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Exchange 2007+ (Hosted and On-Premises) to Office 365 Migration Guide

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Introduction

This article outlines the complete task flow for migrating mailboxes from Hosted and On-Premises Exchange servers (versions 2007 and later) to Office 365.

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. HealthCheck for Office 365 is a free utility. 

This migration guide contains the necessary steps to perform the actual migration, but there are many steps to preparing for migration. If this is your first time performing a migration, we have created a Migration Planning & Strategy Guide to walk you through planning, set-up, and general migration best practices.

To discover what items are moved with MigrationWiz in this scenario, and which items will not be moved, see Moved Items. Note that these items will vary by source and destination, so check the proper environment listings carefully.

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.

Creating and Configuring Permissions

The below sections will explain how to create an admin account and configure access permissions for an administrative account to access the end user's mailboxes within the source environment. Please review the section that best represents your environment.

Exchange 2007+

Set up an administrator account for migration on the Source Exchange mailbox server.

  1. Open the Exchange Management Console.
  2. Expand Recipient Configuration
  3. Right click on Mailbox
  4. Click New Mailbox.
  5. Click Next.
  6. Click Next
  7. Enter "MigrationWiz" as the first name.
  8. Enter "MigrationWiz" as the user login name and optionally select a user principal name (UPN) domain.
  9. Enter a password and confirm the password.
  10. Click Next.
  11. Click Browse to select a Mailbox database.
  12. Click Next.
  13. Click New.
  14. Click Finish.

To grant the account access, perform the following from the Exchange machine:

  1. Open the Exchange Management Shell.
  2. Enter the following command:

Get-Mailbox -server <server> -ResultSize Unlimited | Add-MailboxPermission -AccessRights FullAccess -User MigrationWiz

Notes:

The command needs to be applied each time a new mailbox is created since permissions are set directly on each mailbox. The administrative account will not have access until the permissions are applied.

In the script above, the username "MigrationWiz" should be replaced with the name of the administrative account that was set up by following the instructions in this article.

This username is the Administrative Username that needs to be entered under the project's Source or Destination settings, within MigrationWiz, when checking the box labeled Use Administrative Login.

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.

Exchange 2010+ (using Impersonation)

MigrationWiz uses delegation by default to log in to individual user mailboxes using administrative credentials specified on the connector. However, MigrationWiz also supports another elevated access mode called impersonation.

Benefits:

Using impersonation, it is possible to stop sharing the throt​tling quota and connection limits associated with a single administrative account. Instead, the throttling quota of each user is used to log in to each user mailbox.

Using impersonation means:

  • Eliminating most "Connection did not succeed" errors
  • Allowing migration of more mailboxes concurrently
  • Reducing the impact of throttling and connection limit

To enable the admin account to impersonate users, run this PowerShell command:

New-ManagementRoleAssi​gnment -Role ApplicationImpersonation -User <admin_user_name>

More information about this PowerShell command can be found here.

Exchange 2007+

If you are migrating from an Hosted Exchange provider, ask the provider to create an account for migration purposes (e.g., named MigrationWiz) and grant full access rights to each mailbox, by running this PowerShell script against the account called MigrationWiz:

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Add-MailboxPermission -AccessRights FullAccess -User MigrationWiz

Notes:

    • Some Hosted Exchange providers allow this access to be granted via their web portal. In this case, you could log in to each mailbox via their portal and then grant the migration account (e.g., MigrationWiz) to have read/write access to each mailbox. This is laborious and time-consuming, and so it is preferable that the Hosted Exchange provider run the PowerShell script above, particularly if you have a large number of users.
    • Some Hosted Exchange Providers will not grant this access. If that is the case, then you can request credentials from your end users during the migration. Exact steps for this are provided under Option 2 in article What credentials are needed to migrate from Hosted Exchange?.

 

Exchange 2010+ (using Impersonation)

If this is a very large project, the best results will be achieved by setting the project to use impersonation at the Source.

MigrationWiz uses delegation by default to log in to individual user mailboxes using administrative credentials specified on the connector. However, MigrationWiz also supports another elevated access mode called impersonation.

Benefits:

Using impersonation, it is possible to stop sharing the throt​tling quota and connection limits associated with a single administrative account. Instead, the throttling quota of each user is used to log in to each user mailbox.

