MM&M UG UK

 

We are looking to migrate from Groupwise 6.5 to exchange 2003/2007. However during the test we are having isuses with HTML page, link etc. Email contain HTML link within Groupwise do not translate correctly to Exchange mailbox using Microsoft conector. We have tried Novell connector and it is working fine to resovle this isuse but giving rise to diffrent problems.  Does anyone know how to resolve this issue using MS connector or have similar experiences?

 

Hi,

I haven't seen this specifically but I will speak to a colleague who may have done.

What problems did you find with the Novell Connector?

Cheers

Nathan

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Nathan Winters - MVP Exchange Server
MCSE & MCSA 2000 & 2003 + Messaging, MCITP Exchange 2007, MCP, VMWare VCP v2 & v3.

Welcome to the Microsoft Messaging and Mobility User Group: http://www.mmmug.co.uk

I have had this issue on two occasions, so you haven't done anything unusual I don't think.

Unfortunately it was not a real problem for either customer, and they simply lived with it.

The "Exchange 2003 Interoperability and Migration Guide" list the conversion issues on page 108 table 3.5, and it gives no indication there is any issue with HTML.

I have wondered if it is anything to do with Exchange Global Setting default properties for Internet Message Formats, where you can specify if you want to use RTF, HTML etc.. but I haven't played with them enough to have figured it out yet. Sorry.

Page 115 does give this tantalising glimpse of hope tho'

"By default, messages are encapsulated using MIME. However, you can specify the message format for each SMTP domain in the Exchange System Manager tool. Under Global Settings, display the properties for the Internet Message Format object, and switch to the Message Format tab. Among other things, you can choose to provide the message body as HTML, which is a good choice if the recipient's e-mail client supports HTML-formatted messages. Formatting messages in HTML preserves most rich-text features that would be lost if you sent the message body as plain text. "

Declan

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"The isolated knowledge obtained by a group of specialists in a narrow field has in itself no value whatsoever" : Erwin Schrodinger

I also am looking for a solution to the global question of how to connect GroupWise and Exchange with maximum compatability and minimum issues.

I have experience with both the Connector, as well as the Novell Gateway for Exchange.

While the Connector is the most documented and supported configuration, my experience is that it does not support HTML.  If the connector could be configured around this problem then I would love to hear about it.

The best trick I have seen so far is that when you migrate a user, instead of deleting their GW account, set up a forwarding rule that forwards all new mail to a new temporary smtp domain on the Exchange server (example: @migrate.local).  Make sure that you have enabled Flat Forwarding on GroupWise and your users will recieve mail that came in to their GW accounts without even knowing that it has been forwarded.  This allows you to leave your SMTP gateway on the GW system and still receive all mail for users on both sides.  

The Gateway on the other hand has no such problem, however there are numerous other issues with it.  Here is my list (so far).

1) - Does not create AD users, only contacts.  It will email (contact) enable an AD user if it exists in the import container, but unlike the Connector, will not email enable an existing AD account that already exists in AD.   The installation documentation is incorrect in the details of the exact steps to configure the connector (says "does not matter what you type for a gateway directory, this is not used"), but you figure that out fairly soon.

2) - Is extremely unstable.  It will crash with an unexplained application error if it encouters content in an email that it does not like.  We have found that we need to run some sort of application monitor and to alert the staff if it crashes.  Typically we need to delete the top email in the MTS-OUT queue and then it starts working again.   We also find that we need to delete the wpcorr.db file in the gateway directory from time to time.  Otherwise it seems to get too big and then takes too long to load.

3) - Interim updates from Novell are not posted on the downloads section of their support site.  You have to open a tech support call to get access to the latest build.   The latest build at this moment is dated July 22-2008.

Hi,

Thanks for the info!

Not sure whether you have seen, but Declan and I have written a series on migration for MSExchange.org.

Take a look here:

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/migration-deployment/groupwise-exchange-2007-interoperability-migration-part1.html

 

Cheers

Nathan

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Nathan Winters - MVP Exchange Server
MCSE & MCSA 2000 & 2003 + Messaging, MCITP Exchange 2007, MCP, VMWare VCP v2 & v3.

Welcome to the Microsoft Messaging and Mobility User Group: http://www.mmmug.co.uk

Yes indeed.   Thank you for an awesome article.  When I initially read the series I was disappointed to see that you did not use the Novell Gateway product.   Since then I have decided that Novell's product does not provide the necessary stability and supported solution that I would need. 

I am interested in your perspective and if you tried and rejected the Novell Gateway.

Anyway, I am still struggling with how old and incompatible the API41 Gateway is, and why Novell have not written an update.   I am thinking that they don't want to make it too easy for clients to migrate away from GroupWise.

Hi,

I think we did have a discussion about the Novell Gateway, but we decided to use the supported route.

I have worked on a project that used the Novell Gateway and we didn't find it any better than the standard API.

Frankly the whole process is rather difficult and in general the co-existence should be kept as short as possible.

Cheers

Nathan

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Nathan Winters - MVP Exchange Server
MCSE & MCSA 2000 & 2003 + Messaging, MCITP Exchange 2007, MCP, VMWare VCP v2 & v3.

Welcome to the Microsoft Messaging and Mobility User Group: http://www.mmmug.co.uk