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Messaging System Deployment Guide

Introduction

Deployment and migration of messaging systems can be accomplished by combining a variety of strategies and tactics for accomplishing the various deployment and migration processes and activities. Strategies define the overall methods of executing the deployment and migration processes. Tactics are methods of accomplishing individual activities. Processes are a collection of activities or tasks that must be accomplished.

The deployment of a messaging system involves the following processes:

  • Planning
  • Analysis
  • Design
  • Location Surveys
  • Implementation Planning
  • Deployment Scheduling
  • Testing
  • Pilot
  • Marketing
  • Training
  • Roll-Out

Planning

The planning process involves overall project development and management. A suitable project design basis should be developed to serve as a common source of information about the project. In addition, project procedures and the ground-work for documentation should also be developed. Finally, a detailed project plan should be created for use throughout the deployment and migration. The specific activities of the planning process are detailed in the detailed Exchange project plan.

Analysis

The analysis process should continue the planning and project management while gearing up for increased activity on project tasks. The specific activities of the analysis process are detailed in the detailed Exchange project plan.

Design

The design process involves creation of a detailed design plan for the messaging system and the migration process. The specific activities of the design process are detailed in the detailed Exchange project plan.

Location Surveys

Location surveys are extremely important in that they serve as the basis for deployment and migration scheduling. Failure to properly complete location surveys will result in project scope creep, cost overruns and general mayhem.

The location survey process can be broken down into the following activities:

  • Legacy system evaluation
  • Develop location survey requirements
  • Develop location surveys
  • Distribute location surveys
  • Collect location surveys
  • Analyze location surveys

Some of the most important information to collect in the Location Survey is information regarding the amount and type of physical data that must be migrated. This information is essential for certain elements of the Design phase and in estimating the time required for the Roll-Out phase of the project. Therefore, this subject will be given a more thorough treatment here.

Migration Data

Any Location Survey process must have a migration data section. This section must detail the amount and type of data to be migrated between the legacy messaging system and the new messaging system.

The full range of data to be migrated must be analyzed in order to determine how many users and bytes per day can be realistically migrated. This directly impacts the migration design and migration schedule. First, the data must be collected by some means, generally via post office reports run via the messaging system administrative software. This data must then be normalized to account for single instance storage (SIS) and any compression that takes place within the legacy messaging system.

  • Data to be migrated:
  • Messages (# days)
  • Calendars (#days, tasks, appointments, re-occurring appointments, meeting requests, notes)
  • Personal addresses and groups
  • Archives
  • # of users
  • # of post offices
  • # of users/post office
  • # bytes/post office
  • # bytes/mailbox
  • # message bytes/mailbox
  • # calendar bytes/mailbox

Develop Implementation Plan

This process develops the overall plan for implementation of the proposed design including the thorough testing of that design in a lab environment. The specific activities of the develop implementation plan process are detailed in the detailed Exchange project plan.

A crucial step in the development of the implementation plan is the migration process. The Design phase should have created a detailed migration process. The next step is to use that process and the location surveys to gather actual migration statistics on the data migration rate. This information can then be used to calculate the time required for migration that in turn drives the Roll-Out schedule.

Calculations

The following lists the various calculations for helping to develop an implementation plan. The basic requirements for these calculations are to have statistics for the # of mailboxes, average import and extract times and the average size of mailboxes. The goal of the calculations is to determine the total duration of the roll-out and the amount of users transferred per day.

  • Extraction Rate = (Bytes Extracted) / (Extraction Time)
  • Import Rate = (Bytes Imported) / (Import Time)
  • Data Migration Rate = ((Bytes Extracted) + (Bytes Imported)) / ((Extraction Time) + (Import Time))
  • Average User Migration Time = (Average Bytes / Mailbox) / (Data Migration Rate)
  • Total Migration Work = (# Mailboxes) * (Average User Migration Time)
  • User Migration Rate = (Time/Day) * (Average User Migration Time)

Deployment Scheduling

Deployment scheduling must account for a wide variety of logistical issues such as resource availability, travel times, etc. The deployment scheduling process can be broken down into the following activities

  • Review location surveys
  • Review resource requirements and resource availability
  • Review travel logistics
  • Review training schedule
  • Review special deployment considerations
  • Draft preliminary deployment schedule
  • Communicate and receive feedback on deployment schedule
  • Finalize deployment schedule

Special deployment considerations can have a huge impact on the overall deployment schedule. Special deployment considerations include but are not limited to:

  • User access to critical messaging resources such as public folders
  • Distribution list owners/managers
  • Users that access one another’s mailboxes or calendars
  • Ability of groups of users to perform group calendaring and scheduling
  • Conditions that affect a location’s ability to handle disruption of environment (refinery turns)
  • E-mail enabled application migrations

Pilot Testing

The pilot testing process ensures that all details of the system and deployment processes are resolved prior to actual roll-out. The specific activities of the pilot testing process are detailed in the detailed Exchange project plan.