Using impersonation means:

  • Eliminating most "Connection did not succeed" errors
  • Allowing migration of more mailboxes concurrently
  • Reducing the impact of throttling and connection limit

To enable the admin account to impersonate users, run this PowerShell command:

New-ManagementRoleAssi​gnment -Role ApplicationImpersonation -User <admin_user_name>

More information about this PowerShell command can be found here.

Confirming Access

The below sections will explain how you can locate your OWA URL and test EWS access for your environment. This information will ensure that your migration project is configured properly and will help to prevent failures when performing the migration.

  1. When setting up Exchange as an endpoint, enter either the OWA URL or the EWS URL.
  2. There are some instances in which the login page for OWA is different than the actual OWA URL for the mailbox, as you may get redirected to a different server after logging in. To determine the true OWA URL, perform the following:
  3. Close all browser instances. This ensures that all session state browser cache is flushed.
  4. Open a new browser instance.
  5. Navigate to your OWA login page.
  6. Log in to OWA.
  7. 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​.
  • Example URLs for OWA:
  • https://www.mining88.com
  • https://www.mining88.com/owa
  • https://www.mining88.com:443
  • https://50.249.230.12/owa

Another method for determining the OWA URL is to use the "whatismyipaddress" website to determine the company public IP address, and then add /owa to the end of it.

Now that your OWA URL has been determined, we need to ensure that the username and password combination work. The username and password that you use to log in to OWA is the exact same username and password that you should be entering into MigrationWiz. To determine if your username and password is working, perform the following:

  1. Close all browser instances. This ensures that all session state browser cache is flushed.
  2. Open a new browser instance.
  3. Navigate to the same OWA login page as determined by Step 5 above.
  4. Log in to OWA. Pay special attention to the login name, i.e.​,:
  5. Email address means "user@example.com" format.
  6. Domain\user name means "example\user" format.
  7. User name means "user" format.
  8. Once you see the inbox, you have successfully logged into OWA.  Enter the exact same username and password used into MigrationWiz.

Verify mailbox accessibility using EWS. It may be necessary to first grant permissions.

      1. Browse to https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com. This is a Microsoft-owned tool.
      2. If using Office 365, click on the Office 365 tab.
      3. Select Service Account Access (Developers) and click on Next.
      4. Specify the target mailbox email address.
      5. Specify the service account user name (if using admin credentials on the connector, enter the exact same user name).
      6. Specify the service account password (if using admin credentials on the connector, enter the exact same password).
      7. Check Specify Exchange Web Services URL and specify the URL (example: https://server/EWS/Exchange.asmx).
      8. If using Exchange Server, do not check Use Exchange Impersonation. If you are using Office 365, and using impersonation, do check the box.
      9. Check Ignore Trust for SSL.
      10. Click on Perform Test.
      11. Once results are displayed, check the overall result, and also click on Expand All.

Recommendations

The below section will explain how to remove the throttling policy within your Exchange environment. Removing the throttling policy will help with the performance of your migration.

Note:
  • Some Hosted Exchange providers will not allow you to alter the throttling policies with your instance.
  • Removing the throttling policy will allow for a higher through-put of migrated datat, however, this can impact server resources. Please pay close attention to the server resources when performing your migration and determine if your throttling policy needs to be change to maintain a healthy server resource level.

Disable throttling EWS Throttling policy

  1. To disable all throttling parameters for all mailboxes:
  2. Open the Exchange Management Shell.
  3. Type the following command and press Enter: New-ThrottlingPolicy MigrationWizPolicy
  4. Type the following command and press Enter: Set-ThrottlingPolicy MigrationWizPolicy -RCAMaxConcurrency $null -RCAPercentTimeInAD $null -RCAPercentTimeInCAS $null -RCAPercentTimeInMailboxRPC $null -EWSMaxConcurrency $null -EWSPercentTimeInAD $null -EWSPercentTimeInCAS $null -EWSPercentTimeInMailboxRPC $null -EWSMaxSubscriptions $null -EWSFastSearchTimeoutInSeconds $null -EWSFindCountLimit $null -CPAMaxConcurrency $null -CPAPercentTimeInCAS $null -CPAPercentTimeInMailboxRPC $null -CPUStartPercent $null
  5. Enter the following command and press Enter: Set-Mailbox "MigrationWiz" -ThrottlingPolicy MigrationWizPolicy
  6. The steps above will remove throttling policies against all user accounts at your Source. You still need to enable impersonation within your MigrationWiz project, so that the admin account can impersonate the user accounts during migrations, and so that the migratons use the bandwidth available to the individual user accounts, rather than just the bandwidth available to the admin account. Follow the directions in the Help Center article How do I migrate to Exchange or Office 365 using impersonation? to enable this.

