Notes to SharePoint Migration

Overview

This article discuss about Lotus Notes Migration approach and How to do Notes application data migration to SharePoint using Quest Notes to SharePoint Migrator tool.

Migration Approach

Figure 1 Phases

Assessment & Analysis

• Define objectives
• Analyze Application portfolio
• Run Assessment Tool
• Analyze Notes Database structure
• Understand operational characteristics & Notes user culture

Architecture & Solution Definition

• Identify migration requirements
• Study and Understand Lotus Notes forms and Views
• Study and Understand SharePoint Site layout, List, Document Library and Site Collection user permission. 
• Identify destination SharePoint data source and do mapping.
• Define migration plan

Prototyping & Customization

• Map and migrate target databases
• Validate functionality & data
• Pilot the solution
• Perform migration readiness analysis
• Phase wise roll out roadmap of migration by business criticality, users etc.

Rollout & Support

• Optimize the performance of the target infrastructure
• Migration databases data
• Support during migration

Tools and Technique

Lotus notes to SharePoint migration there are more than 10 tools available in the market (i.e. Quest, Unify, Transporter and DocAve). This article mainly focus on how to use Quest Notes Migrator for SharePoint 5.0 tool to migrate Notes data to SharePoint.

Notes Migrator for SharePoint includes a powerful facility for reading local Notes databases and remote Domino databases. This software's data query engine extract document items, view column values, attachments, embedded images, embedded OLE  objects, rich text, DocLinks, multi-valued items, unread marks and dynamically computed fields values from Lotus Notes and writing the results to SharePoint Lists, Notes Migrator for SharePoint products supports all standard List Types (such as Document Library, Discussion, and Events) as well as rich text and attachments.

Figure 2 Notes Migrator for SharePoint

Notes Migrator for SharePoint also supports migrating document library files and can preserve Reply-To hierarchies in threaded discussions. It also includes support for advanced SharePoint features such as document level security, versioning, folder support, duplicate document handling, content types and  document approval.

Notes Migrator for SharePoint migrates content from standard template-based Notes applications, highly customized Notes applications into SharePoint.

Notes Migrator for SharePoint Import Service

With an intuitive user interface helps Notes / SharePoint developer to easy-to-follow  and mapping of Notes data sources to SharePoint list destinations, Notes Migrator for SharePoint can be operated by Notes / SharePoint developers. After a successful migration, your organization’s original Notes information is available for use on the SharePoint platform.

Select Notes Data Source

Select SharePoint Data Target

Map Notes data to SharePoint

Demonstrations of  Notes to SharePoint Migration

Below example demonstrate how successfully migrated following notes elements to SharePoint.

• Document items and display column values,
• Attachments,
• Embedded images,
• Embedded OLE objects,
• Rich text,
• DocLinks,
• Multi-valued items,
• Unread marks and
• Dynamically computed values.

Lotus Notes source document screen shots

Migrated (SharePoint) Lotus Notes document screen shots

Lotus Notes Security Mapping

Notes Migrator for SharePoint 's security mapping options will map various access control properties of the source Notes database.

An extensive set of options are available for mapping various access control properties of the source Notes database and individual Notes documents to the equivalent security constructs in SharePoint. The following diagram summarizes the possible security mapping options available to you.

Security mapping options allow translation of Notes access control rules to SharePoint.

The Map ACL Users option will cause any Notes users listed in the source database's Access Control List to be added to the target SharePoint list or library. The Notes user names are mapped to Site Collection identities based on the rules configured in the tool's User Mapping Options and those Users are granted access to the target SharePoint list or library.

The Map ACL Groups option will cause any Notes groups listed in the source database's Access Control List to be added to the target SharePoint list or library. The Notes group names are added to the Site Collection as external groups and are granted access to the target SharePoint list or library. Each group name must correspond to an actual Domain group.

