iLumin Assentor Mailbox Manager (CA Message Manager) Migration to Jatheon Cloud
This guide explains how to migrate archives from iLumin Assentor Mailbox Manager (later known as CA Message Manager and subsequently under the Autonomy/OpenText family) to Jatheon Cloud. It covers prerequisites, data discovery, export options, metadata mapping, ingestion, and validation to ensure full integrity and compliance.
Prerequisites
- Inventory of Assentor components in use (e.g., Assentor Mailbox Manager, Assentor Compliance, Assentor Discovery, Archiver).
- Admin access to the Assentor administration UI and the underlying archive/message stores.
- Export/read access to any Assentor databases and file shares where messages/attachments are stored.
- List of custodians (mailboxes/journals), expected data volumes, and retention/hold requirements.
Overview
Assentor Enterprise was a modular archiving/compliance suite used with Microsoft Exchange and IBM/Lotus Notes. Typical deployments combined Mailbox Manager for mailbox archiving with Compliance (supervision/quarantine), Discovery (eDiscovery) and an Archiver back end. Your migration plan should account for mailbox archives (user and journal), supervision states, and discovery/legal-hold data where applicable.
Tip: In documentation and tools you may also find this platform under aliases: CA Message Manager, Autonomy Message Manager, or simply iLumin Assentor. Use these names when searching for export/connectors or migration references.
Supported Source Scenarios
- User mailbox archives from Exchange.
- Journal archives from Exchange.
- (If present) Mailbox archives from IBM/Lotus Notes via Assentor AMM for Notes.
Technical Notes
- Data layout — Assentor stores archived messages/attachments in repository storage with indexes/metadata maintained by the suite (e.g., Compliance/Discovery/Archiver components).
- Modules — If Compliance or Discovery were used, include those metadata/hold states in the export plan so legal-hold items remain exempt from expiry after import.
- Platforms — Assentor historically supported Exchange and Notes; some deployments also integrated with additional messaging platforms.
- Tooling — Third-party email archive migration tools commonly include native connectors for “iLumin Assentor / CA Message Manager”; these can accelerate selective export and preserve chain-of-custody.
Export Options
- Preferred formats: EML (full RFC822 headers) or MSG (MAPI) with attachments and original timestamps.
- PST: Acceptable as an intermediary; plan for post-export itemization before ingestion.
- Selection: Filter by custodian, date range, folder classes (exclude Junk/Deleted if policy allows), and legal-hold states.
- Journaling context: Preserve envelope headers (e.g., BCC/recipients) if journal archives are present.
Sample CSV manifest header (extend as needed):
FullPath,RelativePath,FileName,SizeBytes,LastWriteUTC,SHA256,Custodian,Folder,InternetMessageId
Example PowerShell to compute SHA-256 and build a manifest:
$Root="D:\Assentor\Exports"
$Out="D:\Assentor\manifests\assentor_manifest.csv"
$files=Get-ChildItem -Path $Root -Recurse -File -Include *.eml,*.msg
$rows=foreach($f in $files){$h=Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 -Path $f.FullName;[pscustomobject]@{FullPath=$f.FullName;Relative=$f.FullName.Substring($Root.Length).TrimStart('\');FileName=$f.Name;SizeBytes=$f.Length;LastWriteUTC=$f.LastWriteTimeUtc;SHA256=$h.Hash}}
$rows|Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Path $Out -Encoding UTF8
Deduplication: Use a composite key such as SHA-256 + InternetMessageId + SizeBytes to identify duplicates before ingestion.
Migration Scope
- Discovery — Enumerate custodians and journals; capture item counts, sizes, date ranges, and any legal holds/supervision flags.
- Export — Use native export (if available) or a third-party connector to extract messages, attachments, and metadata (EML/MSG preferred).
- Transform — Normalize fields (sender/recipient, InternetMessageId, folder path, retention markers, hold flags) to Jatheon’s import schema.
- Ingestion — Import to Jatheon Cloud in phased batches; throttle as needed; monitor exceptions.
- Validation — Reconcile counts vs. source; spot-check headers, attachments, date ranges; verify search parity and hold mapping.
- Cutover — Activate retention policies and finalize stakeholder sign-off.
What We Preserve
- Message bodies and attachments (original formats)
- Headers and delivery metadata (incl. InternetMessageId)
- Custodian/mailbox relationships and (where present) journal context
- Folder hierarchy and labels (as exported)
- Retention markers and legal-hold/ supervision flags (mapped)
Troubleshooting
- Long paths / invalid characters — Normalize filenames, shorten deep paths; for Windows copies use robocopy /256 if needed; keep a mapping log.
- Missing attachments — Re-run export with “include attachments” enabled; verify export tool’s attachment filters.
- Corrupted items — Quarantine and log; proceed with bulk then attempt targeted re-export of failures.
- Time zone/date shift — Ensure export preserves original Sent/Received fields; validate in Jatheon search.
- Encoding/charset issues — Prefer UTF-8 where possible; verify header/body encoding after import.
- Hold/retention flags missing — Confirm Compliance/Discovery metadata export; map flags to Jatheon legal holds.
- Throughput — Batch by custodian and date range; limit concurrency to avoid I/O/network bottlenecks; throttle ingestion if required.
- Access denied — Re-check read permissions to Assentor repos, DBs, and file shares; run as service account with explicit rights.
- Journal context lost — Ensure envelope headers are exported and ingested for proper recipient auditing (incl. BCC).
- Duplicate collisions — Use the dedup key (e.g., SHA-256 + InternetMessageId) consistently pre- and post-ingestion.
Validation & Post-Migration
- Reconcile item counts per custodian/journal and total size.
- Spot-check headers, attachments, time zones, and search parity in Jatheon Cloud.
- Confirm retention and legal-hold behavior matches policy.
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