The document outlines a project by Sandra Bühler and Jörg Rafflenbeul regarding the separation of a Connections infrastructure into two independent environments due to a company spin-off. It details the challenges faced, including data migration, user management, and ensuring minimal downtime while maintaining operational integrity. The project was deemed successful, meeting timelines and budgets, and leaving customers satisfied with the results.

1. A Break Up Story
(or how to split Connections in two)
Sandra Bühler
Jörg Rafflenbeul
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2. Agenda
• Team
• Challenges
• Concept
• Preparations
• Migration
• Clean
• Lessons Learned
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3. A Break Up Story
Team
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4. 4#engageug
The Project Team

5. How we worked together
• 1 Email (formal offer) + invoices + Calendar invites
• 1 Connections Community
• 1 Zoom Group Channel
• 1 Post Project Lunch in Zürich
after Project
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6. About the Speakers
• Sandra Bühler
• Co-owner and co-founder of Belsoft and
Belsoft Collaboration
• Domino, Sametime & Connections, project
manager, face to the customer
• Oh my, doing this more than 25 years now
• IBM Champion 2014 - 2019 / HCL Master 2019 - 2020
• Mother of three and spamming the yellow community with
mountain pictures from Switzerland
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7. About the Speakers
• Jörg Rafflenbeul
• Born 1968, married, three children
• Hobbies: Photography, Gardening and a bit of IT
• Lotus / IBM / HCL Notes since March 1995
• Heitkamp & Thumann Group since May 2000:
• Group Coordinator IT
• General IT Strategy
• IT Security Systems
• Collaboration Systems
• IBM / HCL Connections since 2011
• Board Member of DNUG June 2015 – June 2019
• IBM Champion 2017 - 2019, HCL Master 2019 & 2020
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8. Heitkamp & Thumann Group
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9. Heitkamp & Thumann Group
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OUR MISSION
• Customer Satisfaction Is Our
Highest Priority
• Suppliers Are Our Business
Partners
• People Working Together as a
Global Team
• Integrity Will Never Be
Compromized
• Continuous Improvement in
Everything We Do
• Innovation Will Create Our
Future
• Safety and Environmental
Sustainability Are Our Primary
Responsibility

10. Connections – Facts
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• IBM Connections since 2011 – Release 3.0.1
• Domino as Application server for
• LDAP Server, Internal User Self Registration, Password Management
• Internal users: ~ 1000
• External Users: > 200
• Communities: ~5000: 8% Public, 20% Moderated, 72% Restricted
• Files: ~250.000
• Activities ~ 8000

11. A Break Up Story
Challenges
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12. Questions in 2016 and Later
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• How can we run Connections in case there is a spin-off?
• Copy out Data
e.g. using Connection Content Export (to HTML)
• Migrate into IBM Cloud (IC360)
• Setup own Connections – not the best option ;-)
• Which IT Services does H&T Group Provide?
• List of Services, Modules and Partners

13. Heitkamp & Thumann Group – Before Split
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14. Westfalia Metal Hose Sale Announced
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• Public Announcement May, 10 2020
• Internal
• Provide Collaboration Services after closing as on closing day
• Hand Over Security Service until closing day
• Closing of Transaction: Date is not fixed
• External: Consulting Partner for Connections dropped service
https://www.ht-group.com/en/news/heitkamp-thumann-group-and-hamaton-automotive-technology-agree-on-sale-of-westfalia-metal-hoses.html

15. Heitkamp & Thumann Group – After Split
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16. The Challenge (May 2019)
• Separation of a Connections (and Domino) infrastructure
into 2 independent environments because of company
separation
• Only part of Connections content to be moved out
• Minimal downtime for the users (and the service)
• No change of login credentials for moved out users
• New environment with latest software product releases
• Same Functionality as before
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17. Challenges IBM/HCL and Timing
• Not Supporting
• IBM product acquisition by HCL
• “HCL Technologies to Acquire Select IBM Software Products for $1.8B”
Source IBM – Date December 6th 2018
• “On 30 June 2019, IBM finalized the divestiture of select products to
HCL, including Connections Cloud. On July 16, 2019 HCL announced
End of Service for this offering.” Source IBM
• Timing
• July and August are main vacation periods
Closing of Transaction: Date is not fixed
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18. This Made the Challenges Less Complicated
• H&T’s IT operates the system after the split
• Handover of data for migration into “own” system after 6-12
months
• IT and Key users have a high level of trust
• Best Business Partner in the World
• Others are on vacation too ;-)
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19. Challenges – The Expected Closing Day
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JR
• Sale Announced at May 10th, 2019
• Closing Date “expected until end of October 31, 2019”
• Could be at August 30th

20. A Break Up Story
Concept
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21. Concept
• H&T has asked several Partners to quote for a concept
for Domino and Connections Migration (May 2019)
• Two Partners were asked to created Concepts (June)
• Workshops in Zoo(m) – Sure where else;-)
• Implementation Partner Selected (End of June)
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22. Concept of separation of Connections Data
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Version Date Comment
1 June 7th Document Created
2 June 14th Initial Release
3 June 17th Update Connections
4 June 21st Final
5 June 25th Extension after Kickoff