The Map ACL Roles to SharePoint Site Groups option causes a new SharePoint Site Collection Group to be created for each Role defined in the Notes database ACL.

Map ACL Users

If the Map document-level Reader/Writer fields option is set, then any Reader Names or Author Names items encountered in a particular Notes document will cause a permission list to be generated on the corresponding SharePoint record. This new permission list will only grant read access to the users and groups named in the Reader Names field and will only grant edit access to the users and groups named in the Author Names field.

Software Requirement

Notes Data Extraction:

• Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista or Windows 2008
• Lotus Notes 6.0 client or higher (may connect to remote Notes 3.0 or higher
• servers on any platform)
• NET Framework 3.0

SharePoint Data Load:

• Windows 2003 or Windows 2008
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Office SharePoint Server 2007 front-end
• server
• NET Framework 3.0
• Administrator access on the SharePoint server, database and site collection

Conclusion

Above solution covers all aspect of Notes to SharePoint Migration I am sure that this will accelerates migration timeline and impact very minimal to your existing environment.

Happy news year and Self Appraisal

In 2008 world face financial tribulation and the biggest financial companies brought to their knees. Personally I just turn back re-call my memory what we achieved in 2008, Surprisingly yes, it is another good year in my life.

Some highlights

In October 2008 I was promoted to next grade and learn new skills in area like proposal management, Risk management and improved my presentation and communication skills.

In terms of social computing actively participated and contributed 68 post via "Come Across" blog, contributed 22 blog post via படியுங்கள்! சுவையுங்கள்!! (Tamil) blog and also wrote 4 article on www.codeproject.com titles given below.

1.Microsoft Office Servers Overview with Logical Architecture (4800+ hits)

2. Setup and Install SharePoint 2007 Server (MOSS) on Virtual PC (2000+ hits)

3. Setup and Install SharePoint 2007 Server (MOSS) on Virtual PC (1440 + hits)

4. Migrating Lotus Notes (Domino) data to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (950+ hits)  and listed under best pick article gallery for few days

In terms of financial I also book some loss, but its lead me learn about Technical Analysis skills, good financial lessons. Big thanks to magazine like www.moneytoday.in, www.vikatan.com (Tamil), and Mr.Sai blog.

Hope to see another good year for everyone......

With Regards,

Faizal

Codeproject.com listed my article under best picks

I am very happy to know that my Migrating Lotus Notes (Domino) data to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007  article has been listed under latest best picks area.

Quest Notes Migrator for SharePoint

Quest going to release 5.0.1 patch for Notes Migrator around Q1 or Q2 2009. When its release we can expect following features.

• QuickR/Domino Support
• Ability to generate WSS “Wiki” content page
• Ability to generate WSS “Basic” content page
• Ability to generate WebPart Pages
• Ability to generate MOSS “Publishing” Page (leverage SharePoint ECM Features)
• Enable multi-level reporting
• Usage, forms used, jobs, logs, Design Elements
• Migrate old version in Domino.Doc
• Additional Reports

Notes to SharePoint Migration tool

DocAve Lotus Notes Migrator provides a reliable, efficient and cost-effective solution for the transfer of documents and application content from Lotus Notes/QuickPlace/Quickr to SharePoint 2007.

DocAve lets SharePoint administrators easily automate the process of consolidating legacy Lotus Notes/QuickPlace/Quickr into SharePoint with minimal impact on end-users.

Easily Migrate These Lotus Elements in SharePoint:
   For Lotus Notes:

• Discussions
• Document Library
• Memos
• Journal Entries
• Team Rooms
• Events
• Reports
• Announcements
• Topics
• Rules
• Stationery
• Author Profile
• Interest Profile
• Newsletter Profile

   For Lotus QuickPlace and Quickr:

• Generic Pages (with Formatting and attachments)
• Imported Pages
• Calendars
• Tasks
• Links
• MS Word Pages

Save reusable profiles for commonly used migration settings
Graphical utility for comprehensive mapping of:

• Users, Groups, and Permissions
• List Templates
• List Names
• List Columns
• Content Types
• Illegal character substitution

For more visit :  http://www.avepoint.com/products/sharepoint-migration/lotus-notes-migrator#

Different type of SharePoint Server 2007 server farm topologies. (System Architecture)

Introduction

This article discuss about understanding the different type of SharePoint server farm topologies.

