Content Server Legacy Link Redirector
1 Introduction
Organizations have been using Livelink Content Server for many years. As such it is common for links referencing Livelink to exist widespread throughout an organization. Document Management systems allow the use of links to reference documents and serve as a good way to ensure users are referencing and consuming the correct version. These links may be contained in document (manuals, training materials, process documents, diagrams), emails, contained in intranet pages, and even populated in other various applications (financial, hr, engineering).
Compound the use of links over many years, and it is clear that an organizations links are vital pathways to organizational knowledge.
As part of an organizations decision to migrate / decommission Livelink - there are decisions that need to be considered when migrating documents and folders from Livelink.
Breaking the links would lead to a big headache for users when trying to access the documents they need, could lead to losing the ability to find documents in a timely fashion, and ultimately result in a loss of productivity.
Updating the links in some cases are impractical and sometimes not possible (can’t update an email) and if possible would be largely time consuming and difficult as one would need to update many disparate systems.
It is best to utilize a redirection mechanism to translate your old DM links to the current location in SharePoint or the network drive.
The Gimmal DM Link Redirector utility is part of the Gimmal Suite of Migration utilities (formerly known as ECM Wise Migration utilities)
Leveraging the DM Link Redirector technology allows organizations to preserve the original source document and folder links (where applicable) and have them redirect to the new destination location.
When the DM Link Redirector is used alongside the Content Server Migration Tool – this allows you to enable your organization to migrate their documents and folders to SharePoint or network drives. The source locations from Livelink would be linked to the new destination locations and be available to be redirected using the DM Link Redirector technology.
The DM Link Redirector supports your migrations and helps you to preserve your organizational links in a simple manner. No losing or breaking your organizational links, and no time consuming link updates required!
The Gimmal Migration Tool Suite makes your migrations manageable! Fast, effective and efficient.
2 Requirements
This section provides information about installation requirements and pre-requisites for use.
2.1 Compatibility with SharePoint as Destination
Configuration: Name Version Status SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 Certified and tested SharePoint Online Certified and tested
2.2 Database
The Gimmal DM Link Redirector requires as a pre-requisite the installation of Gimmal Content Server Migration Tool. The Gimmal Content Server Migration Tool installation will configure the database for use.
Note: If the organization has a large active user base that relies heavily on Content Server legacy links, it is recommended to use a dedicated SQL server for the database instead of a shared SQL server instance to ensure best performance is achieved.
The DM Link Redirector tool requires:
2.3 IIS
The Gimmal DM Link Redirector is required to be used with IIS (Internet Information Services) with Rewrite Module installed:
3 Decision – Redirect During or After Migrations
We recommend a decision is made at the outset planning stage of your migration project. That is the decision regarding redirecting your links during migration (in-flight) or waiting until after migration is completed to enable redirection of links. Keep in mind migrations may take a period of time to complete given the large number of documents affected, meaning there would be a period of time where some documents are in their new destination location while some documents are yet to be migrated. The DM Link Redirector tool supports redirection of links for both scenarios.
We summarize below the decision path and required steps to achieve.
Ultimately the decision depends on your organizational needs; use the table below to assist in your decision.
Option Pros Cons Required Action to Support - . - - - -
Option | Pros | Cons | Action to Support |
|---|---|---|---|
1.) Support in-flight redirection during migrations. |
| Require pass through to direct machine name (Content Server name) for documents and folders that have not yet been migrated | Proceed with sections 4 and 5 of this document. - Enable pass through to Content Server setting (see section 5). Perform migrations. |
2.) Redirect only once all migrations are completed. | Simplest, just enable redirection when migrations are completed. | No redirection is provided until all migrations are completed. | Perform migrations. - Proceed with sections 4 and 5 of this document. |
4 Setup
We recommend installations are conducted by an IT Administrator with appropriate access to the required environments.
Please note: information about using configuring IIS and ASP is intended for use by Administrators who are knowledgeable about IIS configuration and methodologies. We cover the configuration in brief below, but this may differ depending on specific environments.