23. Concept of separation of Connections Data
• Duplicate content on migration day
(-> no other possibility because of timeline of the project
and also because of confidentiality)
The Pro’s
• Less or no cleanup before migration
• Less effort on migration day
• Consistent Content
The Con’s
• More disk space needed initially
• Cleanup needed after migration -> Now we know, that’s a huge Pro
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24. Migration Path
Workflow
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25. A Break Up Story
Preparations
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26. Preparation and Setup Destination Environment
• Setup of Second Hosting with VPN Access (H&T)
• Installation of all Connections Components
• Connections 6.0, CR5
• Docs 2.0, CR3
• Elastic Search (for type ahead)
• CAT & Domain Patrol Social
• OnTime and Kudos Badges integration
• Configure DNS, LDAP and TDI
• Test functionality of all components
• Enable external access via Reverse Proxy
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27. Test Migration
• Scripts used for
• Copy files from Connections shared data to destination, Export active
Connections DB2 databases (< 5’), Import Connections database to
new DB2
• Upgrade DB2 schema CR4 -> CR5
• Change URLs used within Connections
• ICXT, HCL Connections Link Exchanger
• Scripts for Rich Text Content
• Reset all Connections scheduled tasks
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28. Migration– The Real Closing Date / Day One
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• Could be at August 30th
• Could be at September 30th

29. Test Migration
• Clear User Profiles from not migrated users
• Disable profiles (CAT)
• Remove all profile content but name
• Clean / Split external users on both sites
• Check TDI sync for profiles
• Is UNID correct
• Check and adopt widgets if needed (i.e. Kudos Badges)
and register all widgets
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30. Migration -> Preparation– Test with Team
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JR
Source:
https://www.google.com/search
?client=firefox-b-
d&q=dallas+characters

31. Migration -> Preparation is King!
• Communication
• to all users
• to helpdesk
• FAQ to resolve minor issues
• Be sure there are no more test issues open
• they’ll bite you
• Have all admins on standby (Server, Network, OS …)
• Establish Independent open channels with all parties
(i.e. Sametime/Zoom)
• Have a plan and check list and all parties have the same
version (yes a print out is ok in this case)
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JR

32. A Break Up Story
Migration
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33. Migration: Live
• Delete Connections databases in destination
• Do the steps in plan which were verified and adopted
during test
• Less time for file sync because most of files were
already transferred during test
• Results:
• Shutdown time source environment < 30 minutes
• Steps needed on new environment < 6 hours
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34. Migration -> Full Test with Team 1.5 hours
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JR

35. Migration: Live / One Issue (New System)
• Search Index was not built in time and did not run
through in full
• Now we know:
• On the new servers the old admin password was still stored in
the database (DB2)
• On new servers all scheduled tasks needed to be deleted and
after the restart of the servers all search indexes are built up
from start
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36. A Break Up Story
Clean
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37. Clean = Identify, Fix, Hide, Delete
• Important: To be done on both sides
• “Nobody has different access / visibility as before”
• Communities First - Content Second
• We are currently engaged with First ;-)
• Different Tools are your friend
• TimeToAct CAT and Domain Patrol Social – Lists and manual Changes
• Lotus / IBM / HCL (just) Notes – User Selection of “I want to become an owner)
• Community Tool Belsoft – run community changes based on Lists
• TDI – (content) - clean orphan content
• Key Users ;-) – Support with user communication and tests
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38. Clean = Identify, Fix, Hide, Delete
Heitkamp & Thumann Group
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Westfalia Metal Hoses
Expected Orphan Content

39. Clean = Identify, Fix, Hide, Delete
• Identify Orphan Communities
• Orphan = Has no Active Owner and active Member(s)
• Provide List to Users to claim ownership
• Provide List to Authorized person to verify
• Challenges
• Access and Ownership of sub communities
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40. Clean = Identify, Fix, Hide, Delete
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41. Clean = Identify, Fix, Hide, Delete
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42. Clean = Identify, Fix, Hide, Delete
• Delete The Real Orphan Communities
• Files Identification is Complicated
• Community Files – No problem
• Personal Files – Not easy
• Shared with Communities – (Real Orphan have been deleted ;-) !)
• Shared with Users
• Shared via Folders
• Direct Links – No we not will support these!
• Delete Remaining Content of inactive Users
• Activities, Communities, Bookmarks, Wikis, Blogs, Forums
• Again: Important: All to be done on both sides
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43. A Break Up Story
Lessons
Learned
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44. Lessons Learned
• Overall a very successful project
• We were in time and budget
• Customers are happy
• No link changer tool for Richtext URL's. We needed to
develop a script
• Search Index (delete first, then rebuild) and be patient!
• Deletion Needs efforts to identify active Contents
• Fix Communities First!
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45. Q & A
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