Skip to Main Content

Department of Computer Science

Technical Services and Support

CS Email Migration

CS Email Transition to Rutgers Connect

by Hanz Makmur – August 3, 2016. 
-Modified August 9, 2016 – Added Scarletmail forwarding for employee and Possible issues.
-Modified August 12, 2016 – Corrected Dates, phases info and Add pre and post migration info.

Important: Please read this carefully as these changes will certainly affect ALL Computer Science users.

As part of the President’s Strategic Plan for Rutgers University, Computer Science is required to move to the Microsoft 365 based email system called Rutgers Connect.

As you may have read, the University has been planning the migration process for a while and you should have received communication from OIT in October 19, 2015 with Subject: Enterprise Email and Calendar Selection and in February 8 2016 with Subject: Enterprise Email and Calendar Migration. The email migration for all SAS departments including Computer Science, is managed by SAS directly and SAS has maintained details webpages on Rutgers Connect, Migration Status, Migration Process, Training etc.

Computer Science email migration is planned to start on August 13, 2016 and if there are no issues, will be completed on Aug 17, 2016. At the completion date, our current mail server known as dragon.rutgers.edu or cs.rutgers.edu will no longer accept email, act as a mail archive and will be turned off at the end of 2016.

What is Rutgers Connect?

Rutgers Connect is a Microsoft 365 cloud based mail server. It is similar to the current Outlook.com email system available to the public with additional features for education-specific needs. See FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions on the official OIT Rutgers Connect page for more details. All information you will need is fully documented as well as training materials.

Who Qualifies for Rutgers Connect and What Will Happen To Current Dragon Accounts?

IMPORTANT: Please read carefully! Not everyone gets a Rutgers Connect account. Some qualified users will get email forwarding, some will get nothing. Those not qualified or who have an inactive NetID will likely need to move his/her email out of dragon.rutgers.edu manually before the end of 2016.

As part of the new University policy on Electronic Mail, Rutgers Connect Accounts are limited to certain groups of people and are described below.

  • Faculty/Staff of the department only:
    Faculty members and staff who currently work for the department will get an account on Rutgers Connect.

    What will be done: 
    – Unless you chose not to migrate your dragon email in the survey sent in Feb. 2016, all current emails on the dragon email server will be migrated to Rutgers Connect. 
    – Your @rutgers.edu email address will be reset to your new Rutgers Connect account as University policy for employees prohibits email forwarding to non Rutgers Connect accounts. Please note: As long as you have your Rutgers Connect account, you will not be able to forward your email to non-Rutgers Connect emails. 
    In order to comply with policy for all employees as part of the migration, If you have Scarletmail account, by default, your email will be forwarded from ScarletMail to Rutgers Connect.

  • Current Graduate students – TA/GA/Fellow who are employed by Rutgers as TA/GA/Fellows:
    The new University policy requires that all official business is to be done on the Rutgers Connect system. This means all Graduate students who are paid by Rutgers will have their @rutgers.edu email reset to Rutgers Connect . Their email onScarletmail/ScarletApps will continue to work and can be used for non official business.

    What will be done: 
    – Unless you chose not to migrate your dragon email in the survey sent in Feb. 2016, All current emails on the dragon email server will be migrated to the Rutgers Connect system. 
    – Your @rutgers.edu email address will be reset to your new Rutgers Connect account as University policy for employees prohibits email forwarding to non-Rutgers Connect accounts. Please note: As long as you have your Rutgers Connect account, you will not be able to forward your email to non- Rutgers Connect accounts. 
    -In order to comply with policy for all employees as part of the migration, If you have Scarletmail account, by default, your email will be forwarded from ScarletMail to Rutgers Connect but you can choose to unset the forward if you wish.

  • Current Graduate students NOT employed by Rutgers:
    Unfortunately, the new policy does not allow non-employees to have Rutgers Connect Account.

    What will be done: 
    – To avoid loss of email, email forwarding to Scarletmail/ScarletApps will be created on Rutgers Connect for those who currently have an account on dragon.rutgers.edu 
    – You will need to manually move your email to Scarletmail/ScarletApps

  • Guests of CS Department: 
    The two types of guest users in CS Department doing official work with the department required to use Rutgers Connect are Rutgers employees and Non-employees.

    What will be done: 
    -For non-employees, if your NetID status is activated, your email will be migrated to Rutgers Connect. If your NetID status is not activated, you will need a sponsor, complete a special form and be approved by the sponsor. You can check your status by going to http://netid.rutgers.edu and Manage your email addresses.
    -For current employees, an alias will be created to point to your @rutgers.edu email address. 
    -You may need to move your current dragon.rutgers.edu email manually to your Rutgers Connect account depending on your migration survey answer.

  • Retirees of CS Department:
    In the past, the CS Department promised its retirees that they can keep their email account. For these retirees, there are 2 options available.

    – Option 1. A Scarletmail/ScarletApps account with @cs.rutgers.edu forwarding.
    In this option, retirees need to have Scarletmail/ScarletApps account and request that forwarding be created so that emails sent to retirees_netid@cs.rutgers.edu is forwarded to retirees_netid@Scarletmail.rutgers.edu address.

    What will be done: 
    – If your NetID status is not activated, you will need a sponsor, complete a special form and be approved by the sponsor. Note: The CS Department Administrator will sponsor retirees. You can check your status by going to http://netid.rutgers.edu andManage your email addresses.
    – Activate your Scarletmail/ScarletApps Account via http://netid.rutgers.edu
    – You will need to move your email manually to Scarletmail/ScarletApps
    – Let us know  so forwarding to Scarletmail can be created for all your @cs.rutgers.edu email 

    – Option 2. Rutgers Connect account for retirees prior to Sept 2016.
    This option is only available for certain retirees who retired prior to Sept 2016 or by agreement with the department. In this option, retirees get special Rutgers Connect account.

