This guide contains the steps necessary to migrate in-place archive mailboxes from On-Premises Exchange servers (versions 2007 and later) to in-place archive mailboxes on Microsoft 365. 

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 a number of common questions and concerns, along with more information, guidance, and steps to resolve issues such as throttling.

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. 

Preparation

If your Source server is running Exchange version 2003, or Small Business Server (SBS), refer to the Prepare Source Exchange Environment section for instructions on how to prepare your Source server for migration: On-Premises Exchange 2003 to Microsoft 365 Migration Guide.

We recommend that the mailbox migration project is performed first, before migrating archives. For guidance, refer to the migration guide that matches your scenario. For example, if your Source server is Exchange 2007 or later, refer to On-Premises Exchange (versions 2007 and later) to Microsoft 365 Migration Guide.

If a mailbox migration project has already been performed, the same administrative credentials that you used during your mailbox migration project can be used for this project. It is likely that you have already performed all of the steps in each section, other than the MigrationWiz Steps. Proceed to the MigrationWiz section of this guide.

 Important: If the In-Place Archive mailbox being migrated is more then 100 GB in size and auto expanding archiving is enabled for the In-Place Archive mailbox in the destination tenant, the migration may take 30 days or more to complete due to the auto expanding archiving process not making space available immediately in the destination archive mailbox when moving data. If you have additional questions, please contact BitTitan support.

A note on root migrations

Exchange migrations do not migrate from the root, as EWS only sees and migrates items contained in folders. To migrate items at the root, create a folder for these items, drag and drop the items into the folder, and then migrate as usual. 

Prepare the Source Exchange Environment

If you have already completed a mailbox migration project against this Source environment, these steps will already have been completed.

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 New Mailbox.
5. Click Next.
6. Click 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, 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

 You can verify independently if a mailbox is accessible using EWS with the following steps:

1. Go to https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com. 
2. Select Service Account Access (Developers) and click Next.
3. Specify the target mailbox email address.
4. Specify the service account user name. If using admin credentials on the connector, enter the exact same user name.
5. Specify the service account password. If using admin credentials on the connector, enter the exact same password.
6. Check Specify Exchange Web Services URL and specify the URL (example: https://server/EWS/Exchange.asmx).
7. Do not check Use Exchange Impersonation.
8. Check Ignore Trust for SSL.
9. Click Perform Test.
10. Once results are displayed, check the overall result, and click Expand All.

Disable throttling

This is only relevant for Exchange 2010+. Exchange 2007 and earlier do not have throttling policies. Disabling the throttling will allow for a faster migration. Follow the instructions in Option 1 for the relevant Exchange instance.

Prepare the Destination Environment

If you have already completed a mailbox migration project against this Source environment, these steps will already have been completed. If not, create an administrator account in Microsoft 365 to use for this migration, or use the global admin account for the tenant. 

Set up accounts

Set up accounts on Microsoft 365 and assign licenses. These can be created in several ways:

• • Manually, one at a time. Microsoft instructions to add users individually
  • By bulk import, via CSV file. Microsoft instructions to bulk add users
  • By PowerShell script. TechNet article

Large items

Prepare the tenant to send and receive large mail items. We do not impose any limit on item/attachment sizes. However, it is possible for large items/attachments to fail to migrate because of external factors. There are two considerations:​

Modern Authentication Requirements

MSPComplete Steps

If you have already completed a mailbox migration project against this Source environment, these steps will already have been completed. The endpoints that were created for your mailbox migration project can be used for your in-place archive migration project.

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

A User Migration Bundle license is required 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 Migration Project

Create a Personal Archive Migration project.

1. Click the Go to My Projects button.
2. Click the Create Project button.
3. Select Personal Archive Migration Project.
4. Click Next Step.
5. Enter a Project name and select a Customer.
6. Click Next Step.

Endpoints

You may either select an existing endpoint or create a new one. 

If you are selecting existing endpoints, use Exchange Server 2003+ for the source, and Microsoft 365 for the destination. 

To create a new source endpoint:

1. 1. Click New.
   2. Name the 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.
   8. Select or create a new destination endpoint.
   9. To create a new destination endpoint:
      1. Click New.
      2. Name the endpoint.
      3. Select type Microsoft 365.
      4. Provide credentials.
      5. 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.

Autodiscover will add all users found on the source tenant. This can then be edited in the project to remove users not being migrated. All users will be added with the source and destination email addresses set to match the source email. This can be changed by using the Change Domain Name button at the top of the project page. If the usernames are changing during the migration, we recommend using the Bulk Add option.

Bulk Add uses a CSV containing the source and destination email addresses for the users to add the users to the project. If migrating only a specific group from a tenant, we recommend using the Bulk Add option.

Set Advanced Options

Navigate to Support Options and add the following:

1. IMPORTANT: Set your preferred Destination. The default is to migrate into the primary mailbox, not the archive mailbox at the Destination. To change this, set Destination: Microsoft Office 365 > migrate to: Archive under the Source/Destination in the advanced options of the project.
2. Set to use impersonation at the Destination. Checkmark the Use impersonation at Destination box.
3. 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 be 30. If the Source server has very few available server resources (e.g., it is running low on memory or it has a very high CPU utilization), we recommend setting this value to a lower number to avoid overwhelming 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 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 email to all users telling them the time and date of the migration.

Run Migration

For archive migrations, we recommend only running a Full Pass Migration, rather than following the Pre-Stage Migration strategy (typically used with mailbox migration projects).

Since the archive migration project is typically performed after the mailbox migration project has been completed (or at the same time), this guide does not include the steps for MX record cutover.

Full 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.