So it seemed like there was some interest in the Lotus Notes Archiving in the chat window right at the end of the user group meeting. I'd be interested in having a conversation with others about this subject. Hosted by this forum community or I can host it. 

Here's what we've internally discussed and/or piloted to date. 

• We've considered using OpenText xECM. I'm a former OpenText consultant of 6 years and I originally implemented OpenText here at 3M prior to moving over to this SAP and Legacy archiving role. We've also piloted archiving lotus notes databases with Optim. 

• We have approx. 200,000 lotus notes databases to retire. We estimate approx. 7000 of those have legal requirements to retain. Some are 40+ years and or permanent retention. Quality Maintenance, HR, Finance, R&D, Trade Secrets, IP, etc... 

• I've piloted archiving Lotus Notes databases using a couple of methods. 
  1. Archive Lotus Notes Database NSF files in a simple file system and keep a domino server around to access them as needed. I don't like this one. 
  2. Extract data and documents from the NSF using the Lotus Notes ODBC SQL driver and Notrix custom app to extract documents/attachments and re-link with extracted table data. Staged that data in DB2 then archived from there using Optim. It works but it's very manual. Likely only a good use case for high risk data with long or perm retention. 
  3. Use TeamStudio Export tool to extract Lotus Notes Database out to a stand alone HTML zip file. Archive that zip file into Optim or just leave it on a file server and manually manage the retention. This one has potential to be a good option as it allows the html version of the notes database to stand alone with the need for any type of viewer. Data and attached docs comes with this option! 
  4. OpenText has a few options, but they're all derivatives of the #2 and #3. The problem with OpenText is that there is no native viewer to view the data so you still have to export it and then consume it using domino, native application viewers,  or the html zip package. Or you have to browse the data using OpenText Content Server or other viewer. Most OpenText products are end-user licensing so it's hard to justify "Legacy archive access" licensing seats. There's a lot of manual stuff going on with this scenario. Not to mention infrastructure to support it. 

​​

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Danny Lankford
Advanced IT Specialist
3M
St Paul MN
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#InfoSphereOptim
#Optim

Hi Danny,

One could say items #2 and #3 ​​​are basically ETL, and handling it manually does not seem feasible at least for my use case. Unfortunately Datastage does not has a connector to Lotus Notes so it doesn't seem like we can handle it using just IBM solutions.

Archon from Platform3 advertises a connector to Lotus Notes but I haven't found references to a Db2 connector, though they have an OpenText InfoArchive connector. Are you familiar with Archon?

If they have a connector to Db2 then we could extract from Lotus Notes into a Db2 database and then archive using Optim.

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Elder Lira
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Elder,

No, I'm not familiar with Archon. It's been two years since I was in that OpenText space and since they acquired DELL EMC they have added or re-branded a lot of products. I'll take a look and do some digging. 

I would say that the TeamStudio Exporter is kinda neat. Take a look at the video. I'm testing this one now, and the html version of the notes database is appealing to the end users.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Yc-dio_pfY8 

Thanks for sharing the Archon info. 


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Danny Lankford
Advanced IT Specialist
3M
St Paul MN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 18, 2019 12:09 PM
From: Elder Lira
Subject: Archiving Lotus Notes.

Hi Danny,

One could say items #2 and #3 ​​​are basically ETL, and handling it manually does not seem feasible at least for my use case. Unfortunately Datastage does not has a connector to Lotus Notes so it doesn't seem like we can handle it using just IBM solutions.

Archon from Platform3 advertises a connector to Lotus Notes but I haven't found references to a Db2 connector, though they have an OpenText InfoArchive connector. Are you familiar with Archon?

If they have a connector to Db2 then we could extract from Lotus Notes into a Db2 database and then archive using Optim.

------------------------------
Elder Lira
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