Understanding the Notes® single user to multi-user migration assistant tool

The single-user to multi-user migration tool converts a Notes® single-user installation to a multi-user installation.

There are two use cases for this migration tool:
  • Convert a clean, single-user Notes® installation to a multi-user installation within the same release
  • Convert a simulated multi-user Notes® installation (a single-user installation in which each user's data directory is mapped to shared drive to simulate a multi-user environment) to a true multi-user installation within same release
The tool is available for Notes® 6.5.x, 7.x, 8.x and 9.0 on Windows™, and supports Notes® basic and Notes® standard deployments. The tool does not support conversion of Notes® installations that also include Domino® Designer or Domino® Administrator. The tool also does not support upgrading an installation at the same time that it performs the conversion. You must complete conversion to a multi-user installation on the current release before you can upgrade to a multi-user installation of a new Notes® release. The tool includes an option to complete a "dry run" of the migration so that you can establish the nature of any changes before you implement them.

The Notes® multi-user migration assistant tool runs a supplied Visual Basic script, MUMigrationAssistant.vbs, that is controlled by a customized configuration file MUMigrationAssistant.ini. You can use the configuration file to customize the migration for unique deployment environments. You can find both the script file and the configuration file in the Utility folder of the Notes® installation kit.

When you run the script, it reads the configuration file, and performs the necessary migration operations, modifying user-specific NOTES.INI values and registry settings, and converting the single-user installation to a multi-user installation. You edit the configuration file before you run the script to provide user-specific details, such as the location of the source and target data directories.

Although the action of the MUMigrationAssistant.vbs script is typically controlled by the contents of the MUMigrationAssistant.ini configuration file, the script is documented internally, and can be modified directly to support uniquely customized deployments.

Notes® 8.5.1 was the first release to support multi-user installations with configurable data directories. In earlier releases, administrators sometimes simulated a multi-user Notes® installation by installing a single-user Notes® client and then mapping user data directories to shared drives. Each user would have a unique data directory on the shared drive, thus simulating a multi-user environment. The migration tool can be used convert a simulated multi-user Notes® installation to a true Notes® multi-user installation.

For situations in which you need to convert a simulated multi-user installation you would run the tool two or more times. First, an administrator runs the tool to move common shared files and to modify Windows registry settings. The administrator then creates a Windows login script to run the tool automatically for each user at the next time Windows login. As each user logs in, the login script runs the migration tool and uses the settings in the configuration file to determine what changes to make.