Preparing the Destination

Create Administrator Account

Create a Global Administrator or a delegated admin with full access rights or permissions account in Office 365 to be used for migration or use the Global Administrator or delegated admin with full access rights or permissions account for the tenant. In order to have administrative permissions to migrate mailbox data, grant the account permissions on each mailbox.

Notes:

  • Having administrative access to the Microsoft Office 365 control panel to manage users does not mean the same account has permissions to access all mailboxes for migration.
  • Having delegated admin access to accounts does not provide enough access.

Enabling an administrative account the ability to access Office 365 user mailboxes can be performed by adding the Impersonation role or Full Access mailbox permissions.  The below steps will explain how to configure the permissions access for both options.

Impersonation

To enable the admin account to impersonate users, run the below PowerShell command:

$cred = Get-Credential

$session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $cred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $session

Enable-OrganizationCustomization

New-ManagementRoleAssi​gnment -Role ApplicationImpersonation -User <admin_user_name>

Remove-PSSession $session

More information about this PowerShell command can be found here.

Note:

  • Office 365 does NOT allow Impersonation for Small Business plans.
  • MigrationWiz uses delegation by default to log in to individual user mailboxes using administrative credentials specified on the connector. 

It is highly recommended to use impersonation when migrating from or to Office 365.

Benefits:

Using impersonation, it is possible to stop sharing the throttling quota and connection limits associated with a single administrative account. ​Instead, the throttling quota of each user is used to log in to each user mailbox.

Using impersonation means:

  • Eliminating most "Connection did not succeed" errors
  • Allowing migration of more mailboxes concurrently
  • Reducing the impact of throttling and connection limits
  • Using an admin account without assigning a license to it

Full Access

To manually grant administrative access for migration, execute the following remote PowerShell commands: 

$cred = Get-Credential

$session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $cred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $session

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Add-MailboxPermission -AccessRights FullAccess -Automapping $false -User MigrationWiz

Remove-PSSession $session

Notes:

  • The command needs to be applied each time a new mailbox is created since permissions are set directly on each mailbox. The administrative account will not have access until the permissions are applied.
  • In the script above, the username "MigrationWiz" should be replaced with the name of the administrative account that was set up, by following the instructions in this Knowledge Base article.
  • This username is the Administrative Username that needs to be entered under the project's Source or Destination settings, within MigrationWiz, when checking the box labeled Use Administrative Login.

 Create and License User Accounts

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

Additional Configuration

The following configuration is recommended for all migrations to an Office 365 tenant:

Licensing

Licenses are required to run a migration project in MigrationWiz. To obtain license pricing information, or to purchase licenses, click the Purchase button in the top of your MSPComplete or MigrationWiz dashboard.

Payment: We accept credit cards, and wire transfer in certain situations.  

  • When purchasing with a credit card, payment is immediately processed during checkout. If successful, licenses are granted to your account instantly.
  • Wire transfers are available for purchases of 100 or more licenses. If you are purchasing at least 100 licenses, you will be presented an option to purchase via wire transfer during checkout. A wire transfer checkout will generate an invoice with wiring information for your accounts payable department and bank. Once the funds are received by our system, the licenses are granted to your account immediately. 

For this project type it is recommended to use our User Migration Bundle licenses. 

  • These licenses enable you to perform multiple migrations of User mailboxes, documents, and in-place archives, and allows the use of DeploymentPro to perform post-migration Outlook email profile configuration.
  • Further information on User Migration Bundle Licenses:
    • User Migration Bundle Licenses have unlimited data available per license.
    • User Migration Bundle Licenses are applied to the customer's users, for whom you'll be performing migrations, and are valid for one year.
    • Read the Apply User Migration Bundle Licenses to the Customer's Users article for more information about how to apply the licenses to Users for migrations.

Frequently Asked Questions About Licensing

To purchase licenses:

  1. Sign in to your BitTitan account. 
  2. On the top navigation bar, click Purchase.
  3. Click the Select button for license type you want to purchase.
  4. Enter the number of licenses you want to purchase, then click Buy Now.
  5. Enter Billing address as needed.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Review the Order Summary and enter a payment method.
  8. Click Place Your Order.

