Introduction
This is the complete onboarding task flow for migrating mailboxes from IMAP systems to Microsoft 365.
App passwords are not supported for the Microsoft 365 endpoint.
Due to API limitations, IMAP migrations will only migrate mail items and we can only migrate mail items that are stored on the IMAP server. Verify that a copy of the mail remains on the server. If there is no mail on the IMAP server and it's stored in a local PST, use the PST migration process. If the data is stored in a local Outlook OST file (Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016), export the mailbox to a PST and use the PST migration process.
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.
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.
The maximum file size for migration through MigrationWiz varies by migration type and environment, but may never exceed 60GB.
Only mail folders are migrated with this scenario. Contacts and Calendar items will need to be exported/imported manually.
Prerequisites
There are many different versions of IMAP mail systems available. For this reason, we recommend running a trial migration on one or more mailboxes prior to the actual full migration project. Once the trial migration completes, check on the folder structure at the Destination to ensure that the directory structure is as desired.
To run a trial migration, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your MigrationWiz account.
- Click on your migration project. If you haven't created a project, create a project (following the steps laid out in the Create a Mailbox Migration Project below) and add a user to that project.
- Select the user for whom you wish to perform the trial migration.
- Click on Start.
- From the drop-down list, click on Trial Migration .
- Click on Start Trial Migration.
This guide includes a folder mapping under the MigrationWiz Steps section, which will ensure that folders are mapped to the root label on the Destination mailboxes, rather than under inbox/label name.
Prepare the Source Environment
- Test connectivity to the IMAP server through our connectivity test tool. Fill in the form and click the Test button.
- Export user list to a CSV file.
- Administrator accounts with at least read rights can export a user list.
- If you do not have an administrator account, you will need to ask your IMAP host to provide you with a complete user list, in CSV file format.
- This CSV file will be used to bulk-add users into your MigrationWiz mailbox project.
Prepare the Destination Environment
-
Set up user accounts on the destination Office 365 tenant and assign licenses. These can be created in several ways. We have a few options listed below:
-
Manually, one at a time. Read the Add users individually or in bulk to Office 365 article from Microsoft for more information.
-
By bulk import, via CSV file. Read the Add several users at the same time to Office 365 article from Microsoft for more information.
-
By PowerShell script. Read the Create user accounts with Office 365 PowerShell TechNet article for more information.
-
-
Create an administrator account in Office 365 to be used for migration or use the global admin account for the tenant.The minimal service account requirements are full access rights to the mailbox and impersonation rights. We recommend using impersonation over delegation because it is Exchange Online.For specific steps to set impersonation manually, see Impersonation and Delegation.
Modern Authentication Requirements
The steps listed below apply to both the source and/or destination tenant when they are Exchange Online, in regards to Exchange Web Services (EWS) in mailbox, archive mailbox, and public folder projects. Use a Global Administrator for the configuration steps.
For setup steps that include images, see under Enabling Modern Authentication for EWS between MigrationWiz and your Exchange Online Tenant in the following KB: Authentication Methods for Microsoft 365 (All Products) Migrations
Important: Failure to perform the steps for your Microsoft 365 endpoints, can result in failed jobs with 401 errors like the following in your project: Http POST request to 'autodiscover-s.outlook.com' failed - 401 Unauthorized
The administrator account being used for the project needs to be excluded from any MFA/2FA policies or Conditional Access policies that can block access for the administrator account. This requirement does not apply to the items or users being migrated in the project.
Configuring Modern Authentication to work with MigrationWiz for mailbox, archive mailbox, and public folder projects in Exchange Online is now the default method after Microsoft discontinued support for Basic Authentication in Exchange Online after December 2022. The following Microsoft documentation outlines this change in more detail. Should you have additional questions on how this change may impact your tenant, please contact Microsoft to assist with providing that information: Deprecation of Basic authentication in Exchange Online
The Azure Security Defaults must also be disabled in the tenant. (This is often enabled by default for all new Exchange Online tenants and there is no workaround for this requirement). For steps on where to enable/disable the Azure Security Defaults, see Enabling security defaults in the following Microsoft documentation. To disable, set Enable Security defaults to No: Security defaults in Azure AD
Modern Authentication Steps- Log in to the Azure AD admin console with a Global Administrator login.
