This article will guide you through the steps for migrating mailboxes from On-Premises Exchange 2003/SBS to On-Premises Exchange (v. 2013 or later). 

There are some tools and resources that will make the migration easier.

First migration?

We’ve created a guide on scoping, planning, and managing the migration process for your use. If this is your first migration, we recommend reading this guide carefully.

Exchange questions and troubleshooting

Our Exchange Mailbox FAQ, Exchange Migration Setup and Planning, and Exchange Mailbox Migration Troubleshooting guides contain several common questions and concerns, along with more information, guidance, and steps to resolve issues such as throttling.

The maximum file size for migration through MigrationWiz varies by migration type and environment, but may never exceed 60GB.

MigrationWiz

MigrationWiz is a migration tool, not a syncing tool. If changes are made at the source after migration, they will not sync to the destination, nor will changes made at the destination sync to the source. We do not have “live” monitoring of changes (as with a sync agent) and we cannot handle scenarios such as conflict resolution without user interaction.

MigrationWiz supports the capability to share migration projects across a Workgroup. When the Project Sharing feature is turned on, all Agents besides those who are Inactive can view all migrations projects. 

We are not able to support migrations with two-factor or multifactor authentication. 

Prerequisites

1. Set up the new AD forest.
2. Configure forest trust.
3. Run the Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) to migrate objects over to the new forest.
4. Install the Exchange destination server into the new forest.
5. Create Exchange users on the new Exchange server.

OWA Configuration

Set up router ports for OWA traffic. Set different OWA URLs for each environment, and configure the router ports to accept inbound/outbound mail traffic for those OWA URLs.

Multiple router ports
Set different OWA URLS for each environment. Example: SBS Exchange 2003 server has OWA = owa.Sourcedomain.com and Exchange 2013 server has OWA = webmail.Destinationdomain.com

• The first router port would be configured with IP address 1, and accept inbound/outbound mail traffic for http://owa.Sourcedomain.com:443/owa
• The second router port would be configured with IP address 2, and accept inbound/outbound mail traffic on http://webmail.Destinationdomain.com:443/owa

Single router port

Most commonly found with smaller companies, this requires setting up port translation and port redirection to handle the traffic routing.
For example, port 4443 could be set to accept traffic for webmail.Destinationdomain.com and leave port 443 to accept traffic for owa.Sourcedomain.com.

• Port translation would need to be configured on the router so that incoming traffic on port 4443 would then be translated to port 443.
• Port redirection would need to be configured on the router so that after translation this traffic would then be redirected (using port redirection) to the new (Destination) Exchange 2013 server.
• For traffic coming into port 443, there is no port translation. It is just redirected to the old Exchange 2003 (Source) server.

Prepare the Source Environment

Create Administrator account

Set up an administrator account for migration on the Source Exchange mailbox server. EWS must be working on the Source Exchange server.

To test:

1. Close all browser instances. This ensures that all session state browser cache is flushed.
2. Open a new browser instance.
3. Navigate to your OWA login page.
4. Log in to OWA.
5. Once you see the inbox, copy the URL from the navigation bar of the browser. This is the exact OWA URL that should be entered into MigrationWiz.

To set up the administrator account: 

1. Open the Exchange Management Console.
2. Expand the Recipient Configuration node.
3. Right-click on the Mailbox node.
4. Click on New Mailbox.
5. Click on Next.
6. Click on Next.
7. Enter "MigrationWiz" as the first name.
8. Enter "MigrationWiz" as the user logon name, and optionally select a user principal name (UPN) domain.

OWA

If you have not already done so, set up router ports for OWA traffic, by following the steps in the Prerequisites section of this article. Set different OWA URLs for each environment and configure router ports to accept inbound/outbound mail traffic for those OWA URLs.

If you have followed through all the prerequisite steps of this guide, this step will already have been completed.