To apply licenses in MigrationWiz:

  1. Sign in to MigrationWiz at https://migrationwiz.bittitan.com.
    • You can either sign in and make sure to select the MigrationWiz button above the email field or sign into MSPComplete page, then click the All Products button and select MigrationWiz.
  2. Select the correct workgroup on the top of the left navigation pane.
    Note:this is the workgroup that the customer and migration project were created under. Your account must be part of the workgroup and project sharing must be enabled, if the project was not created under your account. For more information see Add and Edit Workgroups and Project Sharing in MigrationWiz.
  3. Click the project that requires licenses to be applied.
  4. Check the box to the left of the email for the user(s) to whom you want to apply a User Migration Bundle license.
  5. Click the More menu (3 stacked lines) at the top of the project page.
  6. Click to apply your license. 

To remove a license that has been applied (e.g., to a user who will not be migrated):

  1. Sign in to MigrationWiz at https://migrationwiz.bittitan.com.
    • You can either sign in and make sure to select the MigrationWiz button above the email field or sign into MSPComplete page, then click the All Products button and select MigrationWiz.
  2. Select the correct workgroup on the top of the left navigation pane.
    Note:this is the workgroup that the customer and migration project were created under. Your account must be part of the workgroup and project sharing must be enabled, if the project was not created under your account. For more information see Add and Edit Workgroups and Project Sharing in MigrationWiz.
  3. Click the project that requires licenses to be removed.
  4. Check the box to the left of the email for the user(s) from whom you want to remove the User Migration Bundle license.
  5. Click the More menu (3 stacked lines) at the top of the project page.
  6. Click Remove licenses.
    Important:The User Migration Bundle License can only be removed if no migration actions have been performed and the license was applied to the user within 24 hours of the removal attempt. If a Verify Credentials or a Trial migration has been run on a user who is not supposed to be included in the project, please contact Support. Licenses will not be removed if data has been migrated in a Pre-Stage or Full migration pass.

For both application options, allow time for the license to process through the system before trying to perform migrations for the newly licensed user accounts. License processing can take up to several minutes.

Can I change license categories?

License categories may be chosen before the migration has begun. Once the migration has begun, the license will be consumed and may not be changed.

Will deleting a project return used licenses to my account?

​​No. If you delete migrations that have completed a Pre-Stage pass or a Full pass, the associated licenses will also be deleted. This cannot be undone and will require that you recreate the migrations and use additional licenses to run them again.

Note: The User Migration Bundle license is an exception to the above rule, as it is applied directly to the user being migrated and is independent of MigrationWiz.  Therefore, if the project is deleted, the license remains assigned to the user and is not lost. Before deleting any projects due to issues, contact BitTitan Support for help.

Why am I being asked for another license to resubmit?

Follow the instructions below according to your situation.

My previous migration failed and I want to resubmit:

We do not consume licenses for failed migrations. If a migration fails (or is stopped), we automatically restore any used license to your account. And when you resubmit for migration again, we simply debit the license we just restored. 

My previous migration succeeded and I want to resubmit:

When using a mailbox migration license, no new license will be debited when you resubmit. This is because mailbox migration licenses allow up to 10 successful passes per mailbox.

How do I perform a migration with two different types of licenses?

You cannot perform a single migration with two different types of licenses. (For example, you cannot run Mailbox migrations for 5 users if you have 2 MigrationWiz-Mailbox licenses and 3 MigrationWiz-Document licenses.) You can only launch as many migrations as you have licenses of that specific type. 

Note: The exception to this is the User Migration Bundle license.  The User Migration Bundle license includes the functionality of MigrationWiz-Mailbox, MigrationWiz-Document, and MigrationWiz-Personal Archive licenses.  This allows the User Migration Bundle license to be used in combination with a single migration type license appropriate for the migration.

You can see which types of licenses you have by clicking on the Account button in the top right corner and selecting Licenses.

If you purchased the User Migration Bundle license, then you can perform multiple migrations of various types. For example, you can perform a mailbox migration, and then later perform a document migration without having to purchase additional licenses.

How many mailboxes can I migrate with a single license?

