Best Practices, Migrating PDAs to Exchange

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For more information about ISC's Exchange Service, visit the Provider Web at [1].

Contents

Development documentation for main article

Important note: this is a preliminary DRAFT document and is currently under editing and revision. Information included may not have been tested and configuration and other information may be incorrect or incomplete.

Best Practices: Migrating Meeting Maker PDA synchronization to ISC's Exchange Service

This document is intended to assist LSPs that are supporting end users who are currently using PDAs to synchronize with Meeting Maker. This article will not cover migrating data from Meeting Maker to Exchange, rather deals with how to make device specific changes to synchronize with the new server. For instructions on migrating data, please see the Meeting_Maker_to_Exchange document.

For LSPs that are new to mobile device synchronization and do not need to worry about reconfiguring existing devices, follow the steps to synchronize your particular device with Exchange here.

Step 1: Create a profile of your users and organization

  • How many users will migrate?
  • How many and what types of PDAs and smartphones are in use?
  • What platforms and operating systems (Palm OS, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile)?
  • Who are the VIPs to consider?

Creating a profile of priorities will help determine who needs the most attention and will take the most time to migrate. Your VIPs will likely be the first ones to migrate, and often will have the highest concentration of mobile devices that need to be considered.

Step 2: Read N&T's Exchange Documentation and ISC's PDA Documentation

Step 3: Determine current data synchronization and change configuration to Exchange

The method mobile device users employ when synchronizing data with ISC's Exchange server will depend on the type of device. Smartphones will synchronize wirelessly while "wired" units (devices that have no wireless connectivity) will synchronize using a desktop client. If your device is currently synchronizing with another data source (typically MeetingMaker), then you will need to make sure that connection is broken before making synchronization configuration changes.

BlackBerry

We are not aware of many BlackBerry users that are synchronizing with MeetingMaker. There is an Intellisync for MeetingMaker client that allows desktop synchronization of MeetingMaker data with a BlackBerry using BlackBerry Desktop Manager, v4.0, but its use was discouraged because of unreliable performance. If your client is currently using this method of synchronization, it is a good idea to break that connection before proceeding further. See Removing Intellisync for MeetingMaker for a short set of instructions (use Add/Remove to uninstall Intellisync).

Once you are comfortable that you are ready to migrate the user's BlackBerry to the Exchange server, please follow the Exchange BlackBerry Activation instructions.

Palm OS

The set of instructions for wired Palm OS PDAs (devices that have no cellular connectivity) and wireless Palm OS devices are the same, with the exception of configuring the wireless device after data migration. See the following page for configuration information:

Changing Palm sync from Meeting Maker to Exchange

Windows Mobile

There are a few individuals synchronizing various Windows Mobile devices with Meeting Maker using the Intellisync for MeetingMaker client. If your end user is using this method of synchronization, it is a good idea to break the connection before proceeding further. See Removing Intellisync for MeetingMaker for a short set of instructions (use Add/Remove to uninstall Intellisync).

Once the connection to the previous data source has been broken, follow the instructions for Setting up Windows Mobile for Exchange.

Step 4: Develop communications plan

While most communication needs will focus on email or calendar migrations, there will likely need to be some mention of the differences mobile devices users will experience.

For the most part, PDA users will not need additional training to synchronize with the new service. Smartphone users (including BlackBerry) will receive data updates wirelessly, while "tethered" PDA users will perform a synchronization in the same way that they always have.

Final Note

Before migrating, support providers should test their planned migration paths thoroughly. It is not only possible, but likely that support providers will discover specific use cases for PDA synchronization that are not covered in ISC's first generation documentation. In particular, support providers should make note of clients that are likely to involve “exception processing” (such as those with unsupported PDAs) and attempt to test those types of configurations.

Support Providers are strongly encouraged to update documentation on this wiki with information, tips, tricks and gotcha's discovered during their testing and migration. Your lessons learned could greatly help other Penn staff who are working towards the same end--you're not only being a good colleague, but saving valuable university time and resources! To get an account on the Wiki, please contact the Provider Desk, 3-4017.

Additional Resources

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