Introduction
This is the complete onboarding task flow for migrating mailboxes from On-Premises Exchange servers (versions 2007 and later) to Office 365. Complete each step in the order listed. Links to corresponding Knowledge Base articles are provided.
If your Source server is running Exchange version 2003, or Small Business Server (SBS), refer to the On-Premises Exchange 2003 to Office 365 Migration Guide for more information.
The MSPComplete section includes steps to deploy the Device Management Agent (DMA) to end users. This is an Agent which includes modules for HealthCheck for Office 365 and DeploymentPro. Deploying DMA to end users is a prerequisite if you will be using HealthCheck for Office 365 and/or DeploymentPro.
We strongly recommend that you use HealthCheck for Office 365 to check ahead of time to see if end user hardware and software is compatible with Office 365.
- Note: HealthCheck for Office 365 is a free utility. Read the What is HealthCheck for Office 365? article for more information.
We also strongly recommend that you use DeploymentPro to reconfigure the Outlook profiles in this migration scenario.
- Note: DeploymentPro is included with the User Migration Bundle license. DeploymentPro cannot be purchased as a standalone service license, and it cannot be added to the single-use mailbox migration license. If you wish to remotely configure Outlook mail profiles using DeploymentPro after a migration, purchase the User Migration Bundle license.
To see what items are included in the migration, see What items are migrated with MigrationWiz? and What items are not migrated with MigrationWiz?
MigrationWiz is a migration solution (not a synchronization solution) and will NOT propagate updates, deletes, or moves of the items previously migrated in the first migration pass because 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. For more information, visit Project Sharing in MigrationWiz.
Prepare the Source Environment
- Set up an administrator account for migration on the Source Exchange mailbox server. Read the How do I create an administrator account for login? article for more information.
- EWS must be working on the Source Exchange server. Read the How do I verify if my OWA URL is correct? article for more information.
- Test mailbox access. Read the How do I test mailbox access? article for more information.
- Disable the Exchange throttling policy during migration. Read the How do I disable the throttling policy on Exchange? article for more information.
Notes:- This is only relevant for Exchange 2010+. Exchange versions 2007 and earlier do not have throttling policies.
- If you are running Exchange 2010 and later, we highly recommend disabling the Exchange throttling policy in order to speed up your migrations.
Prepare the Destination Environment
- Create an administrator account in Office 365 to be used for migration, or use the global admin account for the tenant. Read the How do I create an administrator account in Office 365, and then use this during migration? article for more information.
- Set up accounts on Office 365 and assign licenses. These can be created in several ways:
- 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 article from Microsoft for more information.
- By DirSync, AAD Sync or AAD connect. Read this very important Knowledge Base article before running synchronization. Read the How do I synchronize my Azure Active Directory objects to Office 365? article for more information.
- Prepare the tenant to send and receive large mail items. Read the How do I migrate large mail items to Office 365? article for more information.
MSPComplete Steps
- Create the customer. Read the View, Add, and Edit Your Customers article for more information.
- Create the Source and Destination endpoints. Read the View, Add, and Edit Customer Endpoints article for more information.
- Purchase licenses.
Note: We recommend that you purchase the User Migration Bundle license for this migration scenario. User Migration Bundle licenses allow you to perform multiple migrations of User mailboxes, documents, and personal archives, plus Google coexistence configuration and allows the use of DeploymentPro to perform post-migration Outlook email profile configuration. Refer to these articles for more information: - Deploy DMA to users. Once DMA has been deployed to users, check the Users tab in MSPComplete. This will be populated with the user accounts that have DMA installed. DMA can be deployed by either of these options:
- Via Group Policy Object (GPO).
Note: This is the recommended methodology because no end user interaction is required. Read the How do I deploy the Device Management Agent with a Group Policy Object (GPO)? article for more information. - Via email. Read the How do I deploy the Device Management Agent through email? article for more information.
- Via Group Policy Object (GPO).
HealthCheck for Office 365 Steps
- Go to All Products > Device Management, then click HealthCheck for Office 365 on the far left and follow the prompts to launch.
- Select a customer from the list by clicking on the customer name.
Note: The status column will show enabled when a customer account has had DMA deployed. - Review the results.
Note: If any computers have a red X on their row, you should review the detailed results by clicking on the pie chart icon in the far right-hand part of the row. - Include upgrading action items and costs in your Statement of Work.
