consultants and 3rd parties • Hardware vendors • Software vendors • Consultant Specialists • Goals (of consultant) • Driver (of consultant) • Contractual • SLA • Overages/Overrides • Migration performed by 3rd party • Technical • LAN versus WAN • Security • Organization size • Applications and Services (Outlook version, 3rd party integrations, etc.)

6. Architecting Success - Process • Current migration plan/design • Priasoft’s typical process vs. current ideas • AD migration – Do or do not? Now or Later? • Coexistence vs. ‘big bang’ • Pre-load vs. backfill • Pre-stage vs. sync • Complex vs. simple • Not tech heavy • Identify gaps and possible concerns • MAC (Move/Add/Change) process(es) before, during, and after migration • Compliance – direct and indirect • Help Desk • High security influence • Minimum requirements for use • End user clients • Business rules • SLAs

7. Architecting Success - Scheduling • Requirements • Contractual • Agency • Migration team • Cascaded dependency – e.g. network cutoffs, scheduled outages • Blackout dates • Approved time windows and impact if exceeded • Control and influence • Who really owns the schedule? (The migration team, not the department/business unit) • Users can impact schedule • Departments and dependencies can impact • Expectations • Repercussions of missed dates • Approval and CYA • Exception handling • Metrics, metrics, metrics!

8. Architecting Success – DryRun • What is it? • A migration of objects using the exact same process and tools that would be used during the production migration • Does not interrupt or interfere with operations • Does not make changes to the source environment • What is the purpose? • Identification of problems that would have otherwise been seen during production. • Identification of gaps in the current migration process • Validation of environmental changes • Metrics – how long, how fast • What does it deliver? • A guarantee – when you get 100% success of the DryRun, you know that the production migration will succeed. • No-slip scheduling – you know how long the migration will take and can schedule appropriately • Confidence – for the migration team, end users, and stakeholders

9. Architecting Success – DryRun • How to approach? • Have to know purpose first. Each purpose has different caveats • Balance between critical value and effort needed • Order? • Functional Tests: Can I migrate? • Performance Tests: How much can I migrate? • Metric Tests: How long does it take to migrate? • Fidelity Tests: What issues will I find? • Important variables • External influencers still exist and can skew results • Time windows and environment load still apply • Time between dry-run and production run

10. Migration Components • Accounts/Users • Categorization – VIP, Simple, Power-user, Webmail user, application accounts, shared mailboxes, resource mailboxes, multiple-mailbox accounts, dependent accounts • Ambiguity and misinterpretation • Expectations and Perceptions • Interface types – Outlook, OWA, etc.. • Communication • Contacts • Categorization – Simple Forward, Local Org representation of remote user, utility/application, other • Ambiguity – within the topic of contacts and between contacts and users/DLs • Expectations and Perceptions • Header rewrites • Edge/gateway dependency

11. Migration Components • Distribution Lists • UDG vs. USG • DLs are actually AD Groups • Contains many types: Contacts, Users, Groups, PFs • Objects must exist in order to re-add • USGs can be use to secure Exchange Objects like PFs • Should migrate holistically • Changes during and after migrated • Public Folders • Often controlled access by DLs • PFs attributes: items, rules, email addresses, permissions • Each mail-enabled PF has corresponding AD object • Changes during and after migrated • Access to PF data is determined by Exchange Database setting • Folder structure is replicated by default; content can be on specific server(s)

12. Migration – Technical Influencers • Mail flow • Edge/gateway routing • Namespace mangling • Expectations/perceptions pre and post migration • Control and ownership • Network Analysis • Line speeds and types – mpls, vpn, burst vs sustained, etc. • Latency – impact, mitigation, and planning • Auto-Auto • Jumbo Frames • Firewalls • Load Balancers / High Availability Designs • IPv6 – Enable or disable? • Certificates • Storage Architecture • Impact based on type • SAN – implementation design and impact • Local – SaS, SCSI, SATA, etc. • Utilization • Dedicated • Shared – Isolated • Shared – fully shared • Read/write queue metrics

13. Performance Influencers • Virus Scanners • On access vs. gateway • Item age impact • Benefit of dry-run • Backups • Exchange backups • Backups of other systems that use same disk system as Exchange • Archiving • DAGs and Clusters • Circular logging • Network, VPNs, and Firewalls • Throttling Policies • Users • User initiated (not requested) ‘clean up’ – creates trans logs • Very large mailboxes (item count) – migration duration for batch is at least as long as the largest mailbox • Migration workstation/server • Physical placement considerations • Concurrency and read/write queue exhaustion • CPU and RAM considerations • NIC configurations, including virtual to physical mapping • Virtual Machines vs Physical Machines

14. Review and Migration Plan • Review and Q&A • Listing of new tasks identified thus far • Clarification of ideas • Ordering of above by time/priority • Outline of revised migration plan • Discovery • Outlook Client Updater – deployment • User acceptance and confidence of ‘new change’ • Assurance that automation process is working • Optional collection of mailbox size info • User account staging • ADMT • Priasoft Pre-staging Tools • Scripted • Distribution List Migration – if not handled by Pre-Staging efforts • Dry-Run • Performance Tuning • Fidelity Checks • Duration and Metrics • Issue resolution • Dry-run of resolved items or new dry-run if major environment change • Public Folder Migration • Performance and duration calculations • Production migration • Production Scheduling • Pre-migration tasks – gateway suspension, MAC suspension • Mailbox Migration • Public Folder migration of any updated/new items • Post-migration tasks – MX record switch, gateway resumption, new MAC process • Outlook Client Updater – execution

15. Technologies and Requirements • Requirements • Local computer – OS, specs, etc. • Environmental – No Firewalls, no wireless, etc. • Permissions – AD/LDAP, local machine, and exchange data • Technologies used • LDAP • MAPI • HTTP • PowerShell • Name resolution • DNS, WINS, hosts, lmhosts, etc • User PCs and Migration Workstation • MS-RPC • Domains, Forests, GCs vs DCs, etc. • Trusts vs. not

17. Lab work, reporting, and troubleshooting • Lab work • End to end setup of Priasoft tools • Requirements and explanation of • Matching of tools usage to key parts of migration plan • Troubleshooting and support • Domain Policies – Workstation and User in relation to migration computer • IPV6 • Permissions • Typical issues and identification • Distinguishing process vs technical issues • Where/what to analyze • Flags and overrides • Reporting • Requirements • Contractual (typically for 3rd party consultants) • Customer driven • Smart/CYA • Where to find • How to get if not exactly available • Identification of data that requires scripting or non-core tools.

18. Most Common Issues • Permissions • Rights to logon to mailboxes change • …because of Domain Policy change • …because ‘MAPI’ account added to additional group(s) • …because account disabled/locked out • Name resolution • Changes to DNS • Changes to WINS • Changes to IP configuration – perhaps by Domain Policy • Mailbox Limits • Throttling Policies • Source or Target mailbox moved to different server before migration completed • AD user account deleted or moved after migration started • Outlook Profile Update did not run