Test mailbox access

To test mailbox access on the Exchange Server 2003, perform the following: 

1. Open the browser to https://mail.example.com/exchange 
   1. Ideally, we recommend opening this URL from a non-domain-joined machine on a different network than the Exchange Server. 
   2. com is the DNS name of the OWA server. 
2. When prompted for credentials, enter the username and password of the account to be used to access the mailbox. 
   1. This can be either the credentials of the end user mailbox itself or administrative credentials.
   2. To migrate using administrative credentials, enter administrative credentials into OWA. 
   3. The Inbox of the end user's mailbox or administrator's mailbox should be visible once logged in. 
3. If using administrative credentials, change the URL to  https://mail.example.com/exchange/user@example.com
   1. user@example.com is the primary SMTP address of the mailbox being accessed. 
   2. The result is that the Inbox of the mailbox user@example.com should be visible. 

Configure Exchange

Configure the Exchange authentication method.

Increase MAPI named property limits

1. Start the Registry Editor on the mailbox server.
2. Locate the following registry key:
   • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\<ServerName>\<Private-GUID>
3. Set the following DWORD values or create new values if they do not exist.
   • NonMAPI Named Props Quota == 00007fff
   • Named Props Quota == 00007fff

You may either wait approximately 30 minutes for these values to take effect automatically, or reboot the server to take effect immediately.

Prepare the Destination Environment

1. Create an admin account for migration that has full access permissions to all mailboxes.
2. Set up a remote PowerShell session with Exchange 2010+.

Grant access

To manually grant administrative access for migration, execute the following PowerShell command in the Exchange PowerShell Console:
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Add-MailboxPermission -AccessRights FullAccess -Automapping $false -User MigrationWiz

In the PowerShell script above, change the -User account to match the name of the admin account that was set up for migration.

Any user account that is a part of the domain administrator, schema administrator, or enterprise administrator groups will not have any administrative rights to mailboxes, no matter how many permissions are granted. A security default of Exchange Server is to explicitly deny any user that is a member of these groups. This is why we recommend creating a new user account specific for migration.

Disable Throttling

Disable throttling against the admin account.

To disable all throttling parameters for an admin account called "MigrationWiz":

1. Open the Exchange Management Shell.
2. Type the following command and press Enter.

   New-ThrottlingPolicy MigrationWizPolicy

3. Type the following command and press Enter.

   Set-ThrottlingPolicy MigrationWizPolicy -RCAMaxConcurrency Unlimited -EWSMaxConcurrency Unlimited -EWSMaxSubscriptions Unlimited -CPAMaxConcurrency Unlimited -EwsCutoffBalance Unlimited -EwsMaxBurst Unlimited -EwsRechargeRate Unlimited

4. Type the following command and press Enter.

   Set-Mailbox "MigrationWiz" -ThrottlingPolicy MigrationWizPolicy

Verify mailbox accessibility using EWS

1. Browse to https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/tests/EwsAccess/input
2. Specify the target mailbox email address.
3. Specify the service account user name
4. Specify the service account password
5. Check Specify Exchange Web Services URL and specify the URL (example: https://server/EWS/Exchange.asmx)
6. Unless using impersonation (only supported with Exchange 2010+), do not check Use Exchange Impersonation
7. Check Ignore Trust for SSL
8. Click Perform Test.
9. Once results are displayed, check the overall result, and click Expand All.

Large Items

MSPComplete Steps

Create Customer

1. Click the Add button in the top navigation bar
2. Click the Add Customer button on the All Customers page
3. In the left navigation pane, select the appropriate workgroup and then click All Customers.
4. Click Add Customer.
5. Enter the new customer’s information in the Add Customer form. Primary Email Domain and Company Name are required. The rest are optional.
6. Click Save.
7. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each customer you want to add. 