- Select Azure Active Directory in the Azure Active Directory Admin Center.
- Select App Registrations, which is found under Manage.
- Select New Registration at the top of the screen.
- Give the app a distinct name. You can change this later if necessary.
- Select the Accounts in any organizational directory button.
- Under Redirect Uri, select Public Client (mobile & desktop) and set it to urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob
- Click Register.
- Go back to App registrations.
- Select the App you just created.
- In the Overview, you will find a ClientId (aka Application) and Directory (Tenant) ID.
- Copy both of these to another application, such as Notepad, for use later in this process.
- Under the Manage menu, select Authentication.
- Set the option Allow public client flows to Yes.
- Click Save.
- From the Manage menu, select API permissions.
- If API permission named User.Read under Microsoft Graph is already present, this can be removed. The Microsoft Graph API is not applicable to this project type and is not used.
- Select Add a Permission.
-
Select APIs my organization uses
-
Scroll down and select Office 365 Exchange Online
-
Then select Delegated Permissions
-
Select EWS
- Check the box under EWS for EWS.AccessAsUser.All.
- Click Add permissions. This permission only allows the OAuth application (MigrationWiz) to be associated with EWS.
-
- Important: This does not grant access to all mailbox data.
-
- Click Grant admin consent.
- Click Yes to confirm the settings.
- In MigrationWiz, select the project that needs to be configured for Modern Authentication.
- Click the Edit Project menu.
- Select Advanced Options.
- Under Support Options enter the ClientID and TenantID information you saved earlier in the following format:
- If enabling Modern Authentication for the Source:
ModernAuthClientIdExport=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
ModernAuthTenantIdExport=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
- If enabling Modern Authentication for the Destination:
ModernAuthClientIdImport=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
-
ModernAuthTenantIdImport=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Enter the specific ClientID and TenantID for your tenant in place of the xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.
- These options can be entered for either the Source or the Destination, or both, depending on the settings on the tenants.
- These options need to be configured for each MigrationWiz project that needs to have Modern Authentication enabled.
- If enabling Modern Authentication for the Source:
- Run a Verify Credentials to confirm that MigrationWiz can connect using Modern Authentication.
- Click on the item that was verified. There will be a message in the MigrationWiz Migration Information page that Modern Authentication is being used. This message will show in the “Migration Errors” box; however, it is not an error. This is just a message confirming that Modern Authentication is now active and being used for the connection.
MSPComplete Steps
Create Customer
- Click the Add button in the top navigation bar
- Click the Add Customer button on the All Customers page
- In the left navigation pane, select the appropriate workgroup and then click All Customers.
- Click Add Customer.
- Enter the new customer’s information in the Add Customer form. Primary Email Domain and Company Name are required. The rest are optional.
- Click Save.
- 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:
- Sign in to your BitTitan account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Purchase.
- Click the Select button and choose User Migration Bundle licenses.
- Enter the number of licenses you want to purchase. Click Buy Now.
- Enter a Billing address if applicable.
- Click Next.
- Review the Order Summary and enter a payment method.
- Click Place Your Order.
Apply licenses
- Select the correct workgroup on the top of the left navigation pane. This is the workgroup that the customer and migration project were created under. Your account must be part of the workgroup if the project was not created under your account.
- On the left navigation pane, click Customers.
- Click the customer that employs the user to whom you want to apply a User Migration Bundle license.
- Click the Users tab at the top of the page.
- Check the box to the left of the email for the user(s) to whom you want to apply a license.
- Click the Apply User Migration Bundle License button at the top of the page. It is recommended that users be added to the Customer page with the vanity domain. Then have the User Migration Bundle Licenses applied, before editing to show the .onmicrosoft domain, if the .onmicrosoft domain will be used for the migration.
- If there is at least one unassigned User Migration Bundle license available for each selected user, click Confirm. Important: If there are no User Migration Bundle licenses currently available to be assigned and your role in the workgroup is Manager or higher, the form that appears provides all the necessary information and will walk you through the steps of purchasing User Migration Bundle licenses.
