14.4 Moving GroupWise Accounts
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. The user’s Novell eDirectory object, including the GroupWise account information, remains in the same eDirectory container.
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 > > ) 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.
14.4.1 Live Move vs. File Transfer Move
GroupWise provides two types of moves: a live move and a file transfer move.
A live move uses a TCP/IP connection between Post Office Agents (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 > > ). Any moves to or from the post office would be done by file transfer.
14.4.2 Preparing for a User Move
Proper preparation can make the process of moving users go more smoothly. Consider the following before moving a user’s GroupWise account:
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Make sure the POAs for the user’s current post office and destination post office are running.
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Configure both POAs for verbose logging, in case troubleshooting is required during the user move process.
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If you are performing the user move during off hours, optimize both POAs for the user move process. On the Agent Settings property page of the POA object in ConsoleOne, set to 80%. Set to 40. If you must move multiple users during regular work hours, you can set up additional POA instances customized for the user move process. This would prevent the user move process from impacting users’ regular activities in their mailboxes.
See Section 38.2.2, Configuring a Dedicated Message File Processing POA (Windows Only).
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Make sure the Message Transfer Agent (MTA) for the user’s current domain and destination domain (if different) are running.
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Make sure that all links between POAs and MTAs are all open.
See Section 10.2, Using the Link Configuration Tool, Section 71.3.1, Link Trace Report, and Section 71.3.2, Link Configuration Report.
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Make sure that all domain databases along the route for the user move are valid.
See Section 26.1, Validating Domain or Post Office Databases.
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Make sure that the mailbox to move is valid. Select the , , and options in GroupWise Check (GWCheck) or in Mailbox/Library Maintenance in ConsoleOne.
See Section 27.1, Analyzing and Fixing User and Message Databases.
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Enable automatic creation of nicknames for moved users, so that replies and forwarded messages can be delivered successfully after the user has been moved.
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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.
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(Optional) To reduce the number of mailbox items that must be moved, consider asking 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.
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(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.
14.4.3 Moving a GroupWise Account to Another Post Office in the Same eDirectory Tree
The following steps apply only if the user’s current post office and destination post office are located in the same eDirectory tree. If not, see Section 14.4.4, Moving a GroupWise Account to Another Post Office in a Different eDirectory Tree.
To move a user’s GroupWise account to a different post office in the same eDirectory tree:
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In ConsoleOne, connect to the domain that owns the destination post office where you are moving the user.
If you need assistance with this task in a GroupWise system that includes domains on Linux servers, see Section 4.1, Select Domain.
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In the GroupWise View, right-click the User object or GroupWise External Entity, then click to display the GroupWise Move dialog box.
If you want to move multiple users from the same post office to another post office, select all the User objects, right-click the selected objects, then click .
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Select the post office to which you want to move the user’s account, then click .
If the user owns a resource, the following dialog box appears.
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Select a new owner for the resource, then click .
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Keep track of the user move process using the User Move utility. See Section 14.4.5, Monitoring User Move Status
Resolving Addressing Issues Caused By Moving an Account
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 moved user from the GroupWise Address Book can successfully send messages to the user.
However, some users might have the user’s old address (GroupWise user ID) in their Frequent Contacts Address Book. In this case, if the sender types the moved user’s name in the To field rather than selecting it from the Address Book, GroupWise uses the old address stored in the Frequent Contacts Address Book instead of the new 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 (see Section 36.4.3, Performing 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.
If you want to ensure that messages sent to the user’s old address are delivered even before the POA cleans up the Frequent Contacts Address Book, you can create a nickname using the old GroupWise user ID. For information about creating a nickname, see Section 14.7.4, Creating a Nickname for a User. To have a nickname created automatically when the user is moved, see Section 4.2, System Preferences.
14.4.4 Moving a GroupWise Account to Another Post Office in a Different eDirectory Tree
A GroupWise system can span multiple eDirectory trees, provided that all components for a single domain (post offices, users, resources, and so on) are all in the same eDirectory tree. For example, a user cannot be located in one tree and his or her post office in another.
