Introduction
This is the complete Onboarding Task flow for migrating Public Folders from On-Premises Exchange 2007 or later to a multi-tenant Hosted Exchange environment.
We recommend reading through the complete guide before starting the migration to understand the process, timeline, and prerequisites. You will see notes called out throughout the guide; pay attention to these, as they may provide information to avoid migration failure.
Complete each step in the order listed. If additional instructions are required, a link to a corresponding Knowledge Base article is provided.
This migration is typically run in 3 migration passes to move over all selected items and security group permissions. (Migrating of permissions is only supported for Exchange 2010+).
Public Folder migrations can take some time to properly configure endpoints. We recommend configuring the project endpoints a week or more before the migration to ensure they are ready for use.
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 migration projects. For more information, visit Project Sharing in MigrationWiz.
Limitations
Consider the following limitations when performing this type of migration.
- We are not able to support migrations with two-factor or multifactor authentication.
- App password usage, MFA/2FA, and ADFS are not supported for the migration admin account/service account being used by this endpoint.
- Exchange Web Services (EWS) must be enabled in both the source and destination for this migration type.
- BitTitan support does not offer post-migration guidance regarding the management and resolution of public folders on the source environment.
- The mail-enabling of public folders is not supported for destination endpoints hosting On-Premise Exchange.
- Due to a code defect in Exchange 2010, timestamps will not be preserved for Public Folders at the destination.
Migrated Items
Please click the bars below to check the migrated and non-migrated items. We are constantly working to create a better migration experience for you so these items may change over time.
Public Folders can only be migrated to other public folders or shared mailboxes. We do not migrate Public Folders to individual user mailboxes or Microsoft 365 Group mailboxes or vice versa. Mail-enabled public folders are not supported for destination endpoints that are Exchange On-Premise and will need to be mail-enabled manually. For additional details about items that are and are not migrated from public folders, see our Migrated and Not Migrated Items article.
Exchange 2007
Migrated
- Public Folders
- Subfolders
Exchange 2010 SP1+ & Microsoft 365
Migrated
- Public Folders
- Subfolders
- User Permissions
- Mail-Enabled Security Group Permissions (Default and Anonymous User Permissions are not supported)
Not Migrated
- Rules
Not Migrated in any Exchange Instance
- Email templates
- Email flags (if the destination is G Suite)
- Safe Sender/Block Lists
- Mail Settings
- Standalone documents stored in Mailbox Folders or Public Folders (Example: IPM.Document item types)
- System Public Folders
- StickyNote folders
Not Migrated in Exchange 2007: Public Folder Permissions
Special Considerations for this Migration
If your migration involves more than 1,000 public folders, some additional steps are required for a successful migration, and BitTitan Support will need to assist you. These steps are not required if your migration is smaller than that, and you may only require one or the other. Make sure you review these steps before beginning your migration.
Order of Operations
You must first successfully complete a Verify Credentials pass in your project before BitTitan Support can assist with these steps. Follow the steps starting at Prepare Source Environment through Run Verify Credentials below, then contact BitTitan Support.
More than 1,000 folders (including sub-folders)
If migrating more than 1,000 folders in total (including sub-folders), the folders will need to be SPLIT into multiple line items in your MigrationWiz project. This process increases the efficiency of the migration in case there are specific folders that may cause issues during the migration, and to allow folders to be migrated in parallel line items instead of a single one. If you are migrating less than 1,000 folders for the project, this step is not required.
- First, run the following PowerShell command against your source Exchange server. This will generate a file called folders.csv that will be used to create the SPLIT project.
Get-PublicFolder -Recurse -Resultsize Unlimited | select Identity | Export-Csv -Encoding Unicode C:\folders.csv - Once you have that CSV, follow these steps:
- Open the folders.csv file and remove the folder paths for any folders that should not be included in the migration. After you have confirmed the folder paths listed in the folders.csv file are the ones to be migrated, save the file (do not change the encoding) and attach the file to the ticket and indicate this step has been completed.
- Once the folders.csv file has been used to create a secondary SPLIT project (it will have _SPLIT included in the name), this will be the project used to migrate your public folders moving forward.
SPLIT Folder Paths
Only folder paths present in the folders.csv file used to create the SPLIT project will be migrated. Any new folders added at the source after the creation of the SPLIT project will need to be manually added after. For suggestions on working within this restriction, see Best Practices for migrating Public Folders.Open a Ticket with BitTitan Support
Once you have completed the Run Verify Credentials step, open a ticket with BitTitan Support by following the instructions in How do I get support for your products? Make sure to include the following information in your ticket:
- The subject of the ticket should be “Public Folder SPLIT or Mapping Scripts Needed”
- Make sure to attach the folders.csv file to the ticket from the step above for migrating more than 1,000 folders if one is required.