4.1 IIS Setup
We must first setup / configure IIS for use with the DM Link Redirector:
Determine the dedicated web server for use with DM Link Redirector.
Please note we strongly recommend that the web server is dedicated to the DM Link Redirector application since url rewriting is used which would potentially affect other applications hosted on the same IIS instance.
Please ensure IIS’s ASP.NET features are enabled.
Under Server Roles > Web Server > Application Development
Please install the IIS Rewrite Module provided by Microsoft for your specific operating system.
4.2 IIS Deploy App and Settings
Deploying to IIS:
Create new application pool called linkredirector – specify .net 4.X, and check enable start pool immediately.
Under advanced settings for application pool
a. If using IIS older than 8.5: set application pool created from above to use identity of NetworkService.
b. If using IIS 8.5 and later: set application pool created from above to use identity of ApplicationPoolIdentity for added security.Verify that the application pool has started
Please locate the web application folder (named “linkredirector”) provided as part of your electronic software delivery of Gimmal DM Link Redirector.
Locate your inetpub \wwwroot folder.
Copy the linkredirector folder to the wwwroot folder.
Open your IIS Manager console.
Browse your sites and expand to see all sites.
Right click on linkredirector folder and Convert to Application (set the application pool to the linkredirector application pool from step 1.
Browse to linkredirector site in IIS and click on Authentication.
Ensure authentication in IIS is set to Anonymous, and Forms enabled only. This configuration will use SQL server authentication. If you wish to use windows authentication instead, please refer to section 5.2.2.
Set permissions to linkredirector folder
a. Browse to the linkredirector folder using windows explorer
b. Right click on the folder > choose properties > security
c. Ensure IIS_IUSRs has modify or full control on the linkredirector folder and contents (this ensures the web.config file can be updated programmatically by the administrator.
d. Apply permissions.Make sure the default web site has been “started”
4.3 IIS Rewrite Rule
Please ensure the rewrite module is installed and active.
Locate and edit the web.config file located at the wwwroot folder.
If there is no web.config file please create a web.config file under wwwroot.
Manually add the IIS Rewrite rule below and save your web.config file, it should look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="Redirect All" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="(.*)" />
<conditions>
<add input="{URL}" pattern="^/linkredirector" negate="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" redirectType="Permanent" url="/linkredirector/default.aspx?host={HTTP_HOST}&url={URL}" appendQueryString="true" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>
The rewrite rule above will redirect all incoming requests to the web server to the linkredirector application while preserving the host, url and query string.
At this time you can verify that you can access the linkredirector application configuration.
Ex.) http:// win-iis-dm1/linkredirector/Config/Configure.aspx
*Replace with your web server host name address.
Once you have verified that you can access the linkredirector application please change your Administrator default password (see section 5.1). You may also wish to complete the configuration covered in section 5 before proceeding with step 4.4 below.
4.4 Point Livelink/Content Server Entry to New Server
Please ensure you have reviewed section 3 on in-flight redirection during migrations versus post-migration redirection.
If you wish to replicate and simulate/test a DNS change using hosts file on a local work machine before going live, please refer to section 5.8 of this user guide manual for detailed instructions.
To proceed: at this time please work with your IT Web Administrators to repoint the “Livelink” name entry to your new Web Server where the DM Link Redirector is installed.
For example:
The domain: http://livelink.ecmwise.com/ should now point to your webserver address for win-iis-dm1 (in our example).
This would mean all links referring to your Livelink Content Server environment will be directed to the DM Link Redirector application for processing.
Note: The details of changing your domain / dns entry are not covered in this document as this may differ from organization to organization. Please speak to your local IT Web Administrator for instructions specific to your organization or environment.
In some cases, depending on how your Livelink environment(s) are configured you may also need to add a reference to your new host systems for the DM Link Redirector into the Livelink Administration section of Livelink.
You can do this under Livelink Administration > Server Configuration > Configure Security Parameters.
