Domino to Office 365 Migration – Stepwise Guide For Migration!
In this article, we are going to discuss the steps and various methods that will help you in Domino to Office 365 migration. while ensuring the security and integrity of your data. Nowadays, many organizations use legacy email systems like Domino and looking to migrate to another modern cloud-based email provider like Office 365. However, migrating bulk emails, contacts, and other data is time-consuming via manual methods.
Let’s see a brief introduction about Domino and Office 365.
Table of Content
What is Domino?
Lotus Domino(HCL Domino) is a legacy service that provides an on-premise server for sending mail and communication in the Organization. It features apps like email, calendar, and notes. It is a backend server and Lotus Notes is a client software. However, Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino were taken over by IBM and are currently acquired by HCL Technologies.
What is Office 365?
Office 365 is a Cloud-based productivity suite by Microsoft. It features tools like email, document editing, and collaboration features. It is a web-accessed workspace where anyone can access documents and email from anywhere. Office 365 provides a customized collaboration and email suite to organizations. Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino can be used interchangeably if you are searching for migration however their application is different.
Overview of Steps Associated with Migration
1. Planning and Preparation
Examine every aspect of your present Domino environment, such as the quantity of data stored, the number of emails, the apps, and any customized setups. List every component that has to be moved in an inventory. Make sure each user has the proper Office 365 license. Always remember, to prevent data loss try to back up your data.
2. Choosing the Right Migration Method
Best suited for smaller businesses with a smaller mailbox count. For more extensive migrations, vendor tools help streamline the procedure. Depending on the situation, combine automated and manual processes. Set up your Office 365 tenant with the appropriate domain settings, user accounts, and mailboxes. Use Azure AD Connect to synchronize on-premises Active Directory with Office 365. Ensure network bandwidth is sufficient for data migration, and configure firewall and proxy settings as needed.
3. Data Migration
Use tools or manual methods to migrate mailboxes from Domino to Office 365. Ensure that calendars and contacts are also migrated. Migrate public folders and shared mailboxes if used.
4. Testing and Validation
Start with a small group of users to test the migration process and address any issues. Validate the migrated data to ensure everything has been moved correctly and is functioning as expected.
5. Cutover and Go-Live
Perform a final synchronization to ensure all data is up-to-date. Switch users to the Office 365 environment. Provide support to users during the transition to address any issues or concerns.
6. Post-Migration Activities
Once everything is confirmed to be working fine in Office 365, you can decommission your Domino environment. Provide training and documentation to users to help them get accustomed to Office 365. Continuously monitor the Office 365 environment and optimize as needed.
Different Methods for Domino to Office 365 Migration
To perform a migration between Domino and Office 365 there are two manual methods and one automated method. Let’s see all the methods in deep and discuss the steps associated with them.
Lotus Notes to Office 365 Migration Using MONTI
Microsoft provides a guide(Microsoft Online Note Inspector) to migrate Lotus Notes to Office 365. it is an 86-page long document file by reading that you can easily find steps to migrate your data.
Steps to read the guide
- Download and unzip the MONTI Guide.
- Go to the Office 365 Tools\MONTI\Docs folder
- Read this Guide to Migrate data.
This is a complex method that requires lots of technical knowledge and if you lose your attention you will end up with errors in migration or data loss situations. However, if you want to read the documentation we recommend you read it carefully and pay more attention to each step.
Otherwise, you can follow the second method for migration.
Domino to Office 365 Migration using IMAP Connector
Steps to migrate using IMAP Connector
Step 1. Firstly, you need to create a backup of Lotus Notes. The Lotus Notes store its backup in .nsf file format. Creating an NSF Backup will help you avoid data loss due to migration failure.
Step 2. Secondly, you have to create new mailboxes for every user in the Lotus Notes(IBM Notes or HCL Notes) desktop client
Step 3. Thirdly, enable IMAP TCP/IP Port for all users
- Navigate to the administrator in IBM Notes then find the “Configuration Tab” and click on it.
- Now click on the “Server document” to get the servers that are running on IMAP service.
- Click on Ports >> then Internet Ports>> Mail tab
- Now enable the default IMAP TCP/IP Port. To do so, you need to change the ‘TCP/IP port value status’ to ‘Enabled’ in the Mail column.
- Now click on ‘Save’, to save changes and click on Exit.
Step 4: Finally, Connect with the IMAP Connector and synchronize emails in Office 365 notes email client
Note: There are many limitations to this method like can not migrate files over 1 GB, it uses many costly filters, and migrating with the help of IMAP protocol can only transfer online files.
This method is too complex and time-consuming, to streamline and automate the process you can follow the below Method.
Read more: Complete Microsoft Office 365 Migration Checklist
Domino to Office 365 Migration Using Proficient Tool
To minimize the error and risk of data loss we advise you to use Migrator Wizard Lotus Notes Migration Tool this tool can help you to streamline the process of migration where you can easily move data from Domino to Office 365. However, this tool can help to migrate entire data items like emails, calendars, and contacts to the Office 365 account easily without human intervention.
Steps For Migration
After installation of the software from the above link open it and select the source.
- Firstly, Select Lotus Notes as the source and Office 365 as a destination
- Secondly, Scroll down and click on the checkbox of an item that you want to migrate in this case choose emails.
- Thirdly, Enter the source Admin Email ID and Application IDlotus email client Password in the text boxes.
- You have to put NSF files in the specific pattern as shown below:
- Create a folder in the disk drive, like:
D:/NSF Files/user1@sourcedomain.com/ (put all NSF files of user1)
D:/NSF Files/user2@sourcedomain.com/ (put all NSF files of user2)
D:/NSF Files/user3@sourcedomain.com/ (put all NSF files of user3)
After that select the folder “D:/NSF Files/” into our tool as “Source Folder Path”. - Now click on validate permissions on the left.
- Enter the destination Office 365 Admin Email ID and Application ID in the text boxes.
- Again click on validate permissions and click on Next.
- Now this tool provides three options to fetch the users registered on source Office 365.
Fetch Users
Import Users from CSV file.
Download Templet and manually map the source and destination Emails. - Select fetch users to get a list of all NSF users.
- Once mapping is completed click on validate.
- And, then click on Start Migration.
Woohoo! You have successfully performed Domino To Office 365 migration.
You can read more if you are trying to perform Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration
Conclusion
In conclusion, we have discussed all the methods required to perform Domino to Office 365 Migration. However, we have discussed the MONTI and the IMAP Connector method. Additionally, we have mentioned a prominent tool that can save the time and effort of an admin.