A single license gives you the ability to migrate a single mailbox to a single Destination. A mailbox license may grant you 50GB of data transferred, and up to 10 passes per mailbox.

Here are some examples to help explain how mailbox licenses work:

  • You cannot migrate ten 5GB mailboxes using a single license. 
  • You cannot use each pass to migrate a different mailbox.
  • Each pass must be performed against the same mailbox.
  • When the license limit is reached, the migration will stop. To continue, you must purchase additional licenses. Then you can resubmit the item for migration. The migration will begin where it left off.

How long will it take to receive licenses after payment?

Licenses are released once payment has been received:

  • If you purchase via credit card, licenses will be available immediately upon payment.
  • If you purchase via wire transfer (100+ licenses), licenses will be available once payment has been received and accepted.
  • We do not accept purchase orders, because of processing overhead.

In both cases, you will be notified by email that payment has been accepted and licenses will be available in your account upon notification.

Typical Purchase Processing Times:

  • Via credit card - 
  • Via wire transfer - within 24 hours.
  • Via ACH transfer (US Only) - within 3-4 business days.

When you call your bank to request a transfer, your order may not be processed immediately. Most bank queue up requests and process them once a day.

If you have not received your licenses in a timely manner, we recommend calling your financial institution and asking them if the electronic payment has been processed.

How do I request a refund for licenses?

Administrators and managers can request a subscription or license refund if the following requirements are met:

  • It’s been over 24 hours since the original purchase.
  • It’s been less than 15 days since the original date of purchase.
  • You used a credit card for the purchase.
  • You haven’t consumed the licenses on a project or assigned and performed services with the subscriptions.

 Follow these steps to request a refund:

  1. Select the workgroup at the top of the left navigation pane.
  2. Click Settings on the left navigation pane.
  3. Click Licenses, and then click Refund next to the subscriptions or licenses you want refunded.

    Note: The refund button is not displayed and you cannot get a refund if the refund requirements are not met.

The card billed will be refunded one to two business days after the refund request.

Create A Project

Create a Mailbox Migration Project

  1. Click Go To My Projects
  2. Click Create Project
  3. Select a Mailbox migration type. 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.
  4. Click Next Step.
  5. Enter a Project name and select a Customer.
  6. Click Next Step.
  7. Select a Source Endpoint from the Endpoint drop-down menu. If an Endpoint has not been created, click New and provide the requested information in the Endpoint creation flyout window.
  8. Select a Destination Endpoint from the Endpoint drop-down menu. If an Endpoint has not been created, click New and provide the requested information in the Endpoint creation flyout window.

    1. When creating the project on your Source Settings or Destination Settings tab, click New.
    2. Fill in the fields below. Once endpoint has been saved in the project, it will automatically be assigned to the customer that was selected in the Project Information tab when creating the project.
    • Name: Type any name you want for the endpoint.
    • Find My Service Provider: Use this control only if the endpoint you’re creating is hosted by a service provider and not a local endpoint. If you don’t know your server type, click this button and then click your provider in the drop-down list.
    • Endpoint Type: Click the Endpoint Type drop-down, and then click the appropriate endpoint type in the list. Ensure you have selected the correct source and destination. When you select an endpoint type, the form will expand so that you can provide additional connection information and credentials for that endpoint type. These additional fields vary depending on the endpoint type.
    • If an endpoint does not exist for the service that you want to connect to with MigrationWiz, then use the Generic endpoint type to generically store the web address for that service, a username, and password. This endpoint can still be used for Runbook execution.
    • Provide credentials: Select Provide Credentials or Do Not Provide Credentials as needed.
    • If you select Provide credentials, the form expands to present more fields for username and password. The credentials will be used by MigrationWiz to access the service selected. In most cases, you must provide credentials for an administrator account on those services, as this will enable MigrationWiz to have full access to the cloud service.
    • If you select Do not provide credentials, then MigrationWiz will request credentials from end users before a migration can be started, or before a Runbook can be completed. This may slow your migration, as you are now dependent on the end users to provide these credentials.
    • Domains: For migrations using G Suite Endpoints, this is the list of domains that you will be migrating to, or migrating from. This is not relevant to any other migration environment.
    • Use SSL: For some endpoint types, there is an SSL check box at the bottom of the form. Select this check box if you want to secure your new endpoint with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
    • Note that IMAP and POP endpoints include an SSL option (check box): If your provider uses SSL, you should select this check box and enter the SSL port number in the field provided. For IMAP endpoints, the default port number for SSL is 993. For POP endpoints, the default port number for SSL is 995.
    • If your provider does not use SSL, do not select this check box, and enter the non-SSL port number in the field provided. For IMAP endpoints, the default port number for non-SSL is 143. For POP endpoints, the default port number for non-SSL is 110.
  9. Click Save and Go to Summary

