Expansion or consolidation of your GroupWise system can make it necessary for you to move GroupWise accounts from one post office to another. When you move a GroupWise account, the user’s mailbox is physically moved from one post office directory to another.
When you move a user’s GroupWise account, all items are moved correctly and all associations (proxy rights, shared folder access, and so on) are resolved so that the move is transparent to the user. Occasionally, some client options the user has set (GroupWise client > Tools > Options) might be lost and must be re-created for the new mailbox.
The following sections provide information you should know before performing a move and instructions to help you perform the move.
GroupWise provides two types of moves: a live move and a file transfer move.
A live move uses a TCP/IP connection between POAs to move a user from one post office to another. In general, a live move is significantly faster (approximately 5 to 10 times) than a file transfer move. However, it does require that TCP/IP is functioning efficiently between the two POAs.
A file transfer move uses the transfer of message files (using POAs and MTAs) rather than a TCP/IP connection between POAs. A file transfer move is required if you are moving a user across a WAN link where TCP/IP might not be efficient.
By default, when you initiate a user move, the post office’s POA attempts to establish a live move session with the destination post office’s POA. If it cannot, a file transfer move is used instead.
If desired, you can disable the live move capability (Post Office object > GroupWise > Settings > Disable Live Move). Any moves to or from the post office would be done by file transfer.
Proper preparation can make the process of moving users go more smoothly. Consider the following before moving a user’s GroupWise account:
Ensure that the POAs for the user’s current post office and destination post office are running.
Configure both POAs for verbose logging, in case troubleshooting is required during the user move process.
If you are performing the user move during off hours, optimize both POAs for the user move process. On the Agent Settings tab of the POA object in the GroupWise Admin console, set Max Thread Usage for Priming and Moves to 80%. Set Client/Server Handler Threads to 40.
Ensure that the MTA for the user’s current domain and destination domain (if different) are running.
Ensure that all links between POAs and MTAs are open.
See Section 10.2, Using the Link Configuration Tool, Section 85.3.1, Link Trace Report, and Section 85.3.2, Link Configuration Report.
Ensure that all domain databases along the route for the user move are valid.
See Section 42.1, Validating Domain or Post Office Databases.
Ensure that the mailbox to move is valid. Select the Structure, Index, and Contents options in GroupWise Check (GWCheck) or in Mailbox/Library Maintenance in the GroupWise Admin console.
See Section 43.2, Analyzing and Fixing User/Resource and Message Databases.
Enable automatic creation of nicknames for moved users, so that replies and forwarded messages can be delivered successfully after the user has been moved.
A user who owns a resource cannot be moved. If the user owns a resource, reassign ownership of the resource to another user who is on the same post office as the resource. You can do this beforehand, or when initiating the user move.
(Optional) To reduce the number of mailbox items that must be moved, ask the user to clean up his or her mailbox by deleting or archiving items. Have the user empty the Trash so that deleted items are not moved with the user.
(Optional) Have the user exit the GroupWise client and GroupWise Notify before you initiate the move. When the move is initiated, the user’s POA first creates an inventory list of all information in the user’s mailbox. This inventory list is sent to the new post office’s POA so that it can verify when all items have been received. If the user has not exited when the move begins, the user is automatically logged out so that the inventory list can be built. However, after the move has been initiated, the user can log in to his or her new mailbox even if the move is not complete.
In the GroupWise Admin console, click Users.
Select the users you want to move, then click Move.
Select the post office to which you want to move the user’s account.
(Optional) Select Create Nickname(s) for the Selected Object(s), so that messages that will be undeliverable to the old email address are successfully delivered to the new email address.
For more information, see Section XII, Nicknames.
Click OK to initiate the user move.
(Conditional) If necessary, select a new owner for the resource, then click OK.
Keep track of the user move process using the User Move utility.
The user’s new address information is immediately replicated to each post office throughout your system so that the GroupWise Address Book contains the user’s updated address. Any user who selects the modified user from the GroupWise Address Book can successfully send messages to the user.
However, some users might have the user’s old email address in their Frequent Contacts address book. In this case, if the sender types the modified user’s name in the To field rather than selecting it from the Address Book, GroupWise uses the old email address stored in the Frequent Contacts address book instead of the new email address in the GroupWise Address Book. This results in the message being undeliverable.
The POA automatically resolves this issue when it performs its nightly user upkeep. During the nightly user upkeep process, the POA ensures that all addresses in a user’s Frequent Contacts address book are valid addresses in the GroupWise Address Book. For more information, see Section 15.4.3, Configuring Nightly User Upkeep.