If you have already submitted a ticket for another issue, simply add the new information to that existing ticket.
Prepare the Source Environment
- Grant admin permissions
- Ensure that the source administrator account has a mailbox enabled.
- Break up large folders (if required)
Grant Admin Permissions
- Grant elevated 'Organization Management' administrator role to the migrating administrator account. Refer to Assigning the Elevated Admin Role 'Organization Management' to a Public Folder Account for Migration.
- Ensure that the source administrator account has a mailbox enabled and is located on the same Exchange server as the source Public Folder database or mailbox.
- Ensure that the migrating administrator account has permission in all Public Folders ("Read-only" or "Reviewer" access rights should be enough). For more information, see Granting Necessary Permissions to Source Public Folders.
Break up Large Folders
You will want to perform these tasks before beginning your migration. If you are migrating more than 1,000 folders (including subfolders) and/or more than 20GB of data, break these folders up before contacting BitTitan Support.
- Split up large Public Folders: if any source Public Folders contain more than 100,000 items (if Source = O365, Exchange 2010 or later), these should be split into multiple Public Folders as they can cause migrations to be held up with processing of the high number of items. Breaking up these folders can help with faster migration speeds. For more information, see Finding Public Folder Size for Migration.
- Any individual Public Folders that are over 20GB in size should be split up into smaller folders of 20GB or less. Failure to complete this step can negatively impact migration performance and speed.
Prepare Destination Environment
- Create a single top-level Public Folder on the destination that your public folder hierarchy will be migrated to. Do not create subfolders. Let MigrationWiz create these during the migration so that permissions get migrated over.
- Ensure the migrating administrator account has permissions applied on the top-level folder created at the destination.
- Run PowerShell commands.
Important
You will most likely not be able to run the PowerShell commands on your Hosted Exchange environment. Ask the Hosted Exchange provider to add this permission to the account that is being used for migration. If they do not want to provide "owner" access rights, ask them to add "read" access rights instead.
PowerShell Commands
When migrating to a multi-tenant Hosted Exchange environment, the Public Folder structure on that hosted environment is under a top-level Public Folder, and not under the root folder. Additionally, the Hosted Exchange provider will not grant access to the root of their Public Folders, since this is a shared environment. Therefore, ask the provider to run the PowerShell script below so that we can obtain the unique identifier for the customer's top-level Public Folder. Then add that to the MigrationWiz project, under Advanced Options (this step is included in the MigrationWiz section below).
Get-PublicFolder "\the path of the destination top-level PF" | fl entryid*
Important
Record the output of this script. This needs to be entered under the MigrationWiz project's Advanced Options (as indicated in the MigrationWiz Steps section below).MigrationWiz Steps
The following steps will be performed in MigrationWiz.
- Create project
- Create endpoints
- Add items
- Run Verify Credentials
- Purchase licenses
- Set Advanced Options
Create a Public Folder migration project. Read the MigrationWiz Projects article for more information on project types and troubleshooting.
- Click the Go to My Projects button.
- Click the Create Project button.
- Select Public Folder as the migration type.
- Click Next Step.
- Enter a Project name and select a Customer.
- Click Next Step.
Set the source and destination Endpoints (select Exchange Server Public Folder for the source Endpoint, and Office 365 Public Folder for the destination Endpoint). If your Destination endpoint is GCC High, select Office 365 Public Folders (US Government) for that endpoint.
Add the items you wish to migrate.
- Select Add
- Select Quick Add
- Enter a forward slash ( / ) in the Root Folder Path field.
We recommend this because it will migrate all Public Folders, and you will only need one Public Folder license per 10GB of data, regardless of the number of top-level Public Folders. Refer to Migrating all Public Folders from the Root Level Down
If targeting specific source folders for the migration, please add a folder filter to the line item to migrate these specific folders. For information on how to filter folders, please see our Folder Filtering & Mapping in MigrationWiz article.
Now that your project has been created and / added for the Root Path or the specific folders to be migrated have been added, run Verify Credentials from the Start menu in the MigrationWiz project.
Large migration steps
If your migration includes more than 1,000 folders (including subfolders) or more than 20GB of data to be migrated, contact BitTitan customer support at this time, and follow the instructions laid out below based on which situation applies to your project.
Purchase Licenses
Purchase Public Folder licenses. To obtain an estimate of the number of Public Folder migration licenses required for your migration project, follow the directions in Estimating the Required Public Folder Migration License Count.
Set Advanced Options
Important
The advanced option steps listed below should be followed in the order that they are entered as they are required for this migration scenario.
