Migrate GroupWise Archives to Live Exchange/Office 365

Read time 7 minutes

The users of GroupWise enjoy the services of a collaborative platform which handles email management, contacts, documents, and Personnel Information System (PIS). But with the advancement of cloud technologies, businesses are moving to more flexible cloud platforms like Office 365. Office 365 incorporates some essential tools of Microsoft like MS Office Suite, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Skype for Business, Yammer, etc. You can enjoy the benefits of all these tools in a single plan, and you can also access them from anywhere. That’s why the businesses want to move their entire data to Office 365, and here the search begins for a suitable method or a tool to migrate from GroupWise data to Office 365. Also, many organizations migrate from GroupWise to on-premises Exchange and then utilize the hybrid deployment facility to take advantage of Office 365 features.

Migration of GroupWise Archives to Office 365/Exchange

One challenge in the migration of GroupWise of Office 365 is locating and migrating the GroupWise archive. Because the archive is present on the local drive or a network folder, and it is the GroupWise client that decides the location of the archive, it is difficult for others to find the archive location. If you are not able to find the archive, then the migration will be incomplete and probably error-prone.

That’s why you should use a proper migrator tool that is familiar with the environment of GroupWise. Kernel for Novell GroupWise to Exchange is a migrator tool that has an option for selecting the archive mailbox directly from its location. It takes only a minimum number of steps in completing the migration, and you can save the data directly to either Office 365, live Exchange, or Outlook PST.

Let’s go through the simple process of migration from GroupWise to Exchange/Office 365
Here is the process from the beginning:

1. Launch the software. On the home screen, you will see the following options to select:
   • Multiple mailboxes using Proxy or (Online, Remote mailbox, caching mailbox, and archive).
   • Multiple mailboxes using Batch File.
     Because you want to migrate the archive, so click the first option. Click Next.
     
2. Check the option ‘Show Archive,’ and there are two options:
   • Use the Default Archive path.
   • Specify Archive Path.
     If you did not change the location of the archive path, then choose the default archive path. Otherwise, click the browse button and select the archive path. Click Next.

     

3. The tool requires the login credentials of the GroupWise account. Provide the full details like User Name, Password, and Online Address/Caching mailbox path/remote mailbox path. Click OK.
   
4. The archive mailbox is displayed. You can visit any folder, item and get its preview. Select the required folders and click Export.

   

5. Select the second option ‘Save to Live Exchange/Office 365’. Click OK.
   
6. The wizard shows two separate options where you can provide the details.
   
7. Provide the Domain Name, User Name, and Password. Then click, OK.
   
   Note: For Office 365, you can provide User ID and Password.
8. Select the destination Exchange Server and User Mailbox from the drop-down. Click OK.
   
9. Perform the mapping for source archive with destination Exchange mailbox. You can click the Mapping button for further mapping.
   
10. Select the target Exchange mailboxes and click OK.
    
11. The Export Options wizard brings different filters like Select item types and Specify date filters. Click Export.
    
12. The migration starts for the archive data.
    
    You can choose to click the Stop button and stop the migration.

The process of migrating the Archive data to Office 365 is entirely similar to the process for Exchange. Here, you need to input the details for Office 365 credentials; click the OK button.

The further process remains the same as for Exchange, including the mapping of the mailboxes and applying filters.

Conclusion

Kernel for Novell GroupWise to Exchange helps GroupWise users who want to adopt the more advantageous platforms like Exchange Server and Office 365. It has a straightforward user interface that facilitates easy selection of the GroupWise mailbox data, filtering of the data and mapping to the destination. After the migration, you can visit the destination and access the data.