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.