- Under Source/Destination, set the value for Migrate Permissions For from New Folders Only to New folders and existing folders. This is required because Public Folder mapping scripts have been created. See Migrating Public Folder Permissions
- Set value for Licensing/Maximum licenses to consume per item per pass licensing count. Default = 1. This allows up to 10GB to be migrated. Example: If migrating all Public Folders, using the forward-slash ( / ), and the total data size = 78GB, then increase this value to 8 (otherwise the migration will pause at 10GB). See MigrationWiz Licenses.
- Set your Preferred region of the destination tenant. For the most optimum migration speeds, select the Data Center that is closest to your Microsoft 365 destination tenant. Refer to MigrationWiz - General - FAQ.
Under Support Options add:
- RemoveFilterBasedOnFolderType=1 This support option is required if Public Folders contain items other than mail, such as calendar and contact items. This option stays in place for the entire migration process.
- DoNotMailEnablePublicFolders=1 This support option is required and must remain until you are ready to mail-enable the migrated Public Folders after all folders, files, and permissions have been migrated. This option must stay in place until you run the pass to mail-enable the migrated folders with step 3 under Mail Enabling Your Migrated Public Folders later in this guide.
- PublicFolderExportRootEntryId=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (This is the entry ID of the top-level folder at the source)
-
PublicFolderImportRootEntryId=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (This is the entry ID of the top-level folder manually created at the destination)
Important
- These options stay in place for the entire migration process.
- The PublicFolderExportRootEntryId option should contain the EntryId of the source top-level Public Folder.
- The PublicFolderImportRootEntryId option should contain the EntryId of the destination top-level Public Folder.
- The names of the support options are case-sensitive and should be entered exactly as shown above.
- Replace the "x"s with the ID that was obtained when running the PowerShell scripts provided in the "Prepare Source Environment" and "Prepare Destination Environment" sections of this Migration Guide.
- After entering each support option, click the "+" sign to save the entry, and then add the next entry in the available field.
Perform Migration
You will now begin your migration. This will occur in multiple phases. Each migration pass has additional required advanced options and will be submitted as a Full Migration. Each pass must be completed successfully before moving on to the next migration pass.
- First migration pass
- Second migration pass
- Security group permissions migration pass
The advanced options detailed in the migration steps in the tabs below are intended to help increase the speed of your migration. For additional details on these options, please view our FAQ article here.
First Migration Pass Steps
The first migration for this scenario usually takes more time to complete than the subsequent passes, and completes the following tasks:
- Folder and file/item discovery
- Migrate user folder permissions if a match can be found. For more information on the requirements for migrating user permissions, see Migrating Public Folder Permissions
Additional Advanced Options
Set first pass Project Advanced Options (this is considered your pre-stage pass as the older items will be migrated first).
Under Support Options add:
- MaintainWatermarkCompletionState=1
Under Filtering:
- Select By Date
- Check box Only migrate items older than the specified date
- Set date range (month, day, hour, minute) for items to migrate. We suggest migrating items older than six months. Dates will be calculated by the most recent modification date.
Perform the First Migration Pass
Perform the first pass for items older than 6 months by running a Full Migration from the Start menu.
Second Migration Pass Steps
The second migration pass will migrate data only. No permissions will be migrated and no mail-enabling of migrated folders will occur.
Additional Advanced Options
Under Support Options:
- Remove MaintainWatermarkCompletionState=1
- Add SkipImportFolderWhenPublicFolderExists=1
- Select By Date
- Check box Only migrate items newer than the specified date
- Set date range (month, day, hour, minute) for items to migrate. This date should be the same date and time used for the first migration pass
Perform the Second Migration Pass
Perform a second pass for items newer than 6 months by running a Full Migration from the Start menu.
Security Group Permissions Migration Pass
This pass will migrate mail-enabled security group permissions if an existing match can be found in the destination. The Primary SMTP address of the security group searches the matches. If you do not run this pass, none of the security group Permissions will migrate. If you do not run this pass, none of the security group Permissions will migrate. If you do not have any security group permissions, this migration pass can be skipped. For more information on Security Group permissions, see Allowing Security Groups Permissions to be Migrated During a Public Folder Migration Project
Additional Advanced Options
Under Support Options
- Remove SkipImportFolderWhenPublicFolderExists=1
- Add AllowAllMailboxTypesForPFPermissions=1
Remove the above support option regardless of if you are migrating security group permissions or not. Mail-enabling of public folders cannot occur if it is present for the mail-enabling phase of the migration outlined below.
Perform Migration Pass for Security Group Permissions
Perform a pass for migrating security group permissions by running a Full Migration from the Start menu.
Post-Migration
- After the migrated Public Folders have been mail-enabled in the destination, you can use the scripts supplied here to export and import the SMTP addresses for them: Migrating mail-enabled Public Folder email addresses.
- Request the migration statistics. Click the bar chart icon on the MigrationWiz dashboard to receive an email containing all the project migration statistics.