Step 5: Go live

Pre-requisites

The fifth and the last step of on-boarding your mailing domain on Sky Connect is the Go live step. Before starting the preparation for the go live, it is assumed that

1. The domain has been provisioned on SkyConnect

2. The users, aliases and distribution lists or groups have been provisioned

3. The integration with your organization's setup is complete

4. The data migration strategy has been worked out and all data that had to be migrated prior to the Go live has been completed.

Preparation

1. Identify your domain host,  verify the login credentials and get familiar with the console 

A domain host is an internet service that manages your domain name, for example, yourdomain.com. Domain hosts use DNS records to connect your domain name with email, websites, and other web services. 

Your domain host is typically who you bought your domain name from. If you don’t remember who your domain host is, you can

1. Search your email archives for billing records about registration or transfer of your domain name. Your domain host should be listed on the invoice.

2. Use WHOIS lookup

• Enter your domain name in the search field and click Lookup.

• In the results page, look for the Registrar section.
  The registrar is usually your domain host. For example:

  URL: www.polarmatix.com
  Registrar: Polarmatix Domain Services

• Go to your registrar’s website using the listed URL.

• Sign in with the credentials you used when you purchased (or transferred) your domain.
  If you forgot your password, contact your domain host’s support team.

• Some domains are hosted by resellers through a separate registrar. If you can’t sign in with your listed registrar or the registrar field is blank, your domain host may be a reseller.

  • In the WHOIS lookup results page, scroll down to the Raw WHOIS Record section.

  • Look for the Reseller entry.

  • Go to the reseller’s website.

  • Sign in with the credentials you used when you purchased (or transferred) your domain.
    If you forgot your password, contact the reseller’s support team.

  • If there is no reseller listed, contact the listed registrar’s support team for help.

2. Make the list of changes to be made to the DNS during switch over or go live.

During the switch over or Go live, you will be required to make changes in the DNS records of your domain in your DNS host. The table below gives the records that will have to be update and the source from where you can get the values to be entered.

3. Make a CSV to be uploaded with the COS change 

During the Go Live process, the COS for all the users has to be changed to skyconnectusercos or skyconnectadmincos, depending on whether the user has admin rights. 

Once the domain is live on SkyConnect (when MX is pointing to the Trend servers), all new user addition should be done with either skyconnectusercos or skyconnectadmincos.

A CSV with the user id and the post go live COS values has to be kept ready for application.

4. Decide on the switch over date and time

To reduce the number of possible bounced messages when you change your domain’s MX records, we recommend scheduling the change for an evening or weekend or other time when your email volume is low. 

5. Inform your end users

All end users need to be informed about:

1. The switch over date

2. The internal helpline which they can contact for assistance

Users who access their accounts using a web client will need to be informed about

1. The URL to the new web client and the link to the videos explaining the working of the new client

2. Instructions to import their personal address books, signatures, vacation replies and calendars from the old system

3. Instructions on what they will see when they login to the new web client (whether they will see old mail or will only new mail will be available on first time login – this depends on the [data migration strategy])

Users who access their accounts from desktop or mobile clients will need to be informed about

1. Instructions to add new accounts in the desktop/mobile clients.

2. Instructions on securing and viewing older mail depending on the data migration strategy.

6. Inform Mithi Customer Care about the switch over date and time

Inform Mithi Customer Care about the switch over time, so that they can be on stand-by to assist you.

7. Notify key contacts of the change (optional)

To avoid confusion over any bounced messages, you may want to let some or all of your contacts know about the upcoming change to your email system.

Make sure to include the date and time of the planned change, instructions to resend any bounced messages, and any alternative contact channels people can use for time-sensitive issues. You can emphasize that any downtime should be brief, and that no messages will be lost during the transition; some may simply need to be resent.

Go Live

Step 1: Change the Class of Service for all the users.

Change the Class of service for the users provisioned from prevsystemusercos to skyconnectusercos or skyconnectadmincos, depending on whether the user has admin rights. This step should be done by uploading a csv with the new user properties that can be uploaded from the Admin Panel

Step 2: Access the DNS console and update the DNS records

Following is the sample table showing DNS values for the sample domain net-it.com.

Step 3: Confirm the changes

Once you have updated the DNS entries, verify the changes using popular network diagnostic and lookup tools available on internet. The steps below are for Network Tools

1. Go to the Network Tools site.

2. Select DNS Records and click on Advanced Tools 

3. Specify the domain name and select Go

4. The DNS entries for your domain will be displayed.

Post Go Live

1. Post go live, test the following using the web client and desktop/mobile clients:

   1. Access to the new mail boxes

   2. Internal and external mail flow

   3. Mail flow from connected applications

   4. Global Address book 

2. Disable the catchall user for the domain (This was required during the phase where the domain was hosted on the server but not live.)