Next you would add entries for your host names for the DM Link Redirector into the Trusted Referring Websites list and saving your changes. You would also need to restart your Livelink services for the changes to take effect.
4.5 Link Redirection Mapping Link Types
Please note the automatic link types that are used in a migration (destination):
SharePoint 2013 – uses static links
SharePoint 2016, 2019 – automatically uses durable links (if applicable)
SharePoint Online – uses static links
Please note with static links the static html link represents the migrated destination location.
Note that if a document is moved, the link redirection record will no longer be valid for that item if it is moved. It is possible for IT to update the link table to match the new location but this is out of scope for this guide.
If a document is moved to the Record Center – SharePoint will provide a separate link redirection record in addition to the one provided here.
Although not yet available, Gimmal may be adding support in the future for SharePoint Online to use durable link types at a later date.
5 Configure DM Link Redirector
This section describes the configuration for the DM Link Redirector and associated options that can be set.
We recommend configuration is conducted by an IT Administrator with appropriate knowledge to the Livelink and SharePoint environments.
5.1 Change the Default Administrator Password
By default the DM Link Redirector is configured with a default password of changepassword.
The first thing that is recommended post setup is to ensure you change your default password by visiting the Change Admin Password page:
http://yourhost/linkredirector/ChangeAdminPassword.aspx
Please ensure you take note of the new password and save it appropriately in a secure encrypted location for future reference. The Administrator Password is required to be submitted before any configuration changes can be made.
Resetting the Admin Password
In the case that you forget your Administrator Password it is possible to reset your password back to the default value of changepassword. Please use care when resetting the password.
Locate the install folder in IIS and
Edit the web.config file
Locate the entry for “adminPassword”
Change the value between the double quotes to: uog6Itb1a2nOqvqhMLpkkA==
Save changes to the web.config file
5.2 Specify SQL Server Database Credentials
Please navigate to the Configuration page for the Gimmal DM Link Redirector tool:
http://yourhost/linkredirector/Config/Configure.aspx
The DM Link Redirector tool requires users to fill in the SQL server database information provided to us for our ECM Migration tools. Please refer to section 5.2.1 if you are connecting to the database using SQL Server authentication and refer to section 5.2.2 if you are connecting to the database using Windows authentication.
SQL Server Connection String Parameters
The DM Link Redirector’s default SQL Server connection strings are defaulted to use the following connection protocol (For more reference on connection strings, please see the following link for detailed information):
SQL Server Authentication: Standard Security
Windows Authentication: Trusted Connection
If you do wish to modify/add parameters of the connection string, you can do this by editing connection string element in the web configuration file of the linkredirector folder in IIS. Keep note that the connection string is written as a string format.
• {0}: SQL server name
• {1}: port number
• {2}: SQL login account’s username (only applicable for SQL server authentication)
• {3}: SQL login account’s password (only applicable for SQL server authentication)
Enabling Keyword Search
If your migrations are being done utilizing MAPIT for O365 you can also enable this feature.
If you are doing migrations using the Content Server to SharePoint Migration Tool this feature is not available.
If you enable this feature you will be able to perform keyword searches from the Search Manage interface.
By default - this option is disabled. If you enable this option incorrectly and you are not using MAPIT for O365 – the feature will not function properly. You should only enable this option if you have used MAPIT for O365 which creates the separate tables to enable keyword searching.
5.2.1 Connect via SQL Server Authentication
By default, the ‘Enable Impersonate Windows Authentication mode’ option is unchecked and the IIS settings (as per instructed in section of the user guide manual) are configured to connect to the database using SQL Server authentication.
The database that stores the DM Link Redirector’s link entries should be automatically created as part of the Content Server to SharePoint Migration tool or MAPIT for O365. Please fill out the Gimmal’s read-only service database account details in the fields that aren’t greyed out.
Also note that if you leave the database port empty, the DM Link Redirector will use a default value of 1433.