Overview

The SharePoint Server 2007 server farm design vary based on the customer requirements, security perspective and size requirement. The topology designs can be created based on the size of the server farm namely small, medium, and large which can focus on either a single or multiple farm models.

Different type SharePoint Server Roles

Web Front End Server : A front-end server that provides the web services used to render applications (Presentation layer).

Application Server : A front-end server that provides applications services such as search and index (Services layer)

SQL Database Server : A dedicated server running either Microsoft SQL Server 2005. In large farms, this is typically a SQL Server clustered configuration with two or more servers.

Domain controller : Provide authorization and authentication service to Office SharePoint users.

Small server farm :

Small server farm which consist of two-server, one of the servers hosts the Web front end and the application services, while the second server hosts the SQL Server database. This provides a way to manage the database separately but adds complexity without adding scalability or availability.

This type of smallest deployment that is recommended for demonstration, training environment or very small organization or user group.

If you notice that architecture diagram has domain controller, either demonstration environment or very small group, I am sure that there will be existing domain controller server, you may consider re-use.

Small Farm System Architecture

Medium server farm :

Part of this article is to help you determine the minimum requirements which allow you design and achieve your customer goal.

To design high-availability solution, you must deploy a server farm. To decide you may need to discuss following items with your customer and analysis the outcome.

Question	Yes	No
Is your overall availability requirement below 99%?
Is the availability of your data critical?

Question 1 Is your availability requirement 99% or greater? If your customer response to “YES”, which means organization looking for high availability on Office SharePoint Server 2007.

I order to meet above requirement you need to design your Web Front End Server to the two-server deployment, which will gain scalability and availability by load-balancing requests so that if one server goes down, the system up and running.

Question 2 Is the availability of your data critical?, If your customer response to “YES”, which means organization is looking for high availability and gain scalability to safe from data loss, so your design need to be clustered or mirrored database server .

Medium Farm System Architecture

Large server farm :

Part of this article is to help you determine the Large server farm configuration which is suitable for an enterprise-level SharePoint environment:

To design enterprise-level SharePoint environment, you may need to discuss following point with your customer and analysis the outcome (This question are in-addition to medium farm server questions).

Application server role	Service
Query
Excel Calculation Services
Index & Search (External System i.e. ERP, CRM, File share and Lotus Notes)
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 search

Enterprise-level SharePoint environment :

_ Two or more load-balanced front-end web servers running Office SharePoint Server 2007

_ Two or more application servers running Office SharePoint Server 2007

_ One Index & Search servers running Office SharePoint Server 2007

_ Two or more clustered database servers running SQL Server 2000 or 2005

_ SAN Storage

The above architecture diagram shows Web Tier, Application Tier and DB Tier which design to serve different purposes, each of the servers provides specific SharePoint Server 2007 services such as Index Services or Excel Calculation Services, and the front-end servers provide web content services.

The servers in server farm (WFE server, Application server, Index server) must run with Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Database server which configure clustered or mirrored environment with SAN storages.

Conclusion

There is nothing special or difficult on above architect design, basically understanding the customer requirements (i.e. future user growth rate, storage capacity, system availability, security, and system performance requirements) put this pieces of information together and analysis and provide possible solutions architecture that meet your customer goal.

Other SharePoint related article :

1. Microsoft Office Servers Overview with Logical Architecture

2. Office SharePoint Server 2007 Features

3. Setup and Install SharePoint 2007 Server (MOSS) on Virtual PC

codeproject

Singapore SharePoint Community December 2008 meeting

Singapore SharePoint Community December 2008

Date : 11 Dec 2008  Time: 06:30 PM

Location: Microsoft Singapore

Light dinner will be served before session.