Purchase licenses

We recommend that you purchase the User Migration Bundle license for this migration scenario. User Migration Bundle licenses allow multiple types of migrations to be performed with a single license. They also allow DeploymentPro to be used to configure Outlook email profiles. For questions on licensing, visit MigrationWiz Licenses

To purchase licenses

1. Sign in to your BitTitan account. 
2. In the top navigation bar, click Purchase.
3. Click the Select button and choose User Migration Bundle licenses.
4. Enter the number of licenses you want to purchase. Click Buy Now.
5. Enter a Billing address if applicable.
6. Click Next.
7. Review the Order Summary and enter a payment method.
8. Click Place Your Order.

MigrationWiz Steps

Create a Mailbox Migration project

1. Click the Go to My Projects button.
2. Click the Create Project button.
3. Click on the type of project that you wish to create. For this migration:

• Mailbox: Mailbox projects are used to migrate the contents of the primary user mailbox from the previous environment to the new environment. Most mailbox migrations can migrate email, calendars, and contacts.

For mailbox migrations, use administrative credentials to access mailboxes. In most migration scenarios, the admin account needs to have full access rights to the Source mailboxes. 

1. Click Next Step.
2. Enter a Project name and select a Customer.
3. Click Next Step.
4. Select a Source Endpoint or create a new endpoint. To create a new source endpoint:
   1. Click New
   2. Name endpoint
   3. Select type Exchange Server 2003+
   4. Enter the OWA URL
   5. Provide credentials: Click the Provide Credentials radio button, and enter the admin account credentials for the account that was set up under the “Prepare the Destination Environment” section of this guide.
   6. Click Add
   7. Click Next Step
5. Select or create a new destination endpoint. To create a new destination endpoint:
   1. Click New
   2. Name endpoint
   3. Select type Exchange Server 2003+
   4. Enter the OWA URL
   5. Provide credentials: Click the Provide Credentials radio button, and enter the admin account credentials for the account that was set up under the “Prepare the Destination Environment” section of this guide.
   6. Click Add
6. Click Next Step
7. Click Save and Go to Summary.

Add Users

Add the user accounts that will be migrated to the project. This may be done in several ways, depending on the size of the project. Steps for each option are in the accordion below, simply click to show the option you select and follow the guidance there.

Small Migrations

For small migrations, it is easy to add users one at a time using Quick Add. The steps for this are below. 

Larger Migrations

For larger migrations,we recommend either using the Autodiscover or Bulk Add option.

Advanced Options

The following options are most valuable for this migration scenario.

Performance Tab

• Set Maximum concurrent migrations. If the Source server has enough server resources, set this parameter based on the bandwidth guideline of three (3) mailboxes per 1MBPS of bandwidth. Therefore, for example, if there is a 10MBPS connection, we recommend setting the maximum concurrent migrations parameter to 30. In case the Source server has limited server resources available, such as low memory or high CPU utilization, it is recommended to set the value to a lower number to prevent overloading the Source server with requests.

Run Verify Credentials

1. ​Sign in to your MigrationWiz account​.
2. Open the Project containing items you wish to validate.
3. Select the items you wish to validate.
4. Click on the Start button in your dashboard.
5. Select Verify Credentials from the drop-down list.

Once complete, the results of the verification will be shown in the Status section.​ 

Notify Users

Notify users that a migration is occurring. Send an email to all users telling them the time and date of the migration.

Run Migration

Pre-Stage pass

1. Select the users you wish to migrate.
2. Click the Start button from the top
3. Select Pre-Stage Migration.
4. Under the Migration Scheduling section, from the drop-down list, select 90 days ago.
5. Click Start Migration.

MX Record Cutover

Change over MX records on the DNS provider's portal.

Also, include the AutoDiscover (CName) setting.

Send an email to end users to let them know what to expect for their Outlook profile reconfiguration. 

Full (Delta) pass

1. Select the users.
2. Click the Start button from the top.
3. Select Full Migration.
4. Click Start Migration.

Run Retry Errors

Look through the user list and click any red "failed migration" errors. Review the information and act accordingly. If problems persist, contact Support.

Request Statistics

Click the pie chart icon in the MigrationWiz dashboard to receive an email containing all the project migration statistics.