Today we verified some problems that were reported to us (thanks Kevin!) that can affect an upgrade from GroupWise 7.03 specifically (and possibly older clients as well) directly to GroupWise 8.01.  Here they are:

If you upgrade the server POA to 8.0.1 and copy the 8.01 views into the post office directory, you will have issues with the Sent Items -> Properties -> Basic Properties no longer displaying message status.  This is due to the sim_prop.xsl file that’s in 8.0.1.

Possible fixes/workarounds:

1. Re-copy the old 7.0.3 view to the 8.0.1 PO ofviews\win directory
2. Upgrade the clients to 7.0.3 HP4
3. Upgrade the clients to 8.0.1
4. Have all the users switch to Advanced Properties view.

Before anyone asks why you might want to do 2. above rather than 3., some sites will not want to move their users to GroupWise 8.01 client prior to training, and will wish to fix the problem using a 7.x client.

If you use a 7.0.3 HP3 or HP4 client against an upgraded POA, Notify no longer works properly with calendar alarm notifications.  Only solution is to upgrade the client to 8.0.1.

This one of course is more problematic, because it loses some real functionality.  So, if you fit into the group above that wishes to keep your users on the 7.x client until users have received training, you may need to move your training schedule up!  Of course, the alternative is to hold off on moving to GroupWise 8.01 until these issues are fixed.  My recommendation?  The GroupWise 8.x client is not THAT much different than the 7.x client.  Rather than moving your training schedule up, you’d be better served to move up the new client rollout.

Danita

UPDATE:  February 3, 2010 – please see blog post at http://www.caledonia.net/blog/?p=312 for new information on second issue.