We continue to migrate mailboxes from the VUMC Exchange 2003 environment to the new Vmail environment, which is powered by Exchange 2007. Currently we have over 8,000 users in this environment. Starting this week, we are increasing the number of mailboxes migrated from 1,000 per week to 1,500 per week. If all goes well we could have all non-archive users in the Vmail environment by the end of the year.
We have targeted early next year to start moving users who are currently using the EAS archive solution. We will also step up efforts at this time to migrate users off the legacy VUmail system and to the new Vmail environment. We appreciate all the cooperation and support the community has given us during this complex but much needed endeavor.
We successfully moved 1000 users from VU Exchange 2003 to Vmail powered by Exchange 2007. We are targeting 1000 more users for this week. The recent mail outages underline the importance of moving users from the aging VU Exchange environment to the new Vmail infrastructure. Other work being done is
- We are also purchasing and deploying PlusPak which will give OWA users the look and feel they were use to prior to the collapse of the server front-ends.
- We have engaged Symantec professional services to deploy their Enterprise Vault archive solution and migrate the existing archive users to this new infrastructure.
- We are working on provisioning all faculty, staff, and professional students to Exchange 2007 in the near future to prevent us from having to move them twice. The final landing spot for email will eventually be Vmail powered by Exchange or VU Gmail for undergraduates.
Thanks for your help and support during this project.
The enhanced address book functionality previously provided to Medical Center Outlook Web Access (OWA) users was not carried forward in the email system changes made on Sunday, 9/20.
Due to a number of requests from the community for this feature, we are in process of adding it to the new mail environment as quickly as possible.
We regret the inconvenience this is causing and will notify you as soon as this functionality is reestablished.
ITS has received feedback about the new look of Outlook Web Access (OWA) since the change this past weekend. In response to this feedback, we want to communicate some of the changes in OWA. The OWA log-in page now has a new security option to select if you are using the software on a public or private computer. Your choice could be different depending on where you are. Please see the differences below:
Public or shared computer
- Select the public option if you are checking mail on a public computer that will be used by more than one person. Examples of a public computer include clinical workstations, computers in a public place, those shared in an office, and kiosks.
- For security reasons, the public computer option logs out of email after 30 minutes of inactivity. In addition, it does not cache email addresses when you send messages.
Private computer
- Select the private computer option if you are the only person who uses that computer.
- The private computer option logs out of email after 8 hours of inactivity. And this option does cache email addresses when you send messages.
You can check the status of ITS services a number of ways. One, you can go to our webpage at http://its.vanderbilt.edu/ . Another way would be to follow ITS on twitter by following VUITS. Finally, you can call 343-9999 (internal 3-9999) to hear an automated message of current system status.
I would like to remind everyone that the VUMC front-end collapse is scheduled for September 20, 2009. We have sent communications to the community about some of the potential issue but it may not cover all the issue we experience when we do this for the medical center. The reason for the collapse of the front-ends is to prevent local support staff from reconfiguring every mail client in the medical center.
Questions have also come up about SMTP. I will try to clarify some of this.
- The VUMC SMTP Relay will infrastructure will no longer work after September 20.
- srfs.vanderbilt.edu will be the SMTP Relay configuration needed for Servers, Printer/Copier/Fax, network printers, ect.
- A static ip address is required
- Your device will require the ip address to be registered. You can do this by sending a service request to VUMC Help Desk
- People running non-Microsoft clients to access Exchange will need to use smtpauth.vanderbilt.edu
- If you are using email.mc.vanderbilt.edu for SMTP forwarding it will no longer work after September 20th.
- Users of Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) will not need to reconfigure their devices. Devices that are not using Activesync or BES will need to be reconfigured
Outlook Web Access (OWA) in Exchange 2007 provides users a richer experience than they had in Exchange 2003. An outstanding podcast that addresses what is new in OWA on Exchange 2007 can be viewed here. For email users in the community who are also upgrading their client from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007 there is a handy download that will help ease the transition. You can download this guide here and it will help you locate your favorite Outlook 2003 commands in Outlook 2007. Finally, Microsoft offers a quick reference card that you can download here for Outlook 2007.
The migration of VUexchange public folders is delayed. We experienced a technical issue when we introduced the Exchange 2007 public folder environment to the current public folders environment. We are working with Microsoft of resolve this issue. We will post updates as we have them. You can also follow the project on twitter. http://twitter.com/vuexmig
I would like to start by announcing the provisioning of groups to 2007 who are already being provisioned to exchange 2003 has been delayed. We are continuing to test the code that will make this possible. We will provide updates as progress is made on this effort.
We are migrating our last ~60 users from VUexchange 2003 3 this weekend. We currently have over 4,000 users on the Exchange 2007 platform.
Email: exchangeconsolidation@vanderbilt.edu
Website: https://its.vanderbilt.edu/emailconsolidation
Blog: http://blogs.vanderbilt.edu/emailconsolidation
Twitter: http://twitter.com/vuexmig
The primary goal of the enterprise consolidation effort is to merge all mail stores into one central Exchange 2007 environment with as little user interruption as possible. The current VUMC Exchange 2003 environment has dual-roles deployed for the front end servers: Mail Transport (SMTP) and Client Access (HTTP,IMAP,POP.) The Enterprise Exchange 2007 environment is designed to have separate roles for the mail transport and client access components, which is considered best practice so that the mail transport function does not affect user experience. Microsoft validated our design in May 2009. The use of the same domain name for mail transport and client access by the legacy Exchange 2003 environment makes the goal of having a seamless user experience difficult. In order to move the client access function to the Exchange 2007 infrastructure, it is desired for the mail transport layer to move first.
From a mail security perspective, duplicating the existing relay function at email.mc.vanderbilt.edu has concerns. It is desired to separate the point at which users interact with the Exchange environment from automated processes such as applications, servers, and mail relay – some of which are unauthenticated. The current relay has very loose rules for which it validates email senders. Illicit activities such as malware, spoofing, viruses, etc, take advantage of the existing architecture and put Vanderbilt’s environment at risk. Diminishing the attack surface area for malicious email activity was a design goal for the new enterprise environment.