Add Accounts (Items)

Add the accounts that will be migrated, also referred to as items, to a project using one of the following options:

  • Quick Add: This option allows you to add items o​ne at a time. You have to enter an email address, login name, and password for each user if you didn't enter administrative credentials when setting up the project. You only have to provide an email address if you entered administrative credentials when setting up the project.
  • Autodiscover Items: MigrationWiz detects the mailboxes directly at the Source using Autodiscover. For more information, refer to How do I Autodiscover Items for my Migration.
    • For mailbox migrations, this feature is only supported when the Source is Exchange 2007 or later, when the Source is Office 365, or when the Source is G Suite.
    • This feature is not supported for in-place archive migration projects, even if the Source is Exchange 2007 or later.
  • Bulk Add: This option allows you to add multiple items at once by copying and pasting from a spreadsheet or by importing a CSV file. The domain names at the Source and at the Destination might be different. Make sure to provide the right information in the project. If they are different, it's best to modify these in your CSV file, and then use the Bulk Add feature to import the users into the dashboard.
    • 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.

Set Advanced and Support Options

Advanced Options allow you to choose your notifications, filtering, maintenance, licensing, performance, and some configuration options.

Support Options are advanced configurations that make use of Powershell or code blocks to provide extra options or resources for your migration.

For a full explanation and FAQ about Advanced & Support Options, see What Project Advanced Options are Available and MigrationWiz Support Options.

The following options are the most valuable for this migration scenario:

Recommended Options

The following options are most valuable for Exchange to Office 365 migration scenario:

  • Set to use impersonation at the Source. Checkmark the Use impersonation at Source box. 
  • 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? article for more information.

  • Set Maximum concurrent migrations. To be very safe, we recommend initially setting this to 5. This means that when all mailboxes are selected and the migration begins, only the first five (5) mailboxes in the list will be migrated (using parallel processing), and then when the first of the five (5) completes, the next in the list will begin migrating, and so on down the list, through to completion of all mailboxes. 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 that the maximum concurrent migrations parameter be set to 30.

Run Migration

The following sections will guide you through setting up and launching your migration. Each header is one step, with its component steps below. Follow these steps in order, and read the notes for important information about dependencies or best practices.

Run Verify Credentials

  1. Open the Project containing items you wish to validate​.
  2. Select the items you wish to validate.
  3. Click on the Start button in your dashboard.
  4. Select Verify Credentials from the drop-down list.
  5. Once complete, the results of the verification will be shown in the Status section.

Notify Users

Send out the final notification that the migration is beginning. Include when the migration will start, expected duration, any usage instructions during migration, and any expected steps or notifications for the post-migration timeline.

If using DeploymentPro, refer to KB005799 for some sample text and screen shots that can be included in this email.

Pre-Stage Pass

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

MX Record Cutover

Change over MX records on the DNS provider's portal. Also, include the AutoDiscover (CName) setting. There are several options for this, based on the size of your project.

Manually set forwards during a migration on a per-user basis, from the individual users' portal. This is only a valid option for a small number of users. Forwards are useful if you are migrating users in batches, and switching some users over to the new Destination before others. Forwards allow for mail coexistence, but not for calendar free/busy coexistence.

  1. Sign in to your account.
  2. Click on Settings.
  3. Locate the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
  4. Click Add a forwarding address.
  5. Enter the email address to forward to.
  6. A confirmation email will be sent to the forward mailbox.
  7. Validate the confirmation by logging in to the forward mailbox.
  8. Go back to your account.
  9. Select the forward mode.

We recommend not saving a copy locally, because when you migrate the mailbox to the destination, you will end up with duplicates.

Manually set forwards during a migration on a per-user basis, from the admin portal. Forwards are useful if you are migrating users in batches, and switching some users over to the new Destination before others. Forwards allow for mail coexistence, but not for calendar free/busy coexistence.

