Sharegate Server Requirements

[Zareen Zapata]

SharePointis a collection of enterprise content management and knowledge management tools developed by Microsoft. Launched in 2001,[6] it was initially bundled with Windows Server as Windows SharePoint Server, then renamed to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, and then finally renamed to SharePoint. It is provided as part of Microsoft 365, but can also be configured to run as On-premises software.

SharePoint allows for storage, retrieval, searching, archiving, tracking, management, and reporting on electronic documents and records. Many of the functions in this product are designed around various legal, information management, and process requirements in organizations. SharePoint also provides search and 'graph' functionality.[8][9] SharePoint's integration with Microsoft Windows and Microsoft 365 (previously known as Office) allows for collaborative real-time editing, and encrypted/information rights managed synchronization.

A SharePoint intranet or intranet portal is a way to centralize access to enterprise information and applications. It is a tool that helps an organization manage its internal communications, applications and information more easily. Microsoft claims that this has organizational benefits such as increased employee engagement, centralizing process management, reducing new staff on-boarding costs, and providing the means to capture and share tacit knowledge (e.g. via tools such as wikis, media libraries, etc.).

SharePoint contains team collaboration groupware capabilities, including: document management, project scheduling (integrated with Outlook and Project), and other information tracking.[11] This capability is centred around the concept of a "Team Site". Team sites can be independent, or linked to a Microsoft Teams Team.

SharePoint's custom development capabilities provide an additional layer of services that allow rapid prototyping of integrated (typically line-of-business) web applications.[12] SharePoint provides developers with integration into corporate directories and data sources through standards such as REST/OData/OAuth. Enterprise application developers use SharePoint's security and information management capabilities across a variety of development platforms and scenarios. SharePoint also contains an enterprise "app store" that has different types of external applications which are encapsulated and managed to access to resources such as corporate user data and document data.

Microsoft SharePoint's Server Features are configured either using PowerShell, or a Web UI called "Central Administration". Configuration of server farm settings (e.g. search crawl, web application services) can be handled through these central tools.

A SharePoint farm is a logical grouping of SharePoint servers that share common resources.[19] A farm typically operates stand-alone, but can also subscribe to functions from another farm, or provide functions to another farm. Each farm has its own central configuration database, which is managed through either a PowerShell interface, or a Central Administration website (which relies partly on PowerShell's infrastructure). Each server in the farm is able to directly interface with the central configuration database. Servers use this to configure services (e.g. IIS, windows features, database connections) to match the requirements of the farm, and to report server health issues, resource allocation issues, etc...

Web applications (WAs) are top-level containers for content in a SharePoint farm. A web application is associated primarily with IIS configuration. A web application consists of a set of access mappings or URLs defined in the SharePoint central management console, which are replicated by SharePoint across every IIS Instance (e.g. Web Application Servers) configured in the farm.

A site collection is a hierarchical group of 'SharePoint Sites'. Each web application must have at least one site collection. Site collections share common properties (detailed here), common subscriptions to service applications, and can be configured with unique host names.[20] A site collection may have a distinct content databases, or may share a content database with other site collections in the same web application.[18]

Service applications provide granular pieces of SharePoint functionality to other web and service applications in the farm. Examples of service applications include the User Profile Sync service, and the Search Indexing service. A service application can be turned off, exist on one server, or be load-balanced across many servers in a farm. Service Applications are designed to have independent functionality and independent security scopes.[18]

SharePoint Central Administration (the CA) is a web application that typically exists on a single server in the farm; however, it is also able to be deployed for redundancy to multiple servers.[18] This application provides a complete centralized management interface for web and service applications in the SharePoint farm, including AD account management for web and service applications. In the event of the failure of the CA, Windows PowerShell is typically used on the CA server to reconfigure the farm.

The structure of the SharePoint platform enables multiple WAs to exist on a single farm. In a shared (cloud) hosting environment, owners of these WAs may require their own management console. The SharePoint 'Tenant Administration' (TA) is an optional web application used by web application owners to manage how their web application interacts with the shared resources in the farm.[18]

"Tahoe", built on shared technology with Exchange and the "Digital Dashboard", targeted top-down portals, search and document management. The searching and indexing capabilities of SharePoint came from the "Tahoe" feature set. The search and indexing features were a combination of the index and crawling features from the Microsoft Site Server family of products and from the query language of Microsoft Index Server.[22]

Migration utilities can only move standard Lotus Notes templates, (including mail). Due to the proprietary nature of Notes applications, manual analysis and then custom configuration of Sharepoint is the best you could expect. If you have custom applications, migrating them from one platform to another is the most challenging environment. If you just have mail, then the job is alot easier.

Quest and BinaryTree are leaders in the area of mail only migration. If you need to do apps as well, there is no easy solution. So, this answer is to expose the some of the real work involved in migrating applications in a high level guide.

Your best bet is to do a thorough analysis of your current environment. What typically happens is that a BP or vendor gets your mail across but not the applications, so you could be, in the worst case be stuck with a "hybrid model" where you maintain 2 sets licenses for users and servers. Most organisations have fallen into this trap. I call it a trap because the vendor probably knows this to, but if they don't tell you upfront, then they're milking the client after making some quick wins.

Here is my recommended approach, which is heavily tilted towards analysis and investigation upfront. Justification for this approach is based on seeing a few largish migrations go quite awry, the common factor is a lack of analysis up front combined with inadequate partnering from Domino specialist. The objective of this approach is to provide you with the best chance at setting realistic expectations, and completing the project in within an estimated time-frame/budget.

Good place to start, is look at the "end-game" platform specifications, Database, server and application skills. Do you need Sharepoint only ? or Sharepoint + C# + ASP.Net. You'll need Window server engineers + Exchange + SQL Server ? Or do you also need to support MS Live Communication servers as well ?

You don't have the whole picture, but do some rough calculations in supporting the new environment after deployment. If all goes well, you can expect to taper off this resource demand within the first 6 months. Assume $5k/week/person + hardware + software licencing costs.

Focusing on current active applications, and establish all the integration points outside of the application. Over many years, Lotus Notes systems tend to be threaded into many external systems. You will most likely need to rebuild these integration services in the new platform as well. These are typically found in Script libraries and agents. You might find some nasty bits of code in Forms, but that should be the vast bulk of it.

Be sure to include database designs and server requirements depending on volume. One thing I have noticed is "feature fidelity gaps" between Lotus and SP. Features you take for granted in Lotus Notes may not be available in the Microsoft stack. Ofcourse you may also get new features, but the risk here is preventing feature regression.

I had one critical CRM application which used the Lotus Notes embedded scheduler widget to obtain available meeting times of users. AFAIK this widget is not available in the MS solution stack. Perhaps there is a 3rd party solution, or has since been implemented natively. So you need to identify them with the SP and Domino specialists working together. I have a final hit list below of things to watch out for, (see "Navigating the document minefield" below)

Now you should have your inventory of applications to migrate. Any significant "feature fidelity gaps" risks identified should be investigated with a pilot to know that it can be resolved. Or negotiate with system owners to work around features not available in the new platform. This is your go/no-go point.

Create your project plan at this point. It should have 2 distinct parts email migration and application migration. Typically the CIO will mandate mail to go first, I think this is potentially a big mistake because because the applications take easily 12-18 months on average to move assuming no major budgetary constraints, otherwise it's anyone's guess. An ill-informed CIO can leave a company crippled in a hybrid model with skyrocketing resourcing costs if they focus on the quick win. Be it because of pressure from the board, or ego.

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