To confirm that IIS is configured to connect to the database using SQL Server authentication, please ensure the following:
Log into the IIS server where the DM Link Redirector is installed on -> Open IIS -> Then select the ‘linkredirector’ application in the navigation panel -> double click ‘Authentication’ in the Feature View panel.
Ensure ‘Anonymous Authentication’ and ‘Forms Authentication’ are enabled.
Ensure ‘ASP.NET Impersonation’, ‘Basic Authentication’ and ‘Windows Authentication’ are disabled.
5.2.2 Connect via Impersonating Windows Authentication
If you choose to use an AD controlled windows authentication to connect to the SQL database, you can check the ‘Enable Impersonate Windows Authentication mode’ option in the configure page. With this selection, you will just need to specify the ‘Database Server Address’ and ‘Database Name’ from this section as it will impersonate a user specified from the IIS setting (instructions as shown below). The greyed-out section of ‘Database Account Name’ and ‘Database Account Password’ will be erased after saving the settings in the configure page.
Also note that if you leave the database port empty, the DM Link Redirector will use a default value of 1433.
Instructions for Impersonating Windows Authentication
After selecting the ‘Enable Impersonate Windows Authentiction mode’ option and saving your settings in the configure page, you will have to adjust the following settings in IIS to impersonate a windows account:
Log into the IIS server where the DM Link Redirector is installed on -> Open IIS -> Then select the ‘linkredirector’ application in the navigation panel -> double click ‘Authentication’ in the Feature View panel
Disable ‘Anonymous Authentication’ and ‘Forms Authentication’
Enable ‘Windows Authentication’ and ‘ASP.NET Impersonation’
Right click ‘ASP.NET Impersonation’ -> click ‘Edit’ -> Select ‘Specific user’ and enter the windows credentials account information. Note that the windows account you are using must have access to the SQL server database using windows authentication and have access DM Link Redirector’s IIS
Note: When you do select the option to impersonate a windows account, the login credentials will be stored in the web configuration file. Please adjust the security of the linkredirector application to only allow specific users to open the web configuration file as to your preference.
Internet Explorer’s Active Scripting Settings
If you are using Internet Explorer as your web browser to configure your settings and the selecting the ‘Enable Impersonate Windows Authentiction mode’ checkbox is not greying out the ‘Database Account Name’ and ‘Database Account Password’, please ensure that you have active scripting enabled in ‘Internet Options’.
5.3 DM Link Redirector Options – General
Please specify the General Options below:
The Original Source Host must match the original Livelink Content Server host name. This would be the same name that you would have changed the entry for in section 4.4 (point Livelink domain to new server). If you have multiple host names, please separate it using the ‘;’ delimiter. E.g. ll.ecmwise.com;cs.ecmwise.com
Debug Mode is by default set to enabled to allow for real-time display of redirection processing.
When ready for production use, you must disable debug mode.
Enable Option to Open Documents in Web Browser is a feature that is only applicable to SharePoint Online. It allows users to switch between 2 different ways they want documents to be opened as on SharePoint Online. See below for more details:
Enable Opening Documents in Web Browser is unchecked: This is set to be disabled by default and when users are being re-directed to a document in SharePoint Online, the document will be automatically downloaded.
Enable Opening Documents in Web Browser is checked: If you do enable this option, all the URL that is a document will have a value of “?web=1” appended to their URLs, which will open the document in the web browser for SharePoint Online. If they are opening documents that uses Office Suite Application, users can have the option to switch between the web browser mode and desktop mode on the top right corner of the screen. Also note that when you are accessing documents with a file extension that SharePoint Online doesn’t support in their web browser, it will give you an option to download the document
Note: If you do not have this option, make sure your SharePoint Online’s Site Setting -> Site Collection Feature must activate the option to ‘Open Documents in Client Applications by Default’
The Pattern Match Path Names are defaulted as shown above. These entries are used to determine the Livelink object ID’s being referenced by the path format “/command/id”. We recommend leaving the default values as is.
The Pattern Match Id Names are defaulted as shown above. These entries are used to determine the Livelink object ID’s being referenced by the name format “noderef=id”. We recommend leaving the default values as is.
