Question : Migrating from Groupwise to Exchange

Hi,

I'm looking to move from a Novell Netware (OES 6.5) environment to Windows SBS 2003.  The OES server is currently being used for some file shares and GroupWise 7.0 (with Groupwise 6.5 on the clients).  I can move the files no problem, but having no experience of Groupwise I'm not sure where to begin.

There are about 20 users, but again not knowing GW I don't even know where to go to manage it or figure out how much email users have on the server, or if they're even stored in mailboxes at all.

So I'm looking for some general info on how best to get the email across to Exchange.  Is there a possibility of visiting each PC and exporting to PST file or something similar, then re-importing to the user's Exchange mailbox?

The PCs are all in a Windows workgroup at the moment but use the Novell Client 4.91.  Because of some time pressure I'd like to at least get the PCs moved onto the SBS AD domain.  If I join the Windows domain will the users still be able to access Groupwise?


As you can see this is all a bit of a mystery to me, so any help is appreciated.

Answer : Migrating from Groupwise to Exchange

There's a couple options

1.  Install Groupwise on the windows server (sorry, just had to say it)

2.  Use the outlook connector for GroupWise, and re-create folders and copy messages.  I don't know if you'll be able to copy contacts over, but you can probably do and LDIF export / import.

2a. Use the GroupWise client to connect to the Exchange server via IMAP, and create folders / copy messages

3.  Use IMAPCOPY (google it) to copy all the mail messages from one server to another automatically.  Definitely won't move the contacts.

Joining the users to the domain should not affect them accessing GroupWise.  If it were me, I'd do that first, before migrating the mail system.