MigrationWiz Steps
Create a Mailbox Migration project
- Click the Go to My Projects button.
- Click the Create Project button.
- 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.
- Click Next Step.
- Enter a Project name and select a Customer.
- Click Next Step.
Endpoints
Endpoints are now created through MigrationWiz, rather than through MSPComplete. The steps for this section outline how to create the endpoints in MigrationWiz.
If you are selecting an existing endpoint, keep in mind that only ten endpoints will show in the drop-down. If you have more than ten, you may need to search. Endpoint search is case and character-specific. For example, Cust0mer will not show up if the search is customer. We recommend keeping a list of endpoints you have created, along with any unique spellings or capitalization you may have used.
You may either use existing endpoints, or create new ones.
To create a new source endpoint:
- Click Endpoints
- Click Add Endpoint
- Select IMAP
-
The server name should follow the format: imap.example.com
-
Enter server port. As a general rule, the server port will be either 143 or 993 (if using SSL).
-
If you are using SSL, add a checkmark next to Use SSL.
To create a new destination endpoint:
- Click Endpoints
- Click Add Endpoint
- Enter endpoint name
- For endpoint type, select Office 365
- Fill in the required fields.
Add Users
Add the user accounts that will be migrated to the project. MigrationWiz allows you to bulk import mailboxes into the system.
Use the Bulk Add option, and import from the CSV file that you prepared under the Prepare the Source section of this guide.
Note: Administrator credentials are not supported for this type of IMAP endpoint
- Request credentials from each user.
- Reset mailboxes to use the same password (this will lock users out).
- Have MigrationWiz automatically request credentials from end users. Click here to learn more.
To request credentials from users:
Enter the Source Email addresses in the Source Email column, and checkmark the I don't know the login name and password for the Source mailboxes box (highlighted in blue with the below example). Users will then be requested to provide their credentials during the migration process.
For the destination users, you only need to enter the destination email address of each user as administrator credentials are used (supplied in the destination endpoint setup) for the import to the Exchange Online mailboxes.
Bulk Add
To import one or more mailboxes once you have gathered the necessary credentials:
- Sign in to your MigrationWiz account.
- Select the Project for which you want to perform the bulk import.
- Click on Add.
- Click on Bulk Add.
- Follow the instructions on the page.
Add Advanced Options
Under Source / Destination:
- Set to use impersonation at Destination. Checkmark the Use impersonation at Destination box.
Optional but recommended, under Support/Support options:
- Add folder mapping: FolderMapping="^INBOX/->"
- This will map folders to the root label on the Destination mailboxes, rather than under inbox/label name.
Run Verify Credentials
- Open the Project containing items you wish to validate.
- Select the items you wish to validate.
- Click on the Start button in your dashboard.
- 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 email to all users telling them the time and date of the migration.
Run Migration
Pre-Stage pass
- Select the users you wish to migrate
- Click the Start button from the top
- Select Pre-Stage Migration
- Under the Migration Scheduling section, from the drop-down list, select 90 days ago
- Click Start Migration.
MX Record Cutover
Change over MX records on the DNS provider's portal.
Also, include the AutoDiscover (CName) setting.
- Select the users
- Click the Start button from the top
- Select Full Migration
- 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.
Unexpected Extra Arguments
If errors are listed in the MigrationWiz dashboard with the following error message: "Unexpected extra arguments to Examine Context: FolderNameWithQuote", then follow the steps below to add the support option flag AllowQuoteInFolder=1
at the item level, and run retry errors.
Steps
- Click the Edit Item icon to the right of the item that you wish to edit
- Under the Support section, enter the support option:
AllowQuoteInFolder=1
- Click Save Item
- Select the line item in your MigrationWiz dashboard
- Click Start
- Retry Errors
Outlook Configuration
Users must create new Outlook profiles, set up their signatures again, and reattach any PST files that were attached to their previous profile.
Request Statistics
Click the pie chart icon in the MigrationWiz dashboard to receive an email containing all the project migration statistics.