5.4 DM Link Redirector Options – Specify Valid License Key
In order to use the Legacy Link Redirector you must specify a valid license key here.
Please paste in the license key that you would have received from your Gimmal Support team representative.
You must “Submit Changes” in order to successfully register the Link Redirector product.
If you need a new license key (date of expiry is approaching) please contact support@ecmwise.com in advance and request an updated license key. If the license key expires - users will no longer be able to search or perform automatic Link Redirection (the tool will default to debug mode) and display the license error to the user.
5.5 Supported and Unsupported Legacy Link Types
The Supported Link Types from Livelink Content Server specified by Pattern Match Path Names and Pattern Match Id Names include:
Properties short link
Open short link
View as WebPage
Download
Open
Folder Browse Links
Fetch (historical)
In Flight Redirection Links Supported include:
Enterprise Workspace
Personal Workspace
Workflow Task
Personal Assignments
Document Overview
Linking to Specific Versions Not Supported:
Linking to specific older versions of documents is not supported at this time.
As such if there are cases where a specific non-current version of a document is referenced – the new destination redirection will default to the current version.
In most cases the current version is the link used, as such it is an assumption of the toolset here, that all links are to the destination current version.
For example the link below specifically refers to document version #2:
Ex.) http://livelink.ecmwise.com/livelink/livelink.exe/fetch/165252904/Test.pdf?nodeid=170001123&vernum=2
But instead the destination link of the migrated document will reference the latest version only and not version 2.
WebDav Links Are Not Supported:
WebDav links from Livelink Content Server if used as links in an organization are not supported at this time.
5.6 DM Link Redirector Options – If No Mapping Found
The following section pertains to options in case that a mapping record is not found. Everytime a document is migrated using the Content Server Migration Tool a mapping record is found. If a mapping record is not found this means either the document link is incorrect, the document does not exists, or the document has not yet been migrated (hence no mapping record found).
The section allows you to define a behavior for when a mapping record is not found. Each setting is optional. If you do not specify any options (by leaving the options blank) – it will default to a pre-defined catch-all display message. If you specify multiple options from below - the highest option displayed takes precedence.
Pass Through to Content Server with Parameters
You should use this option if you intend to support in-flight redirection during migrations.
If enabled, if a document has not yet been migrated the DM Link Redirector will redirect to the single named Livelink instance – reconstructing the parameters that were originally provided. You can temporarily specify a specific front end IP address to a Livelink Front End or setup new cluster address for pass through to Content Server.
If all migrations are completed, we recommend you do not use this setting because all your Livelink servers would likely be decommissioned. In such a case one of the following two options would be recommended. As such please remove this entry and make blank after in-flight redirection and migrations are completed.
Catch All Redirect To
If a mapping record is not found you can specify a catch-all redirect url. This would mean any object link that does not have a mapping record – would redirect to a catch all page that could describe the condition or just redirect to your SharePoint main page for example.
Catch All Display Message
This setting allows you to set a customized short catch-all display message that is displayed on screen. This would mean any object link that does not have a mapping record – could just display a custom message to the user on screen indicating the link was invalid or to contact an administrator for further assistance.
5.7 Debug Mode
By default, the DM Link Redirector is configured to start in Debug Mode.
This mode allows for debugging, testing and validation prior to enabling for production use.
Please use caution when using Debug Mode, as all link redirections would behave this way if unintentionally enabled without realizing this Debug Mode behavior.
Below is an example of how you can interpret the debug mode results.
Original Livelink Document url: http://livelink.ecmwise.com/livelink/livelink.exe/properties/100200300
Intercepted DM Link Redirector debugging results:
We see the host, url path and query string (if applicable).
The objectID of 100200300 is identified from the original link.A redirection / mapping record is successfully located.
The mapping record tells us the document has been mapped to the new current identifier in SharePoint.
The Action tells us that in production mode the tool would automatically redirect the user to the SharePoint document specified by the link.
When ready for Production Use – please disable Debug Mode.
