HOW TO: Manage Coexistence During Migration from Novell GroupWise to Exchange 2000

During migration, many organizations have a period of interoperability, or "coexistence," between the servers that are running the Exchange 2000 and Novell GroupWise messaging systems because only small organizations can migrate every user in a single night. Therefore, before most GroupWise migrations, organizations establish coexistence so that Exchange 2000 and GroupWise users can continue to communicate and collaborate with one another during the migration, regardless of which messaging system they are on. This article describes the process of migration from Novell GroupWise to Exchange 2000.

Activate Distribution List Expansion in GroupWise

To allow coexistence and directory synchronization between the Exchange 2000 and GroupWise messaging systems, Exchange 2000 includes Microsoft Exchange Connector for Novell GroupWise. Additionally, Exchange 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1) introduced the Calendar Connector, so that GroupWise and Exchange users can schedule meetings with each other and share calendar information.

During the coexistence period, Exchange 2000 users can see GroupWise distribution lists in the Exchange Global Address List. When an Exchange 2000 user sends a message to a GroupWise distribution list, only one copy of the message is sent over the GroupWise connector. If you activate distribution list expansion, GroupWise can deliver the message to all distribution list members. The following procedure describes the steps you must take to activate distribution list expansion on the GroupWise system.

Coexistence and Migration Requirements for GroupWise

For coexistence and migration to be successful, you must have the GroupWise version 4.1 API Gateway NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) installed in your GroupWise system. Additionally, to activate distribution list expansion, you must install GroupWise Patch 2 for API NLM/OS2 (gw41api.exe). Gateway Patch 2 version 4.10b has a release date of November 3, 1999.

Both GroupWise API Gateway NLM and GroupWise Patch 2 for API NLM/OS2, with installation instructions, are available from Novell. For more information, visit the Novell Web site Novell Support and Downloads or see your GroupWise documentation.

Activate Distribution List Expansion

If distribution lists are activated in GroupWise, the GroupWise API Gateway receives the message and sends it to all members of the distribution list.

To activate distribution lists in GroupWise:

1. Find the Ngwapi.prm file, which is installed in your GroupWise system in the API gateway root directory.
2. Open the Ngwapi.prm file by using either Notepad (Windows) or Edit (NetWare).
3. Find the line that contains the string ;/group, and then remove the semicolon (;) from the string.
4. Save the file. You must restart the API gateway for these changes to take effect.

For more information about Novell GroupWise, visit the following link for white papers and other resources that can help you plan a mixed-mode messaging and collaboration system or migrate from GroupWise to Exchange 2000:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/bb288526.aspx