    What will be done: 
    – If your NetID status is not activated, you will need a sponsor, complete a special form and be approved by the sponsor. You can check your status by going to NetID page and Manage your email addresses.
    Note: The CS Department Administrator will sponsor retirees.
    – Activate your NetID via NetID page
    – Depending on the status of your NetID, your MAY need to move your email manually to Rutgers Connect

  • Ex Faculty of the CS Department:
    For faculty who have left the department and need to maintain @cs.rutgers.edu email address because of published papers, you can request a Scarletmail/ScarletApps account.

    What will be done: 
    – If your NetID status is not activated, you will need a sponsor, complete a special form and be approved by the sponsor. You can check your status by going to NetID page  and Manage your email addresses.
    Note: CS Department Administrator will sponsor Ex.Faculty.
    – Activate your Scarletmail/ScarletApps Account via NetID page
    – If you still have a CS account, your will need to move your email manually to Scarletmail/ScarletApps
    – Let us know so forwarding to Scarletmail can be created for all your @cs.rutgers.edu email.

  • PhD/MS Alumni of CS Department :
    For PhD/MS Alumni who have left the department and need to maintain @cs.rutgers.edu email address because of published papers, you can activate a Scarletmail/ScarletApps account. A special request was made to enable those who have let their NetID expired to reactivate their NetID and activate Scarletmail/ScarletApps account until end of 2016. Once the Scarletmail/ScarletApps account is activated, let us know so forwarding to Scarletmail can be created for all your @cs.rutgers.edu email.

    What will be done:
    – Activate your Scarletmail/ScarletApps Account via http://netid.rutgers.edu
    – If you still have a CS account, your will need to move your email manually. 
    – Let us know so forwarding to Scarletmail can be created for all your @cs.rutgers.edu email.

What will happen to dragon.rutgers.edu or cs.rutgers.edu email address?

After the migration, you email address will stay the same but your email client IMAP and SMTP Outgoing settings will need to be changed. You also will need to create an Application Specific password if you plan to use IMAP/SMTP protocol on email client like Thunderbird or Pine while Outlook, Apple Mail and Mobile Devices have to be configured using EXCHANGE protocol. See details from the Rutgers Connect Client Configuration official website.

Because Rutgers Connect is more than just email, Webmail is the recommended best way to access your Rutgers Connect email after migration is completed. The website is connect.rutgers.edu. To login, use “your netid@cs.rutgers.edu” and your NetID password.

What will happen to dragon.rutgers.edu server?

After the migration is completed at the end of August 2016, the Dragon.rutgers.edu mail server will stop accepting emails and act as a mail archive and will be turned off at the end of 2016. Users can still read and transfer their Email on that server until end of 2016.

Migration Schedule:

There will be a few announcements sent by SAS IT in the coming days about CS Mail Migration to Rutgers Connect. Although we planned the best we can to do this earlier, circumstances prevented the migration to take place earlier in Summer 2016. We are trying to complete the migration before the start of Fall 2016 semester.

The migration is planned and done in 2 phases as follow:

  • Pre Migration: In this step, data collected is being verified. You can and should check information we collected on you athttps://secure.sas.rutgers.edu/apps/ruconnect_migration are accurate. While things can certainly be fixed later, the transition will go more smoothly if we have the correct information up front. If there are problems you must let us know no later than August 15th. Please contact us SAS-IT Connect Team at connect@sas.rutgers.edu.
  • Phase 1: Initial copy is planned for Aug 13 24, 2016 This will include the initial copy of all mail that is over 30 days old in your account. You will still be able to use your account, you can move, delete, change any files you like as normal, but you will need torefrain from renaming, moving or deleting any folders until you’ve been moved to Rutgers Connect. You can continue to perform any actions you wish on individual messages.

    Once your accounts have been created in the new system, you will be asked to login. If you have not changed your password since Jan 15, 2016, you will need to change your password at https://netid.rutgers.edu. Please notify us of any problems or any login issues well in advance of the actual switch (Aug 29,2016) if you notice issues or problems.

  • Phase 2: Final Sync and Final Cutover, is scheduled for August 17. 29. This is when all mail that was not copied in the first phase will be copied and all new mail will be delivered to Rutgers Connect and old dragon.rutgers.edu server will no longer accepts email. We expect that the migration will proceed smoothly as this has been the case in the other areas that have already migrated. If anyone does experience problems, IT staff will be available to help both on-campus and through the use of remote support software for those off campus.
  • Post Migration: Once migration is completed, no new email will be coming in and old dragon.rutgers.edu mailserver will become and archive server until Dec 31, 2016.For those who have to move his/her email manually, you will be able to read and migrate your email out until end of 2016.

Possible Issues

  • If you are receiving email using sub-addressing, example: netid+something@cs.rutgers.edu to route your email, please be aware that Rutgers Connect will NOT support this feature and will reject all email with sub-addresses. Please make sure that you change all of these addresses wherever they are used as soon as possible. This is not an issue if you are on Scarletmail/ScarletApps.
  • By policy Rutgers Connect does not permit users to bulk forward their email to an external account. This policy is enforced in two different ways. Users are not allowed to set a forwarding address; the option is not available to them. However, users may create mail filters which will forward a message automatically if the desired conditions are met. One such condition prohibits mail from being forwarded to an address outside the Rutgers Connect tenant. Please note that mail forwarded outside the tenant via a filter rule is quietly dropped with no error or informational messages being returned to the user.

Transition Guide:

To ease your transition from dragon.rutgers.edu to Rutgers Connect, please see Brief Transition Guide from Dragon Email to Rutgers Connect.

For more details visit SAS Rutgers Connect page for the most updated information and a copy of all official communications.