5.8 Temporarily Bypassing DNS by Modifying Hosts File
Please note that this section of this user guide manual is optional and for testing purposes only for users that wishes to temporarily replicate a DNS change (please see section 4.4 for further instructions on the DNS change). Temporarily adding a line to the hosts file is the easiest way to test a DNS change before implementing it live. In the end you must reverse the changes again as this may affect normal navigation to Content Server for the VM. Please see below for steps on how to bypass the DNS by modifying host files on your Windows VM:
On your local VM where you can browse to the DM Link Redirector tool on the web browser, press start -> search ‘notepad’ -> right click it and run as an administrator.
Press File -> Open -> type in the path of ‘c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\’.
Choose to select ‘All Files’ at the bottom right corner of the instance -> Open the hosts file
To temporarily bypass DNS with a specific entry, you will need to add a line of your current link redirector’s IP address and the alias/hostname separated by a tab (not a space) delimiter at the bottom of the file then save the file. For example, if you want to resolve ‘ecmwcs10c’ to the IP address of Link Redirector’s web server’s IP address (e.g. 192.168.0.102), add this to the bottom of your file:
On your dedicated web browser, you can now browse to the link redirector’s pages by using the ‘ecmwcs10c’ host name/address. E.g. http://ecmwcs10c/linkredirector/config/configure.aspx
On the Configure.aspx page, modify the ‘Original Source Host’ to be your current Content Server’s alias/hostname (e.g. ecmwcs10c). Please see section 5.3 for more detailed information of the ‘Original Source Host’ entry.
On the Configure.aspx page, modify the ‘Pass Through to Content Server with Parameters’ to the IP address of your OTCS load balancer or one of your OTCS front end servers. You can also modify the hosts file for your OTCS’s IP address to use a new hostname. Please see section 5.3 for more detailed information of the ‘Pass Through to Content Server with Parameters’ entry.
Ensure ‘Debug Mode’ is enabled and try to browse (entering legacy links into a web browser) for a document/folder has been migrated already and a document/folder that has not been migrated. You will see that it is replicating exactly what it would be like if you made the DNS change of your OTCS host name/alias with your link redirector web server’s IP address.
After you are satisfied with temporarily applying the DNS change on your local VM, please erase the newly added row entries in the hosts file and adjust the configure.aspx page to how it was originally.
5.9 Ready for Production
When all migrations are completed, and your organization’s Livelink environment(s) are ready to be decommissioned.
Please ensure the DM Link Redirector is configured as per below:
Clear settings for Pass Through to Content Server with Parameters.
Disable Debug Mode.
Please note: SharePoint Links
The DM Link Redirector follows default SharePoint behavior. If your link type is static link when you move a document to a new location using the static link type – that link will be broken. Please use care when moving content around your libraries. It is possible to update the linkage table to reflect this change but it is outside the scope of this guide.
Please note: Network Drive Links
The DM Link Redirector also follows network drive link behavior. If you migrate from Livelink to a network drive, the DM Link Redirector will only know of the destination location. If you decide to move or change the document or folder location from the network drive to a new location post migration – this will not be reflected in the mapping tables. Please use care when re-organizing your folder paths as to not break your historical redirection mapping links.
Please note: Client Browser Security Zone Settings
If redirecting to network drives for a file or folder based on a migration mapping, you must ensure the Client web browser security zone is set to Intranet for the domain in order for proper redirection to network files. Otherwise the web browser will prevent redirection to such files.
6 Search Manager
The Gimmal Legacy Link Redirector also includes the Search Manager function. This function allows customers to search for documents by Historical ID and to check the status of migration and if applicable the new destination location.
This interface allows customers to quickly search by Object ID and Object Type as a quick reference lookup feature.
If you have enabled the Keyword Search function (only available for migrations done using MAPIT for O365) – you will also have the keyword search field available. The search results are automatically limited to 50 items to prevent long running searches and from too many results shown in the display.
Below is an example of searching on Historical Object ID.
