NSF to Office 365

Import NSF to Microsoft 365 – Complete Guide for Quick IBM Notes to Office 365 Migration

For a period organizations of all types have used IBM Notes (formerly known as Lotus Notes) for email and collaboration due to its reliability and data security. However, with the ever-changing technologies, and increasing preference for cloud based collaboration tools, many have been transitioning from legacy systems like IBM Notes (formerly Lotus Notes) to modern, cloud-based solutions such as Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365).

The cloud-based suites like Microsoft 365 offers amazing set of features that results in increasing employee’s productivity. Thus, it becomes important for businesses to upgrade them with latest technology available in the market. However, moving from IBM Notes to Microsoft 365 is not a simple task. It requires proper planning, technical expertise and right tool to perform the task for error-free process.

But before directly jumping to the solution, it is important for us to understand the challenges and why users are switching the platform.

Understanding IBM Notes and Domino Architecture

Before diving into the migration process, it’s essential to understand the basic architecture of IBM Notes and Domino.

IBM Notes IBM Notes is a client-server software platform that functions as an email client and supports calendar management, task automation, and application development. It interacts with NSF files, which store emails, contacts, calendars, and application data.
IBM Domino IBM Domino is the server that handles data storage, email routing, and application hosting. It works closely with the Notes client to provide a seamless user experience. The Domino server stores all user data in NSF databases, which are used for both email and application data.
NSF Files NSF Files are the key database files used by IBM Notes. They contain emails, calendar entries, contacts, and other relevant data. These files need to be converted or migrated to the format used by Microsoft 365.

Challenges Faced While Using Lotus Notes

Why Users Want to Import NSF to Office 365?

IBM Notes has a difficult user interface and is hard to manage by administrators. Additionally, Microsoft 365 offers numerous advanced features that gives organizations a good reason to perform migration. Some of the reasons why businesses are moving to O365 are mentioned below:

  1. O365 provides better collaboration tools & services as compared to Notes.
  2. Optimized features of Office 365 as compared to IBM Notes.
  3. An Office 365 user can access data from anywhere as all the data is stored in cloud.
  4. Technical Expertise is required for operating Lotus Notes.

Apart from this, there are many other reasons as well that compels an organization to switch their emailing platform.

What are the Different Ways to Migrate IBM Lotus Notes to Office 365?

There can be two scenarios while importing IBM Notes to Office 365 accounts, such as:

Scenario 1: Migrating from IBM Notes to Microsoft 365 (Without Exported NSF Files)

If your organization is still using IBM Notes and Domino server, then you can use two different ways to migrate IBM Notes to Microsoft 365, these include using the MONTI (Microsoft Online Notes Transition Instrument), and IMAP migration methods.

Method 1. Migrating Emails from IBM Notes to Microsoft 365 Via MONTI

if you need to directly migrate from IBM Notes and Domino server to Office 365, then you can use the MONTI, to migrate emails, contacts, calendars, and tasks.

Check out the complete procedure of using MONTI here - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mailbox-migration/migrate-from-lotus-notes

However, it is only typically a universal solution for some migration scenarios, as it was created primarily for enterprise-level migrations with a direct connection between the IBM Domino server and the Microsoft 365 environment.

Method 2. Import IBM Notes Emails to Microsoft 365 Via IMAP Migration

Step 1. Use your admin credentials to log in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center by visiting admin.microsoft.com.

Step 2. You must enable the IMAP settings for the mailboxes in Microsoft 365. You can easily check it through the Exchange Admin Center.

Step 3. Now you need to create user mailboxes. You can do it by navigating to Users > Active users > Click Add a user.

Step 4. In this step, we need to configure the migration endpoint:

Go to Exchange Admin Center (Classic) or Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Navigate to Migration > Migration endpoints. Click New to create a new migration endpoint. Enter the IMAP server settings for the source server (IBM Notes), including server address, port, and authentication details.

Step 5. Now we can create a migration batch:

Step 6. In this step we need to configure IMAP Migration:

In the migration batch creation wizard, upload a CSV file with the details of users and their source email addresses, or manually enter them. Review and configure migration settings, including whether to start the migration automatically or manually.

Step 7. Start the migration batch.

Moving your data without proper tools is a risky job and is not recommended by tech experts. Thus, it is essential to use a trusted and reliable automated tool to perform migration process. One such software that is SysTools Lotus Notes to Office 365 Migrator. It is one of the most advanced tools and is recommended by many experts and Lotus Notes Administrators.

The software offers various advanced features that makes the migration process quick and efficient. Additionally, the simple user interface enables users to execute migration even with nominal technical expertise. The software is free to download and permits users to transfer 2 user accounts for free.

Step 1. First, download the tool from below link and launch the tool on your machine.

Download Now Purchase Now

Step 2. Go to Setup tab to select the Workload items to export from Lotus Notes to Office 365.

Step 3. In the Source tab, Admin Email, Lotus Notes Client Password and Path of the NSF files. And, then click on Validate button.

Step 4. In the Destination tab, provide Office 365 Admin Id and Application Id (application id need to be created in Admin Center – Use Project Creation Steps to see the details).

Step 5. Go to User tab to select the option for mapping NSF and Office 365 user IDs.

Step 6. Once the mapping is complete, Validate the user accounts and hit Start Migration button.

Step 7. During the migration process, you can preview the live status and once the process is complete, download report and exit the tool.

Also Read: How to Import PST to Office 365 without Outlook?

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this tool help to migrate data into multiple Accounts of Office 365?

Yes, this software permits a user to migrate data files into multiple MS Office 365 profile without any restriction.

Can I transfer one or more NSF files at a time?

Yes, a user allows exporting multiple .nsf files. Also, able to add a folder which contains multiple NSF files once.

Is server installation required?

No, Live Server Environment is not required while migrating from Lotus Notes to Office 365.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have tried to cover the issues associated with viewing a file on Lotus Notes. Various users’ queries have been arises and in order to resolve the queries, an efficient approach has been suggested to import NSF to Office 365. It is suggested that users have to use automated solution to overcome the shortcomings of the manual approach to switch from Lotus Notes to Office 365.