Oracle Communications Calendar Server: Extracting Data for Migration
We use the WCAP protocol to get calendar data out of Oracle Communications Convergence and into Exchange.
| http://calendarserver/fetchcomponents_by_range.wcap?
calid=jdoe &id= d0e3EdybiEc &recurring=1 |
Note that we have these expectations:
- Data will be an ICS file
- Data will have “compressed” recurrence expression (in iCalendar terms RRULEs and EXDATEs)
Naming convention:
- Name all exports USER_ID.ics where: USER_ID@domain_name.com See earlier section in this manual — the process is exactly the same as for Oracle Calendar Server.
Filtering Calendar Data to Migrate.
Selecting date ranges for migration, e.g. will find data from January 1, 2016 to January 1, 2019, WITHOUT attachments.
| http://calendarserver/fetchcomponents_by_range.wcap?
… &dtstart=20160101T000000Z &dtend=20190101T000000Z &fetchattach=0 (do not extract attachments – makes the process faster) |
In deciding which terminology to use we opt for the terminology of the target system: Microsoft Exchange.
Contacts
Not dealt with by this technology.
Oracle Communications Calendar to Microsoft Exchange Correspondences
Terminology
What is currently known as Oracle Communications Calendar Server was previously known as Sun Java Communications Suite, Sun ONE Calendar Server, and before that iPlanet Calendar Server. There are probably a few other legacy names as well.
Versions:
Currently we convert Oracle Communications suite version 7.x.
The following table outlines what is migrated and any limitations to the migration.
Meetings – Schedules
| Item | Oracle | MSE | Comments | ||||||||
| Meeting Description | | | Description inserted in the body of the Exchange meeting invitation. | ||||||||
| Recurring Meetings | | | Oracle Communication Calendar recurrence patterns all map to Outlook / Exchange recurrence patterns. | ||||||||
| Recurring Meetings that fall on weekends/ holidays | | | No problem | ||||||||
| Recurring Meetings with Exceptions | | | No problem | ||||||||
| Privacy | | | OC: Private Event maps to Outlook Private. | ||||||||
| Importance Levels | | There is no similar functionality in Outlook / Exchange (well, there is if you look at email priority, but since our migration responds to meeting invitations, this is not applicable). We map Oracle importance levels 1-9 to Outlook/Exchange High, Normal, Low. | |||||||||
| Roles (e.g. cc / bcc ) | | |
|
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| Responses | | |
|
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| Track Invitation response – accepted or declines | | | Accepts/declines invite. Deletes invitations from inbox | ||||||||
| Track Invitation response – later, none | | | Keeps invitations in inbox UNLESS the meeting is historical (then Sumatra deletes the invitation) | ||||||||
| Location | | | Inserts as either text or ATTENDEE, as required | ||||||||
| Store Expired Meetings Activities/ Appointments | | | Meetings which occur before the migration date can be inserted as “archived” (individual appointments with agendas and guest list) and not made “live” — this speeds insertion.
Method to do this: See below. |
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| Time zones of meetings / activities | | | OC Time Zones map to Microsoft Time Zones | ||||||||
| Meeting reminders | | | Reminders carry over. However, there is no email reminder option in Outlook so message reminder text is irrelevant. Outlook has only reminders defined at certain times BEFORE an appointment, not at an absolute time. All OC reminders set for an absolute time are set to a default 15 minutes before the event.
No reminders are set for events in the past. Your users will be grateful for that post-migration. |
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| Holidays | | Sumatra insertion technology allows for insertion in Exchange across all servers of company-standard holidays from a defined list. Can be customized with other tools for specific localities. | |||||||||
| Labels/Categories | | | Migrate | ||||||||
| Attachments | | Not added at migration time. Attachments via EWS in Exchange slow down the process markedly. (Open Issue: Using the URLs with fetchattach=0) | |||||||||
| Associated contacts | | Contacts not associated with events. EWS give us no capability for this and we have no guarantee the contact has been migrated prior to calendar migration. Also Outlook denigrated this capability.[1] (Open Issue: Should we insert contact name into Agenda field?) | |||||||||
| Meeting / Appointment colors | | N/A | |||||||||
| Public and Private Groups | Functions exist but are NOT transferred. (Exchange groups may be more current.) | ||||||||||
| Untitled events | | These are DROPPED in migration. | |||||||||
| Tasks | | | Tasks transfer
OPEN ISSUE: Recurrence patterns in tasks Assignment of tasks to other users does not transfer. Microsoft EWS does not allow Tasks to be assigned. |
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| All Day Events | | | Converted to All Day Events in Exchange | ||||||||
| Delegates | | Potentially scriptable. Recommendation: do this sparingly and then only for High Value Employees if necessary.
See discussion below. |
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| Resources | | | Resource bookings are transferred | ||||||||
| Resources as meeting organizers | | OC allows meetings to be organized by a resource. This behavior is NOT allowed in Microsoft Exchange. See the section in the manual “Pre-processing: Oracle Meeting Scheduling Practices and Exchange Best Practices.” |
Speeding your insertion by using ARCHIVED option:
For appointments in the past if you check this box in CONFIGURATION it will not re-create meetings. This significantly speeds the process. Be careful with the date selection and try this in your test environment first!
Significant functional difference:
In Oracle Communications Declined events are NOT removed from the calendar. In Outlook / Exchange declined events never appear on the calendar. So visual inspection of calendars will be different owing to the functional differences between the two. Attendees who decline meetings will need to be re-invited if they have deleted their initial invitation.
Delegate migration
From the Oracle Communication User Documentation,
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E56607_01/doc.301/e73472/olh_calendar001.htm#CONOH202 ,
calendars have the following delegate options:
Exchange has the following delegate options.
While it is possible to set Delegates via PowerShell in Exchange via Add-MailboxFolderPermission, Sumatra does not recommend migrating legacy delegate lists.
- The access model between legacy and target system are usually different enough that any mapping is a “best guess.” While this is fine for many users, it will lead to dissatisfaction among an undetermined subset. And long experience with migrations has shown us that user communities are happier with a migration with clear rules and expectations universally applied.
- Migrating delegates automatically propagates a situation of “maximum access.” Now is a perfect time for end users to review who has access to their calendars and re-think it.
- Use it as a primary incentive to get users training on the new system.
- For more detail on associated contacts in Outlook see: https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/2013/show-contact-linking-fields-in-outlook-2013/ ↑