FIRSTCLASS MIGRATION FAQ

WHAT MESSAGE ATTRIBUTES ARE INCLUDED FOR CONVERTED CONTENT?

The migration process captures the following message fields:

To
From
Cc
Subject
Body
Attachments
Time/Date

IS THERE ANY LIMIT TO THE SIZE OF MESSAGES THAT CAN BE MIGRATED?

We are able to migrate messages with the following size limits, depending on your destination:

Google: up to 50MB
O365: up to 200MB
PST: up to 200 MB

Any messages larger than this will be moved into a folder called "Large messages" on the user's FirstClass desktop prior to the migration process.

IS THERE ANY LIMIT TO THE SIZE OF AN ACCOUNT THAT CAN BE MIGRATED?

There is no limit to the size of an account that can be migrated. However, if you are migrating to PST, the PSTs we produce are limited to 2GB each. For accounts larger than 2GB we therefore produce multiple PST files.

IS THERE ANY LIMIT TO THE NUMBER OF MESSAGES THAT CAN BE MIGRATED?

There is no limit to the number of messages that can be migrated.

DOES THE MIGRATION CAPTURE BOTH INBOUND AND OUTBOUND MAIL?

Yes.

DOES THE MIGRATION CAPTURE MAIL FILED IN FOLDERS?

Yes.

DOES FCEXPORT CAPTURE MAIL FILED IN NESTED FOLDERS?

In preparation for the migration process we run a process to "flatten" the folder structure. This ensures that all mail gets migrated, even for folders originally stored several layers down. For example, suppose you have a mailbox with the following structure:

Mailbox

|--Finance

| |--2013

| |--2014

| |--2015

Prior to migration the FirstClass folders would be adjusted to:

Mailbox

|--Finance

|--Finance-2013

|--Finance-2014

|--Finance-2015

The "flat" folder structure is what gets re-created in your new mailbox. If you are migrating to Google, you'll get the assignment of Labels corresponding to folder names.

CAN YOU GUARANTEE 100% FIDELITY OF THE MIGRATED CONTENT?

No, we can't.

In general the accuracy and completeness of migrated data is quite good, and we make every reasonable effort to ensure the best possible data accuracy. We cannot, however, guarantee 100% fidelity. Due to a variety of factors, from FirstClass platform limitations or corrupted items in the FirstClass network store, to API issues or unanticipated changes on destination mailbox policy or software, there is a possibility that some messages may may not come through, or may not be represented with 100% fidelity. Historically we see an error rate of approximately 0.02%

DOES THE MIGRATION PROCESS CAPTURE THE INTERNET ADDRESS ASSOCIATED WITH FIRSTCLASS USER NAMES?

Yes, so long as the user account exists at the time of migration. We use the Internet address assigned on the Aliases field of the User Information Form, allowing your exported messages to show Internet Addresses for FirstClass users.

In some circumstances, such as receipt of a message addressed to a mail list, or receipt of a message from a user no longer present in FirstClass, no Internet address will be available to the migration tools and a placeholder address will be constructed so the message can be migrated.

DOES THE MIGRATED CONTENT SUPPORT BOTH TRADITIONAL AND "THREADED" VIEWS IN OUTLOOK/O365?

Imported content does not support the threaded view in Outlook, and will be presented using the traditional list view.

DOES MIGRATED MAIL GET ARCHIVED IN GOOGLE?

Yes. So long as Google Vault is enabled prior to the migration of content, all messages that are imported will be captured in the Google Vault archive.

HOW QUICKLY DOES MAIL GET MIGRATED?

Exact performance varies depending on account size, FirstClass hardware capacity and configuration, as well as limits imposed by the destination service. Typically these numbers are:

Google: 100-200 accounts per day
O365: 25-50 accounts per day
PST: 100-200 accounts per day

HOW DO YOU DETERMINE THE DESTINATION ACCOUNT FOR EACH USER?

For Google migrations: By default fcExport looks for an account in the Google domain with an email address that matches the account being exported. For situations where email addresses may not match between old and new systems we can create a mapping for accounts, or designate an alternate domain name.

For O365 migrations: As part of the migration process we ask for a mapping of FirstClass userID to the email address of the target O365 account.

WILL THE EXPORT PROCESS WORK AGAINST A FIRSTCLASS SERVER RUNNING OS X?

Yes. The FCAS and Import components need to be installed to a Windows server, which can connect to a host machine running under OS X, Linux, or Windows. Note that performance against OS X and Linux is slower than in a Windows environment, so timing may need to be considered for large migrations.

HOW DOES THE MAIL GET INTO THE NEW MAIL ACCOUNT? DO YOU NEED ACCOUNT CREDENTIALS?

There is some configuration we do up-front using an admin-level domain account in you destination mail service. This allows us to configure the Import API and tools for uploading content. There's no need to share end-user credentials on either the FirstClass or the destination mail service side of things.

DO YOU HAVE TO PROVIDE THE MIGRATION AS A SERVICE, OR CAN WE JUST PURCHASE THE TOOL AND DO THE MIGRATION OURSELVES?

We strongly recommend mail migration as a service rather than just providing the tool (although we can consider that if needed). The reason is that the migration of mail is a one-time activity for you. We've done this a bunch of times and have gotten good at knowing how to avoid pitfalls and doing the migration as efficiently as possible. By providing this as a migration service we're able to significantly reduce your frustration and time, so you can focus on other aspects of your conversion.

CAN YOU MIGRATE CONFERENCES?

Yes, we can export messages from conferences and map these to user accounts for import. Note that the migration process will only export messages, not uploaded files or objects of other types.

CAN YOU MIGRATE CONTACTS?

We can produce a .csv export of Contacts for each user if desired, but contacts are not imported automatically.

Contact exports include all fields present in the FirstClass contacts form, and are provided with headers recognized by your destination mailbox for import purposes.

CAN YOU MIGRATE CALENDARS?

We can produce a .csv export of Calendars for each user if desired, but calendars are not imported automatically.

Calendar exports are provided with headers recognized by your destination mailbox for import purposes. Note, however, that details regarding event repeats are not read, so imported calendar events will only include the first instance of any repeating event.

HOW WELL DOES THE MIGRATION PROCESS WORK WITH UTF-8 CONTENT IN FIRSTCLASS?

Extended 8-bit characters work just fine in both message subjects and bodies. 32-bit characters come through fine in bodies, but are not supported in subject lines or for folder names. Extended characters in subject lines or folder names are omitted in the exported content, or converted to similar ASCII characters.

HOW CAN I GET A REPORT OF MAILBOX SIZES?

Here are three ways you can get this information:

1. For individual accounts

You can look up the size of any individual account as follows:

- Under the "Admin" menu, select "List Directory"

- Search for a user

- Double-click the user's name to open their User Information Form

- Click the "Preferences/Access/Limits" tab

- The "Disk space used" field is shown at the bottom of this tab

2. For all accounts

If you will be migrating all (or most) of the accounts on your server, the easiest way to get disk use information is to send a copy of the diskuse.txt file. To find this file:

- Log in as Administrator

- Navigate to Reports > Statistics Folder (on some servers this may be Statistics & Billing > Statistics Folder)

- Inside, you'll find "diskuse.txt" -- please send a copy of this file when requesting a quote

3. For selected accounts

You can use Batch Admin to retrieve disk space used on specific accounts. The syntax to retrieve UserID and Disk Space Used is:

GET USER <userid> 1201 1258

To retreive disk use via Batch Admin