Session Agenda

19:00  – 20:30

Jazz Up SharePoint with Silverlight

Light up your SharePoint site with Silverlight 2.0, the latest release for rich internet application framework.  You may already see Silverlight enabled site for ASP.NET applications, but how do you do it in SharePoint?  This session will explore the configuration needed to make MOSS Silverlight enabled.  Some demos on video streaming, image composition and rich UI experiences will be presented.

About the speaker:

Choirul Amri is Co-founder of IlmuKomputer.Com, the largest e-learning portal in Indonesia. He was also the founder of SQL Server User Group in Indonesia (sqlserver-indo@yahoogroups.com) a PASS Chapter and Culminis member. His interests are ASP.NET, SQL Server, and Enterprise Resources Planning. He started IT career as a Network Administrator, then move to various roles as DBA, developer, and trainer.

He works for Avantus Training as Principal Consultant Trainer, teaching and evangelizing various Microsoft development technologies.  Choirul was awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) on ASP.NET his contribution to technical community. He maintains technical weblog at http//choirulamri.org

To register, please send your name, email, contact and company name to ssofian@mvps.org.

Please help to forward this email to someone whom you think is interested to get involved in the user group.  Thanks.

SharePoint Developer Tools

Developer Tools

To kick star SharePoint development, Developer may be require following software.

1. 1. SharePoint Designer
2. 2. Visual Studio 2005/2008
3. 3. Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (VSeWSS)
4. 4. Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Workflow Foundation)
5. 5. Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (VSTO)
6. 6. Office System Professional Plus
7. 7. .NET Framework 3.0
8. 8. .NET Framework 2.0
9. 9. Windows 2003 Server R2
10. 10.Windows SharePoint Server 3.0
11. 11.Office SharePoint Server 2007
12. 12. Virtual PC 2007

codeproject

SharePoint web services URL's list

This policy document outlines the items and processes for managing customization within an enterprise Microsoft® SharePoint® Products and Technologies hosting environment.

Download

This document is useful for SharePoint developer, because a complete list of built in out of the box web services URL's listed in table format.

Setup and Install SharePoint 2007 Server (MOSS) on Virtual PC

This article describes how to Setup and Install SharePoint 2007 Server (MOSS 2007) on Virtual PC

Before you start installing, Make sure that you downloaded following software’s.

1. 1. .NET Framework 2.0
2. 2. .NET Framework 3.0
3. 3. Windows SharePoint Service 3.0
4. 4. Windows SharePoint Service 3.0 SP 1
5. 5. Virtual PC 2007 and
6. 6. Windows Sever 2003 R2.

The following process includes creating a new VM definition, adjusting the settings, and installing the operating system (OS) and .NET Frameworks. (Take note that this process will take about three hours.)

Setup Victual PC

1. 1. Click New... and Click Next

1. 2. Select Create a new virtual machine. Click Next.
2. 3. Type the name and location. The default is New Virtual Machine. To create the VM on your external hard drive, enter the location and a name called WindowsEntServer2003BaseImage. and Click Next.

1. 4. Select an operating system as Windows Server 2003 and Click Next.

1. 5. Adjust the RAM. For this base image 1 GB or 1024 MB will suffice and Click Next.

1. 6. Select A new virtual hard disk option and Click Next.

1. 7. Create the hard disk in the same location that you selected in step 4. Adjust the virtual hard disk size 6 GB is a good start. You can resize the disk at any time and Click Next.
2. 8. Click Next and Finish to completed the process.

Setup Loopback Adapter

Once the machine is created, add a second network adapter on the virtual machine to your host machine's Loopback Adapter.

1. 1. Click Settings.

2. 2. Click Networking.

3. 3. Change the setting Number of network adapters to 2.

