Migration from Exchange to Zimbra - Exchange GAL

[hspcd]

We are starting the migration process, using the Zimbra Migration Wizard, moving mailboxes from Exchange 2000 to ZCS 5.0.11_GA. I've run into an issue with interoperability between the two systems from an addressing standpoint.

Once a user's mailbox is migrated to Zimbra and we've deleted their mailbox within Exchange, they no longer show up in the Exchange GAL, so our users who are still on Exchange cannot find them in the Address Book (GAL) to send them mail. What's the best solution to this? Do we have to create Exchange "Contacts" for all users who have moved onto ZCS, or is there a better way?

Thanks,
Clay

[uxbod]

IMHO fastest way would be to create Exchange contacts. We have had to do a similar thing for our Notes migration.

[hspcd]

If I create a contact then all mail to that person bounces back with a 5.4.6 error. We currently have a split-domain setup where our ZCS server is the secondary and Exchange is primary. Some users are split across the two platforms and share the same email domains.

Any tips on how to address this situation? Right now, users who have been moved to Zimbra cannot be seen in the Exchange GAL by users who are still on the Exchange platform.

Thanks in advance.

[SPF]

Originally Posted by hspcd

Once a user's mailbox is migrated to Zimbra and we've deleted their mailbox within Exchange...

I don't know how much is different on Exchange 2000, but on my Exchange 5.5 migration, I never deleted them from Exchange.

I just created Custom Recipients in Exchange for the people as I migrated them in small groups; and then I told Exchange to deliver their mail to the custom recipient.

In my case the custom recipient was just a SMTP address like "user@zimbra.mydomain.com". The zimbra.mydomain.com was a domain alias on my Zimbra (Secondary) server.

The Exchange server had to be configured to send all mail destined for the 'zimbra.mydomain.com' domain to the Zimbra server. (It also had to allow the Zimbra server to relay mail, in order to send anything outside, since the Exchange was the "Primary" system in the split domain set up).

I don't know if something like that would work for you, but it has worked great for a slow migration here.

[hspcd]

SPF,
I can see how that would work well. We did not go with a sub-domain though so our users, split across Exchange and Zimbra, are all on company.com. I'm almost at a loss here on how to keep Zimbra users in the Exchange GAL since adding them as a Contact seems to break mail routing and I get those 5.4.6 errors (bounces).

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Clay