  1. Sign into your control panel.
  2. Click on the Organization & users menu.
  3. Click on the user you wish to provide coexistence for.
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the User information section.
  5. Click on the link Add another destination. A new row should have been added.
  6. Enter the email address of the new mailbox to coexist with. This email address needs to be different than the email address in your source
  7. Make sure both checkboxes are selected (they already are, by default). There is one in front of the row and another under the column called Change SMTP envelope.
  8. Unselect the checkbox in front of the row.
  9. Click on Save Changes.

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.

If you are not cutting over an entire domain/organization at once by changing the MX records, you can perform a phased migration and set up coexistence by setting up forwards on the mailboxes you wish to migrate.

This can be done either through the use of PowerShell scripts, or through your Exchange Management Console.

Note: We do not recommend setting up Exchange email contacts and a DNS Internal Relay for this, since this will not allow for any Delta Migration passes to be made afterwards because the mailbox no longer exists.

1) By PowerShell:

Here is how to do this via PowerShell:

Forward email to internal recipient and DON'T save local copy.

PowerShell command syntax:

Set-Mailbox -Identity <Identity> -ForwardingAddress <Office 365 User Email Address> -DeliverToMailboxAndForward $False

  • Example: Set-Mailbox -Identity John -ForwardingAddress Suzan@o365info.com -DeliverToMailboxAndForward $False

Notes:

  • Because you set DeliverToMailboxAndForward to false, a copy of the email will NOT be kept in the on-premises mailbox. When setting up forwards, make sure that you do NOT save a local copy before the forward. If you do save a local copy, then when you perform Delta passes, MigrationWiz will migrate the items that it previously hasn’t migrated (and watermarked). This will cause duplicates at your Destination.
  • The email address specified on the 'ForwardingAddress' parameter should exist as a Mail Contact.

2) Through Exchange Management Console:

The first step is to create the forwarding objects in your local Active Directory. These forwarding objects will be hidden from the address book, and will be used purely to forward mail for mailboxes that are migrated. Note that these objects are created but not used until you set the forwarding, so these steps can be done ahead of time.

  1. Download our script to create forwarding objects to a computer that is joined to the domain.
  2. Modify the script in a text editor (like Notepad) and change the forwarding domain in the top of the script to the temporary domain in the new environment, for example, company.onmicrosoft.com.
  3. Run the script. You will know the script is complete when you see a confirmation.

The next step is to set up forwarding for mailboxes prior to migration. Before submitting a mailbox for migration, set the forward by performing the following:

  1. Launch the Exchange Management Console from the Start Menu.
  2. Expand the Recipient Configuration note from the navigation tree.
  3. Click on the Mailbox node from the navigation tree.
  4. Right-click on the mailbox to set the forward for and click Properties.
  5. Click on the Mailbox Flow Settings tab.
  6. Select Delivery Options and click on Properties. Do not select the option "Deliver message to both forwarding address and mailbox". This is important to ensure that Delta passes do not cause duplicates. If you do save a local copy, then when you perform Delta passes, MigrationWiz will migrate the items that it previously hasn't migrated (and watermarked). This will cause duplicates on your Destination.
  7. Click the checkbox Forward to, then click Browse.
  8. Select the name of the user that contains the prefix (External Forward) in the display name. This is the forwarding object created previously. 
  9. Click on OK.
  10. Click on OK.

Step-by-step setup:
For the setup, use PowerShell, because it is faster and easier to set up than working through the Office 365 admin portal. If you need information about how to do this through the Office 365 admin portal, contact Microsoft Support.
  1. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.
  2. Create the Distribution List (DL):
    New-DistributionGroup -Name "BtNotMigratedUsers"
  3. Add All Users to this DL.
  4. Create the Connector:
    $result = New-OutboundConnector -Name "CBRConnector" -ConnectorType OnPremises -SmartHosts "<fill smart host to source environment>" -UseMXRecord $false -IsTransportRuleScoped $true
    • -SmartHosts entry needs to be set to the URL or IP Address of the Source environment server.
    • On Exchange 2003, 2007, and 2010, this will be the address of the Transport server.
    • On Exchange 2013 and 2016, this will be the address of the Mailbox server, not the Transport server.
    • If the Source environment is Hosted, you would need to obtain this address from the Hosted Provider.
    • If the Source environment is G Suite, you would need to change the -SmartHosts entry to be the following: -SmartHosts “aspmx.l.google.com”
  5. Create Rule:
    $result = New-TransportRule -Name "PilotInABoxRule" -SentToMemberOf "BtNotMigratedUsers" -RouteMessageOutboundConnector "CBRConnector"

When a user is fully migrated, remove the user from the DL, and they will receive their email in their own Office 365 mailbox.

