What is Lotus' recommended Upgrade Path for lotus 8?

In all cases, it is important that you follow the upgrade guidelines to ensure minimum feature loss with Mail and Calendaring & Scheduling.

1. Upgrade the Notes clients that administrators will use to edit and operate on the Domino Directory.
2. Upgrade the Domino Directory first (this is done by upgrading the Domino server that is the Administration Server of the Domino Directory to Domino 8.0 first).
3. Replicate the Domino Directory to the other servers.
4. Upgrade the Hub servers.
5. Upgrade the Mail servers.
6. Upgrade the SMTP servers.
7. Upgrade the Web servers.
8. Upgrade the Application servers.
9. Any third-party/companion product server (check for Notes/Domino Release 8.0 readiness).
10. Upgrade the general population of clients to Notes 8.0.
11. Replace the design of any databases/mail files with any new Notes/Domino Release 8.0 design changes last. For mail files, the Convert task should be used on the server to change the design of the mail file.