If necessary, you can move a user’s account from a post office in one eDirectory tree to a post office in another eDirectory tree as long as the post offices are in the same GroupWise system. This requires the user to have a User object (or GroupWise External Entity object) in the eDirectory tree to which his or her GroupWise account is being moved.
To move a user’s GroupWise account to a post office in a different eDirectory tree:
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Make sure the user has a User object or GroupWise External Entity object in the eDirectory tree to which his or her GroupWise account is being moved.
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In ConsoleOne, right-click the User object or GroupWise External Entity object (in the GroupWise View) > click to display the GroupWise Move dialog box.
If you want to move multiple users from the same post office to another post office, select all the User objects, right-click the selected objects > click .
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Select the post office to which you want to move the user’s account, then click .
If the user owns a resource, the following dialog box appears.
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Select a new owner for the resource, then click .
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Keep track of the user move process by using the User Move utility to determine when the user has been successfully moved. See Section 14.4.5, Monitoring User Move Status.
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In the destination eDirectory tree, right-click the User object or GroupWise External Entity object where the GroupWise account will be assigned, then click . This is the object referred to in Step 1.
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Click > to display the Account page.
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In the Post Office field, select the post office that the user’s GroupWise account was moved to.
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In the field, make sure that the mailbox ID is the same as the user’s mailbox ID (GroupWise user ID) on his or her original post office.
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Click .
A dialog box appears asking if you want to match the GroupWise account to this eDirectory user.
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Click .
Resolving Addressing Issues Caused By Moving an Account
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 moved user from the GroupWise Address Book can successfully send messages to the user.
However, some users might have the moved user’s old address (GroupWise user ID) in their Frequent Contacts Address Book. In this case, if the sender types the moved user’s name in the To field instead of selecting it from the Address Book, GroupWise uses the old address stored in the Frequent Contacts Address Book instead of the new 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 (see Section 36.4.3, Performing 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.
If you want to ensure that messages sent to the user’s old address are delivered even before the POA cleans up the Frequent Contacts Address Book, you can create a nickname using the old GroupWise user ID. For information about creating a nickname, see Section 14.7.4, Creating a Nickname for a User. To have a nickname created automatically when the user is moved, see Section 4.2, System Preferences.
14.4.5 Monitoring User Move Status
The User Move Status utility helps you track progress as you move users and resources from one post office to another. It displays the user moves associated with the object you selected before displaying the User Move Status dialog box. 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:
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In ConsoleOne, select a Post Office or Domain object.
All moves occurring within the selected location will be listed.
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Click > > .
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.
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To restrict the number of users and resources in the list, type distinguishing information in any of the fields, then press Enter to filter the list.
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During the move, click to update the status information.
IMPORTANT:The list does not refresh automatically.
During the move, you might observe some of the following statuses:
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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 Address Book with the new location information.
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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.
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Moving mailbox information: The POAs have finished exchanging administrative information and are ready to move items from the old mailbox to the new mailbox.
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Sending mailbox inventory list: The source POA sends the destination POA a list of all the mailbox items that it should expect to receive.
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Send item request: The destination POA starts requesting items from the source POA and the source POA responds to the requests
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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 . Typically, items that cannot be moved were not accessible to the user in the first place, so nothing is missed in the destination mailbox.
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Completed retrieving items: The destination POA has received all of the items on its mailbox inventory list.
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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.
The User Move Status utility cannot gather status information for destination post offices that are running POAs older than GroupWise 6.5. Status information for users moving to older post offices displays as Unavailable.
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If something disrupts the user move process, select the problem user or resource, then click .
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Select the option appropriate to the problem you are having, then click .
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 ConsoleOne, 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.
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Assess the importance of items that are still pending.
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Select an account for which the move has not completed, then click .
You can determine the record type (item, folder, 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.
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Click to request pending items.
Pending items are retrieved in groups of 25.
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Click to request the first group of pending items, then click .
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 again before the list appears or you receive the same list twice.
When the pending items appear, you can select an item, then click to display detailed information about the item. You can also click to reread the domain database to determine if additional items have been moved.
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If you and the user whose mailbox is being moved decide that the pending items are expendable, click to finish the move process.
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