Notes:

  • There must be a mail-enabled contact on-premises for each user that has been migrated.
5. 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.

Run Full (Delta) Pass Migration

Select the users – you may either select individual users, or select all users in a project by clicking the checkbox to the left of Source Email.

Click the Start button from the top

Select Full Migration. If you want to delay your migration, then select the checkbox marked "Automatically start the migration at", and enter the date and time to have the migration start. To start a migration immediately, you do not need to select the scheduling option.

Click Start Migration. 

Run Retry Errors

Each error logged represents an item that was not migrated. MigrationWiz contains a mode in which you can resubmit the migration to retry failed items. This mode of operation is always free of charge. You may only submit mailboxes in this mode only if they satisfy all of the following conditions:

  1. The last migration completed successfully.
  2. The mailbox contains at least one error.

If your mailbox does not satisfy these conditions, you will receive a warning when submitting the migration in this mode and your request will not be fulfilled.

To submit one or more mailboxes in retry mode, perform the following steps:

  1. Click the Go To My Projects button.
  2. Select the project that contains the mailboxes that you want to retry.
  3. Select the mailboxes that have migration errors.
  4. Click on the Start button.
  5. Select Retry Errors from the menu.
  6. Click the Retry Errors button.

When errors are repaired, they will disappear from the error log. Some errors may not disappear if the Source item was not reprocessed (due to filters, for example), has been deleted or moved, or if the item failed again.

Final Steps

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

Full (Delta) Pass

Select the users > Click the Start button from the top, select Full Migration > Click Start Migration. This migration will complete quickly since most data is migrated during the Pre-Stage migration; Office 365 to Office 365 migrations have high bandwidth available.

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Comments

15 comments

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  • Avatar
    Zack Adams

    this new check list is horrible bring back the old one!!!

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  • Avatar
    MITC Support

    This is the guide?  What happened to the old one?  This is a joke!

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  • Avatar
    Larry Kaye

    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

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  • Avatar
    Kris Rutz

    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:

    1. Create an administrator account in Office 365 to be used for migration, or use the global admin account for the tenant. KB004948

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

  • Prepare the tenant to send and receive large mail items. KB005139
  • Contact Microsoft to ask to have the tenant EWS throttling limits raised for 60 days. Note: This step is only required if your Source environment will support migration speeds that are faster than the Destination. KB005493

    • The new instructions state.

    • A provisioned account that has application impersonation or delegation rights to all mailboxes.
    • Throttling policy on the Source. How do I disable the throttling policy on Exchange?
    • Global administrator account, or an account with full control, for the Destination.
    • All of the mailboxes for the Destination created.
    • You must have edit access to the DNS records.

    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. 

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  • Avatar
    Larry Kaye

    Hi, Kris:

     

    Thanks for the detailed feedback.

    I will pass this along to our Migration Guide development team for review.

     

    Regards,

    Larry

     

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  • Avatar
    Tony Ciovacco
    • Edited

    I really wish this instructions page had more pictures. Had trouble finding the "Schedule Cutover " button.

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  • Avatar
    Nicholas Humaciu

    Hello Tony,

    Thank you for the feedback! I will pas it along to our Knowledge Management team for review.

    Regards,
    Nicholas

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  • Avatar
    Sean O'Sullivan

    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. 

     

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  • Avatar
    Thornton Springer

    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

     

     

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  • Avatar
    Sean O'Sullivan
    • Edited

    @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

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  • Avatar
    Thornton Springer

    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.

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  • Avatar
    Sean O'Sullivan

    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. 

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  • Avatar
    Boaz Tzabari

    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

    1
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  • Avatar
    Kyle Rinner

    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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  • Avatar
    Eugenio Holgado

    As for the new layout, i completely agree with what the other users are saying. While most of the documentation is there, it is harder to find. Of course, since using this product for a good number of years now, I may be used to the old style but i'm having to ctrl+f to find what I need whereas before it was laid out more concise and in logical order.

    Can we get a URL to the old documentation?

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