- Perform remediation steps.
DeploymentPro Steps
- Launch DeploymentPro.
- Go to All Products > Device Management, then click DeploymentPro on the far left and follow the prompts to launch.
- Select a customer from the list by clicking on the customer name.
Note: The status column will show enabled when a customer account has had DMA deployed. - Configure customer DeploymentPro module:
- Enter the Domain.
- Select the Destination endpoint.
- Checkmark the Auto-populate box.
- In the Client Interface Configurations section, upload your company logo and add supporting text.
Note: We strongly recommend doing this, because this is the logo and text that end users will see in a desktop pop-up when they are prompted to reconfigure their Outlook profiles. If you do not upload your own logo, the default BitTitan logo will be included instead. - Save and continue.
- Activate DeploymentPro module for users.
- Either select all users (by putting a checkmark in the box to the left of the Primary Email column heading) or select the individual users (by putting a checkmark in the boxes to the left of the user email addresses).
Note: DeploymentPro requires licenses to be purchased before it can be used. Subscriptions include DeploymentPro. However, if you are not using subscriptions, and you are using mailbox licenses, you must purchase additional DeploymentPro licenses in order to use DeploymentPro. - Click the Schedule Cutover button.
- Either select all users (by putting a checkmark in the box to the left of the Primary Email column heading) or select the individual users (by putting a checkmark in the boxes to the left of the user email addresses).
- Schedule the profile cutover date.
- Set the date and time for the Outlook profile configuration to occur, and click the Schedule Cutover button.
Notes:- The DeploymentPro module will install on user devices immediately and then run silently until this date.
- The profile cutover date should be set to a date and time that is shortly after MX record cutover.
- Set the date and time for the Outlook profile configuration to occur, and click the Schedule Cutover button.
- On the profile cutover date, users will be guided through the reconfiguration of their Outlook profile.
MigrationWiz Steps
- Create a Mailbox Migration project. Read the How do I create a new migration project? article for more information.
- Create the Mailbox Migration project > Select the customer > Select the Source endpoint > Select the Destination endpoint.
- Add the accounts (also referred to as "items") that will be migrated to the project. Read the How do I add items to my migration project? article for more information.
- Set the Project Advanced Options. Read the What project Advanced Options are available? article for more information.
- The following options are the most valuable for this migration scenario:
- Set to use impersonation at the Destination. Checkmark the Use impersonation at Destination box. Read the How do I migrate to Exchange or Office 365 using impersonation? for more information.
- 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.
- The following options are the most valuable for this migration scenario:
- Run Verify Credentials. Read the How do I verify credentials? article for more information.
- Notify users that a migration is occurring. Send email to all users telling them the time and date of the migration.
- Pre-Stage pass: Select the users > Click the Start button from the top, and select Pre-Stage Migration > Under the Migration Scheduling section, from the drop-down list, select 90 days ago > Click Start Migration. Read the How do I start a migration? article for more information.
- MX Record Cutover. Change over MX records on the DNS provider's portal. Also, include the AutoDiscover (CName) setting.
- Note: If you are migrating in batches and coexistence is required, you will not be cutting over the MX records until your final batch of users has been migrated, and you must perform two extra steps:
- Set up mail forwarding. Read the How do I set up forwards for coexistence during a phased migration? article for more information.
- Set up mail routing on Office 365. Read the How do I set up mail routing on Office 365 when migrating users in batches? article for more information.
- Note: If you are migrating in batches and coexistence is required, you will not be cutting over the MX records until your final batch of users has been migrated, and you must perform two extra steps:
- Send email to end users to let them know what to expect for their Outlook profile reconfiguration. If using DeploymentPro, refer to the Sample email to send to users before their Outlook profile is reconfigured article for some sample text and screen shots that can be included in this email.
- Full (Delta) pass: Select the users > Click the Start button from the top, select Full Migration > Click Start Migration. Read the How do I start a migration? article for more information.
- Run Retry Errors. Read the How do I retry failed items? article for more information.
- Look through the user list and click any red "failed migration" errors. Review the information and act accordingly.
- If problems persist, contact Support. Read the How do I get support for your products? article for more information.
- If not using DeploymentPro, users must create new Outlook profiles, and set up their signatures again, and reattach any PST files that were attached to their previous profile.