1. Incase if you do not know how to Install Microsoft Loopback Adapter. Go to this website and follow the steps to install (How to install the Microsoft Loopback adapter in Windows XP)
2. 4. Change the setting Adapter 2 to Microsoft Loopback Adapter.

3. 5. Click OK.

Install an operating system on Virtual PC.

1. 1. Virtual PC, click Start

2. 2. If you have a Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 CD or DVD, insert it in your host machine now. If you have a Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 ISO image file, Go to menu bar, click CD, then Capture an ISO Image, and browse to the location of your Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 ISO image. Open the image.

3. 3. Follow the instructions to install the server operating system.

Once everything done, then the OS need to activate and Windows Update is run to install all available service packs and patches.

Edit the HOSTS File

Since the virtual network will not going to be served by the same DNS server used by the host machine. You need to locate a virtual machine by name rather than IP address, To edit Host file follow the steps.

1. 1. Got Run and enter C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc Right-click the HOSTS file and select Open.

2. 
3. 2. In the pop-up, select Notepad. Click OK.

4. 3. Add the IP address and machine name of your virtual machine on a blank line.

5. 5. Close the Window, and click Yes when prompted to save the changes.

Install ASP.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET 3.0

ASP.NET and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). Both are required by SharePoint. ASP.NET 3.0 package Include above items, So follow the steps to Install.

1. 1. Copy .NET setup file to your VPC or Share folder and access form VPC

2. 2. When you double click it prompted to Run, Open, or Cancel, click Run or Open.

3. 

4. 3. Prerequisites will be checked and files will be copied.

5. 4. Agree with the terms, accept the license and click Install.

6. 5. When installation is complete, click Exit.

Allow ASP.NET 2.0 Web Service Extensions in IIS

1. 1. Select Start - Administrative Tools - Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
2. 2. In the Internet Information Services management console, expand the server name in the left pane, then select Web Service Extensions:
3. 3. In the right pane, select ASP.NET v2.0.50727, then click the Allow button:

Install Windows SharePoint Service 3.0 SP 1

1. 1. Copy .NET setup file to your VPC or Share folder and access form VPC
2. 2. When you double click it prompted to Run, Open, or Cancel, click Run or Open.

3. 4. Agree with the terms, accept the license and click Install.

4. 5. When installation is complete, click Exit.

Back Up Your Base Image

Congratulation... Now you have created a reusable base image. Start to make a backup this image. So that you can save time when creating servers in the future.

1. 1. Click Start and Shut down your VM. Enter a reason of "Base Image Backup".
2. 2. Once the files are backed up, you can create a new machine by moving or copying the VHD into another folder, renaming it according to purpose

3. 3. Prerequisites will be checked and files will be copied.

Install SharePoint on Virtual Machine

1. 1. Virtual PC, click Start

2. 2. If you have a SharePoint 2007 Server with Service Pack 1 CD or DVD, insert it in your host machine now. If you have a SharePoint 2007 Server with Service Pack 1 ISO image file, Go to menu bar, click CD, then Capture an ISO Image, and browse to the location of your Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 ISO image. Open the image.

3. 3. Follow the instructions to install the server operating system.

4. 4. Insert the MOSS 2007 installation media, start the installation, enter the Standard / Enterprise product key, then click the Continue button:

1. 5. Select I accept the terms of this agreement checkbox, then click the Continue button:
2. 6. On the Select the installation you want screen, click the Advanced button:

1. 7. Server Type tab, select the Complete option and then click the Install Now button:

1. 8. Once the installation is complete, select the Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard now checkbox, then click the Close button

1. 9. Run and SharePoint Configuration Wizard
2. 10. On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies screen, click the Next button:

1. 11. In the services may have to be started or reset dialog box, click the Yes button:

1. 12 On the Connect to a server farm screen, select the No, I want to create a new server farm option, then click the Next button:
2. 13. SharePoint Setup will complete 1of10 steps to auto configure
3. 14. Congratulation.. You  installed and configured MOSS 2007 application running inside the virtual machine.

