Preparation is an important part of achieving a seamless migration process. The following information covers some elements such as Access & Security, Throttling, and Archiving within the source and destination environments.

Access & Security

We support using both a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or an IP address. Regardless of whether you specify a FQDN or an IP address, both need to be accessible via the internet by our migration servers.

MigrationWiz uses advanced logic in handling firewalls. We have tested our service against many different firewalls to ensure proper migration. As long as your server is accessible from the internet, MigrationWiz should be able to migrate your mailboxes without a problem.

If the APIs we are connecting to are protected by multi-factor authentication, we will not be able to connect to your server.

We suggest that you create an exception policy on your firewall for the purpose of migration which bypasses the multi-factor authentication layer.

We suggest you perform a free trial to make sure it works for you. If you are experiencing any problems, contact our technical support.

Data security

When MigrationWiz migrates data,  the data is being read from the source by the MigrationWiz servers. It is important for some security protocols that this data doesn't leave its region, e.g., Australia, Europe, etc.

In MigrationWiz you can define what Data Center you want us to use:

1. Click on Edit Project.
2. Click on Advanced Options.
3. Go to the Performance Options.
4. Select your Preferred Data Center.

Throttling

Setting Throttling Limits

Throttling allows you to modify the volume of migration throughput in order to accommodate network bandwidth on either the Source or Destination systems. In some cases, you may need to limit throughput, while in other cases you may be able to increase throughput.

In a low-bandwidth or low-performance environment, you may be required to cap the bandwidth used for migration purposes in order to avoid any disruption of service.

We recommend the following:

• You can limit the number of concurrent connections on your project (we will only open one network connection per item).
• Many systems (like Exchange 2010 or later) allow you to configure throttling policies which can be used to control load.
• Many routers or firewalls allow you to configure rate limits by URL or originating IP.

In addition, note the following:

• In a low-bandwidth environment, we recommend pre-staging your data ahead of time.
• If it is useful to know incoming IP addresses, you may implement an IP lockdown for your migration.
• When submitting migrations, you can specify a delayed start (for example, start the migration at 1 AM on a Saturday).

Specific guidance on setting or removing throttling can be found in the migration FAQs specific to your source or destination and should be used in conjunction with your migration guide. 

Specifying the number of simultaneous items

Specifying the number of simultaneous items to migrate will control the amount of needed bandwidth. Submit all of the mailboxes for migration, and the system will enforce the number of items that we perform simultaneously and automatically under the covers. We only open one network connection per item actively migrating.

​To specify the number of simultaneous item migrations:

The default value is 100. If there are bandwidth concerns about the source server, we recommend setting this to a lower value, such as 15, to ensure that the source server does not get overwhelmed with migration requests. This value may be modified while mailboxes are migrating. It may take a few minutes for the modified setting to take effect.

Increasing this number will increase the number of simultaneous migrations instantly. For example, if the value is set to 5 and the value is increased to 10, 5 additional items will begin to migrate.

Decreasing this number will not decrease the number of items currently migrating. For example,​ if the value is set to 10, and the value is decreased to 5, 5 items currently being migrated will not be immediately stopped. Instead, all 10 items will continue to migrate and only when the active migrations drops below 5, will additional items start migrating. To decrease the items in progress, stop the migrations that exceed the limit and resubmit them.​​

Archiving & Data Retention

MigrationWiz will preserve all dates associated with your email data, except for the creation date. As each item gets created at the Destination, the create date is set to the current time. Other properties such as the received date, the s​ent date, etc., remain identical to what they were at the Source.

We find that most archiving and content policies do not evaluate the creation date, but do evaluate other dates, such as the received date. Therefore, it is likely that archiving and content policies will process migrated emails. You can learn more about how dates are evaluated here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb430780.aspx.

If you are migrating to Office 365, note that default archiving policies will move items older than two years to the archive mailbox.