- Click the pie chart icon in the MigrationWiz dashboard to receive an email containing all the project migration statistics. Read the How do I request statistics for my migration project? article for more information.
Comments
14 comments
this new check list is horrible bring back the old one!!!
This is the guide? What happened to the old one? This is a joke!
Hi, Zack and MITC Support Team:
We recently started an effort to refresh our Migration Guides, based on customer feedback we commonly received when resolving technical support issues.
We want to make sure that these documents, and all Knowledge Base articles, are as helpful as possible for our BitTitan customers. To that end, we invite you to provide detailed feedback on needed and desired changes to this article in the Comments section.
We pledge to review each comment and make appropriate updates as soon as possible.
Thanks for your help,
Larry Kaye
Manager, Knowledge Management
BitTitan
The documentation that used to be here had each step that needed to be completed and in which order it needed to be completed.
The current instructions simply state do x,y,z.
The old instructions stated step 1. Here's what to do with pictures. Here is step 2 with instructions. Etc.
It was nice to be able to go to one page and be able to walk through all of the necessary steps.
The instructions were so good that we simply created a link to the page and said do this.
We are now regretting that decision and wish we would have copied out the old instructions.
For example:
The old instructions (which we had a cached page of and grabbed ) said:
Create an administrator account in Office 365 to be used for migration, or use the global admin account for the tenant. KB004948
Set up accounts on Office 365 and assign licenses. These can be created in several ways:
The new instructions state.
Instead of a link on how to do each individual thing just declarative sentences of what needed to be done.
We really liked your product and praised the documentation throughout our office. Now not so much. Hoping you will go back to the ways things were.
Hi, Kris:
Thanks for the detailed feedback.
I will pass this along to our Migration Guide development team for review.
Regards,
Larry
I really wish this instructions page had more pictures. Had trouble finding the "Schedule Cutover " button.
Hello Tony,
Thank you for the feedback! I will pas it along to our Knowledge Management team for review.
Regards,
Nicholas
I have a little input.
1. I also had trouble finding the Schedule Now button, and altogether using DeploymentPro, it's a little confusing but its easy enough to figure out. A little nicer guides would make it seamless.
2. DNS Changes after migration? On-Prem exchange will cause all the work we've done to be meaningless. Competitors have that in their guides, somewhere.
On the creating a impersonation account, you are missing some steps for creating that role and assigning it to your 'admin' account.
Other little pieces missing here and there.
Hello,
I have completed my migration and it all seems to have gone smoothly, however I am now left with an SBS Exchange server 2007 that I need to get rid of.
Are there any special steps that need to be taken before I remove exchange?
Do all the old on prem mailboxes have to be transferred to Mail Enabled Users as per this article?
Thanks
@Thornton Springer - You don't SBS and Exchange are built-in and you will not have a good time. Simply disable/break down as much of Exchange as you can. I believe i deleted mailboxes, data store, and disabled services. Anything else you do will potentially need the SBS install disc for some crazy reason. For that reason, Anytime we have SBS, we leave Exchange on there, but broken as badly as we can manage.
Not sure why you want to convert anyone else to your hosted exchange... If you need to create MEU, just build them manually with a CSV export. That's my 2 cents
Hi Sean,
That's the problem, I need to remove the entire SBS server.
As we have ADSYnc running if I remove the mailboxes they then get screwed over on O365, so basically I need to get rid of SBS without damaging the mail attributes and then get a hybrid exchange up and running in it's place for management.
Ah. So you are syncing the MSEXCHGUID attribute up with ADSYNC? That is why, it thinks your mailboxes are local exch, and it's thinking you have a hybrid setup when you dont.
You might need to use ADSI edit to remove those attributes, then re-sync. Or potentially revert the sync from AD to cloud only, then re-setup AD sync but configure it to NOT sync the MSEXCHGUID. That was in bit titan documentation somewhere.
hi i have a question:
scenario:
local exchange 2010 to O365
do i have to grant "full access" permissions on O365 to the Migration account used?
thanks
Boaz,
You do not need to grant full access if impersonation is used. With Office 365 we recommend using impersonation and this is enabled by default for any Office 365 endpoint. Here is our KB that has more on this topic.
Should I use delegation or impersonation when performing my migration?
Thank you
Kyle
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