You can also view this article at www.codeproject.com to view click here

codeproject

SharePoint Setup is unable to proceed due to the following error...

If you receive following error message when you try to install install SharePoint Server 2007 on a server that is running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

To resolve this issue, install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 on a server that is running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 before you install the 2007 Microsoft Office servers SP1.

To download WSSSP1 Click here

How to enable Antivirus on SharePoint

To scan upload and download document to/from SharePoint  Portal, You need to configure antivirus on Ceteral Administration > Operation > Antivirus.

Take note that you can activate antivirus measures only after installing a compatible antivirus scanner. In a server farm, you must install antivirus software on every Web front-end server in the server farm.

To enable Antivirus Settings section, Select one or all of the following:

1. 1. Scan documents on upload
   2. Scan documents on download
   3. Allow users to download infected documents
   4. Attempt to clean infected documents

codeproject

Don't Click IT

The different Website that i come across http://www.dontclick.it/ try and enjoy your self......

Upcoming SharePoint Webcasts

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: Getting Started (Level 100)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: .COM Branding (Level 200)

Thursday, December 4, 2008

11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: Custom Fields, Web Parts, and Lists (Level 200)

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: BenkoTips Live and On Demand: SharePoint Server Features with Scot Hillier (Level 100)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

9:00 A.M.–10:00 A.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: Authentication (Level 200)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

Microsoft Web Platform Installer

The new Web Platform Installer (Web PI) makes it easy to install and stay up-to-date with the Microsoft Web Platform. Use the Web PI to easily install the IIS, Microsoft .NET Framework, Visual Web Developer and more essential tools all through a single experience.

Click here to  Download

Color-up your Gmail

Gmail fans have been building unofficial extensions to spice up their inboxes out of the 30 odd themes we're launching today, there's a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun characters to keep you in good company. There's even an old school ascii theme (Terminal) which was the result of a bet between two engineers -- it's not exactly practical, but it's great for testing out your geek cred. We've also done a minor facelift to Gmail's default look to make it crisper and cleaner -- you might notice a few colors and pixels shifted around here and there.

To customize your inbox, go to the Themes tab under Settings

Microsoft's $550 Million Mega Data Centers

Though the building alone covers a whopping 11 acres, you can't even see Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s new $550 million data center in the hills west of San Antonio until you're practically on top of it. But by that point, you can hardly see anything else.

These days, the massive data center is a bustling construction zone where visitors have to wear hardhats, helmets, orange safety vests, goggles and gloves. By September, it'll be the newest star in Microsoft's rapidly expanding collection of massive data centers, powering Microsoft's forays into cloud computing like Live Mesh and Exchange Online, among plenty of other as-yet-unannounced services. Pulling in, visitors are stopped by Securitas guards who check IDs and ask if they work for Microsoft. An incomplete gate marks the way. Microsoft's general manager of data center services, Mike Manos, won't say exactly what security measures will be in place when the data center opens, but won't rule anything out. "Will the gates be able to stop a speeding Mack truck?" I ask. "Or more," he responds. "Will you have biometrics?" "We have just about everything."

As the car rounds the bend beyond the gate, the building sweeps into full view. The San Antonio data center building itself is 475,000 square feet, or about 11 acres. It's a 1.3 mile walk to circumnavigate the building. To get a perspective on that, it's one building that's the size of almost 10 football fields laid out side-by-side, or 1/10th the floor space of the entire Sears Tower, covered with servers and electrical equipment. "I thought I understood what scale looked like," Manos says.

More details visit Information Week

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Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based learning program, with a number of different tracks that will help you build your portfolio of professional development skills. Ramp Up has a solid foundation of premium technical content from subject-matter gurus, and provides easy-to-access content in a variety of forms that guide you in learning the important skills. Join Ramp Up (it's free!)

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