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Migrating To WiscMail Plus - Existing Domains

If your department has been using departmental email accounts (of the form username@yourdept.wisc.edu), the move to WiscMail Plus will include the following steps:

Contact the WiscMail Plus Service Team

Start your migration to WiscMail Plus by filling out the Domain Request Form. You may wish to briefly describe your department's current email system in the 'Comments' field. The WiscMail Plus Service team will follow up on your request by contacting you for additional information regarding your migration.

Domain and DNS Record Creation

Once a migration plan has been established, DoIT will create your domain. Mail will begin to be delivered to the WiscMail Plus domain only when the DNS (specifically, MX) records are updated to point at WiscMail Plus.

Initially your domain must be specified as either a smarthost domain or a routehost domain. Although WiscMail Plus will be receiving all mail (external to your system) addressed to your department's domain, smarthosting and routehosting allow WiscMail Plus to route the mail to your current email server. They differ in the way the mail is routed.

With a smarthost, if the account exists in WiscMail Plus, then mail for that account is delivered there. If not, then mail goes to the smarthost (your other mail server). This allows for migrations which do not happen all at once and can be useful if you need to configure clients and migrate users over an extended period of time.

With a routehost, mail delivery bypasses WiscMail Plus and goes to the routehost as if the domain hadn't yet been created. The advantage of having a routehost is that all of the accounts can be created in WiscMail Plus before mail is actually delivered to them, and then at once (with the removal of the routehost) all mail starts flowing into WiscMail Plus for the entire domain.

Create Accounts

You will be added as an administrator of the domain and will be granted access to the the WiscMail Plus Delegated Admin Tool. You will use this tool to create new accounts. You may create accounts one by one or use the 'Mass Add' feature to create many accounts with a standard set of default settings. As soon as the accounts have been created, they will begin to receive mail.

If the size of your domain makes the account creation process too time-consuming to complete in a reasonable manner, DoIT may be able to assist by making a customized import script. You would be required to supply a text file (preferably CSV) with the login IDs you desire, along with all other appropriate parameters. DoIT will then construct an import script that will create all the accounts for you. This whole process will be coordinated and timed as necessary. Because of the time required to develop and test such a script, it is generally reserved for larger domains (approximately 100 accounts or larger).

Migrate Users

Consider the items on the user migration checklist as you migrate users from your email server to their new WiscMail Plus accounts.