If you want to ensure that messages sent to the user’s old email address are delivered even before the POA cleans up the Frequent Contacts address book, you can create a nickname using the old GroupWise email address. For more information, see Section XII, Nicknames.
The User Move Status tool helps you track progress as you move users and resources from one post office to another. You can display all of the user moves in your GroupWise system. Or you can display the user moves associated with the object that you selected before displaying the User Move Status tool. For example, if you selected a Domain object, all user moves for the selected domain are displayed, but not user moves for other domains.
While a GroupWise user account is being moved, the POA in the source post office and the POA in the destination post office communicate back and forth. You can track the move process progresses through various steps and statuses:
In the GroupWise Admin console, browse to and click the name of a post office or domain, click the Objects tab, then click User Move Status to display the user moves specific to the post office or domain.
or
Click System > User Move Status to display all users moves in your GroupWise system.
All moves occurring within the selected location are listed.
At the beginning of the move process, most buttons are dim, because it would not be safe for you to perform those actions at that point in the move process. When those actions are safe, the buttons become active.
(Optional) To restrict the number of users and resources in the list, type distinguishing information in any of the Search field, then press Enter to filter the list.
During the move, click Refresh to update the status information.
IMPORTANT:The list does not refresh automatically.
During the move, you might observe some of the following statuses:
Destination post office updated: The destination POA has updated the destination post office database with the user’s account information. At this point, the user account exists in the new location and appears in the GroupWise Address Book with the new location information.
Source post office updated: The source POA has updated the user in the source post office database to show the new destination post office. At this point, the user can no longer access the mailbox at the old location.
Moving mailbox information: The POAs have finished exchanging administrative information and are ready to move items from the old mailbox to the new mailbox.
Sending mailbox inventory list: The source POA sends the destination POA a list of all the mailbox items that it should expect to receive.
Send item request: The destination POA starts requesting items from the source POA and the source POA responds to the requests
Retry mailbox item retrieval: The destination POA was unable to retrieve an item and is retrying. The POA continues to retry every 12 hours for 7 days, then considers the move complete. To complete the move without waiting, click Force Complete. Typically, items that cannot be moved were not accessible to the user in the first place, so nothing is missed in the destination mailbox.
Completed retrieving items: The destination POA has received all of the items on its mailbox inventory list.
Move completed: After all of the user’s mailbox items have arrived in the destination post office, the user’s original account in the source post office is deleted and the user move is finished.
If something disrupts the user move process, select the problem user or resource, then click Retry/Restart.
Select the option appropriate to the problem you are having, then click OK.
Retry the Last Step of the Mailbox Move: Select this option to retry whatever step the user move process has stopped on. This is equivalent to performing one of the POA’s automatic retries manually and immediately. Ideally, the step completes successfully on the retry and processing continues normally.
Skip Retry on the Current Mailbox Item: Select this option to skip a particular mailbox item that cannot be successfully moved. The need for this action can usually be avoided by running Mailbox/Library Maintenance on the mailbox before moving the user account. Ideally, the user move processing should continue normally after skipping the problem item.
Stop Deferred Retries: Select this option to stop the POA from retrying to send items that have not been successfully received. This completes the user move process even though some individual items have not been moved successfully.
Restart the Entire Mailbox Move: Select this option if something major disrupts the user move process and you want to start over from the beginning. Because nothing is deleted from the source mailbox until everything has been received in the destination mailbox, you can safely restart a move at any time for any reason.
After you have moved a user in the GroupWise Admin console, you can display detailed information about items belonging to that account that have not yet been moved to the destination post office, perhaps because problems were encountered when trying to move them. This information can help determine the importance of moving residual items that are still pending after all other items have been successfully moved.
Assess the importance of items that are still pending.
Select an account for which the move has not completed, then click Pending Items.
You can determine the record type (item, folder, GroupWise Address Book contact, and so on), the item type (mail, appointment, task, and so on), how old the item is, the sender of the item, and the Subject line of the item. Not all columns in the Pending Items dialog box apply to all record types and item types, so some columns might be empty.
Click Request to request pending items.
Pending items are retrieved in groups of 25.
Click Yes to request the first group of pending items, then click OK.
You might need to wait for a while before the pending item lists displays because the request goes out through the destination domain to the source domain to the source post office, where the source POA sends the requested information back to the destination domain. Do not click Request again before the list appears or you receive the same list twice.
When the pending items appear, you can select an item, then click Info to display detailed information about the item. You can also click Refresh to reread the domain database to determine if additional items have been moved.
If you and the user whose mailbox is being moved decide that the pending items are expendable, click Force Complete to finish the move process.