Training

Training can be further broken down into the following activities:

  • Development of training plan
  • Development of training material
  • Coordination of training equipment and locations
  • Execution of training plan

Roll-Out

Roll-out is the actual execution of everything that has been designed and planned. Roll-out is composed of the iteration of pre-defined processes such as client installation, server deployment and migration. The specific activities of the pilot testing process are detailed in the detailed Exchange project plan

Marketing

Marketing can be further broken down into the following activities:

  • Development of marketing plan
  • Development of marketing material
  • Execution of marketing plan

Location Messaging Deployment

The deployment of any particular location includes the same basic processes:

  • Communication
  • Server Deployment
  • Client Deployment
  • Migration
  • Legacy Retirement
  • Marketing
  • Training

Communication

Proper communication is essential to any messaging deployment and migration. Communication activities associated with messaging deployment include:

  • Location surveys
  • Deployment schedule
  • Migration schedule
  • User input on functionality
  • Training

Server Deployment

Server Deployment can be further broken down into the following activities:

  • Hardware Acquisition
  • Hardware Configuration
  • NOS Installation
  • NOS Configuration
  • Messaging System Installation
  • Messaging System Configuration
  • Server Deployment

These activities can occur in a variety of ways, differing in where servers are built and also in the level of process automation. Three common tactics for server deployment processes are Pre-Build, Central and Local.

Pre-Build

The pre-build of servers assumes that messaging servers are pre-installed with appropriate software from the hardware vendor and shipped directly to a location. Pre-builds are generally best utilized for Hardware Acquisition and Hardware Configuration and can also generally be utilized for NOS Installation and NOS Configuration. Final NOS Configuration as well as Messaging System Installation and Messaging System Configuration cannot generally be done during pre-build.

Central

Centralized building of servers means that a central team installs all messaging servers and then ships those servers to their location. Once at the location, the server must simply be unpacked and plugged into the network.

Local

Localized builds of messaging servers take place at the physical location. The servers arrive without any software installed or configured. This tactic typically requires more process automation than a centralized approach to ensure the same level of standards and consistency.

Client Deployment

Client Deployment can be further broken down into the following activities:

  • Software Delivery
  • Software Installation
  • Software Configuration

These activities can occur in a variety of ways, differing in where and how the software is delivered, installed and configured on the desktop. Three tactics commonly used for client deployment processes are Pre-Build, Central and Local.

Pre-Build

The pre-build of clients assumes that desktop hardware is being replaced as part of the migration. A pre-built client image is loaded on to the desktop by the hardware vendor and shipped directly to a location. Pre-builds are best utilized for Software Delivery and Software Installation. Final configuration of the client cannot generally be accomplished during pre-build.

Central

Centralized client deployment indicates that a common image or installation process is distributed to the client population from a central repository. This type of deployment generally utilizes tools such as SMS, ZEN Works or similar client image creation and package deployment tools. Using centralized logistics, the client software is generally delivered as part of a logon script or similar process. Automated software installation is then kicked off as well as automated and/or manual client configuration.

Local

Localized client deployment indicates that automated and/or manual delivery, installation and configuration builds of messaging servers take place at the physical location. The servers arrive without any software installed or configured. This strategy typically requires more process automation than a centralized approach to ensure the same level of standards and consistency.

Migration

Migration can be further broken down into the following activities:

  • Creation of New Users
  • User Redirection
  • Data Extraction
  • Data Importation

Refer to the Mailbox Migration section for a more thorough overview of migration. Included below is a brief overview of methods of automating migration tasks.

Creation of New User

New user (mailbox) creation can be accomplished via various means. The two main methods in Exchange 2000 of automating the new user creation process are to utilize Active Directory tools or to utilize the Exchange Migration Wizard.

User Redirection

User redirection is the process of directing the mail flow into the mailbox on the old legacy system into the mailbox on the new messaging system. This process looks like the following:

Originally, all message paths point to the legacy mailbox.

First, the Exchange mailbox is created and the legacy custom recipient is deleted. All Exchange users on that server now flow to the Exchange mailbox.

Next, Exchange’s directory replication propagates the changes within the Exchange site and eventually to all other Exchange sites via directory replication connectors.

The Internet mail link (SMTP) or legacy connector is then redirected to point to the Exchange mailbox. All messages arriving from the Internet or via the legacy connector now flow into the Exchange mailbox.

An external entry is now made on the user’s legacy post office and the user’s legacy mailbox is pre-pended with “ZZZ” to force the entry to appear last in the legacy address book. At this point, all message flows point to Exchange.

Finally, once migration is confirmed, the user’s “ZZZ” mailbox is removed.

Data Extraction

Data extraction is the process of extracting messaging data from the legacy email system.

Data Importation

Data importation is the process of importing extracted messaging data from the legacy email system into the production email system.

Legacy Retirement

Legacy retirement can be further broken down into the following activities:

  • Removal of legacy client software
  • Removal of legacy mailboxes
  • Removal of legacy messaging servers

Marketing

Marketing can be further broken down into the following activities:

  • Development of marketing plan
  • Development of marketing material
  • Execution of marketing plan

Training

Training can be further broken down into the following activities:

  • Development of training plan
  • Development of training material
  • Coordination of training equipment and locations
  • Execution of training plan

 
Comments:  Gregory J. Deckler
© 2003 Gregory J. Deckler.  All rights reserved

Contact:  Gregory J. Deckler