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  2. Perform a Migration
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G Suite (Gmail API) to G Suite (Gmail API) Migration Guide

This is the guide for migrating folders and documents (emails, calendars, and contacts) from one G Suite instance to another through the Gmail API endpoints. 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 cannot handle scenarios such as conflict resolution without user interaction.

Prerequisites

It is important to highlight and meet the following prerequisites for a smooth migration project.

Licensing

We recommend that you purchase User Migration Bundle licenses for this migration scenario. User Migration Bundle licenses allow the performance of multiple migrations with a single license. For questions on licensing, visit MigrationWiz Licenses.

To use your license by following the next steps:

  1. Purchase Licenses.
  2. Create a Customer.
  3. Apply Licenses.
  4. Review Considerations.
Purchase Licenses Create a Customer Apply Licenses Considerations

Purchase licenses by following the steps below:

  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.

Limitations

  • 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. 
  • App password usage, MFA/2FA, and ADFS are not supported for the migration service accounts being used for this migration scenario.
  • The maximum file size for migration through MigrationWiz varies by migration type and environment but may never exceed 60GB.
  • When migrating from G Suite as a source, contacts in Contact Groups (which look like subfolders of the Contacts folder) will migrate to the top-level contacts folder on the destination. Folders will be created for each group but the contacts will not be sorted into those folders.
  • Calendars can have multiple Owners. An Owner is anyone with "Make changes and manage sharing" permissions, so shared calendars will be migrated to users with these permissions by default.

Migrated Items

Please click the bars below to check the migrated and non-migrated items. We are constantly working to create a better migration experience for you so these items may change over time.

Which items are migrated?

Always Migrated

  • Inbox.
  • Folders/Labels.
  • Email.
  • Muted Email (as regular email).
  • Contacts.
  • Calendars (including links for Google Hangouts within calendar meetings).
  • Calendar Notifications.
  • Google Categories (i.e., the Google category flags: Social, Promotions, Updates, Forums).
  • Calendar permissions.
  • Mailbox rules.
  • Automatic Replies (Out-of-Office messages).
  • Signatures.

Links for Google Hangouts are a new default feature added to Google Meetings. Microsoft 365 doesn't have the corresponding property to map. Therefore, when migrating to Microsoft 365, the links for Google Hangouts are added to the beginning of the meeting description body text on Microsoft 365.

With Google API Endpoint at Source

With this endpoint, all items listed above migrate as before. However, utilizing the API endpoint enables migration of the following items as well. The following items are not migrated via the IMAP endpoint. 

  • Google Categories (Category flags, i.e. Social, Promotions, Updates, Forums)
  • Snoozed and Scheduled emails - these are migrated like regular emails to custom destination labels. Their properties are not migrated.
Which items are not migrated?

Not Migrated in Any Instance

  • Calendar Reminders.
  • Google Spaces.
  • Google Spaces Chats.
  • Appointments.
  • Chat message attachments.
  • Google Groups for Business (including forums and collaborative inboxes).

Not Migrated As Source

  • Calendar Attachments.
  • Calendar Reminders.
  • Tasks.
  • Chats and chat history.
  • Email attachments that are links to Google Drive.
  • Some calendar colors.

For additional features and limitations, please visit MigrationWiz: Migrated and Not Migrated Items.

Important

All color category meta tags are transferred over, but Microsoft 365 does not have direct color mappings from Google G Suite, so certain colors do not get mapped over, thus the colors are not displayed in Microsoft 365 for the calendar entries.

Which is the migration mapping?

Relationship fields do not migrate fully from Gmail. The mappings are as follows:

Google contact field

Mapping in O365

Remarks

Content.content

contact body

Description in the body

Sensitivity

Sensitivity

 

Priority

Importance

 

Initials

Initials

 

Nickname

NickName

 

Name.FullName

Subject

 

Name.FullName

FileAs

 

Name.GivenName

GivenName

 

Name.FamilyName

Surname

 

Name.NameSuffix

Generation

 

Name.AdditionalName

MiddleName

 

Organization (primary)

CompanyName

Also store name, department, title, and job descriptions.

Organizations (non-primary)

Companies

Also store name, department, title, and job descriptions.

Emails

EmailAddresses

Only the first 3 are stored. Rest are stored in overflow properties.

IMs

ImAddresses

Only the first 3 are stored. Rest are stored in overflow properties.

Phone numbers

PhoneNumbers

Types:

  • home

  • home fax

  • mobile

  • pager

  • work

  • work fax

  • other

If any number is already set, we append it to overflow contact properties

Postal Addresses

Physical Addresses

Types:

  • home

  • work

  • other

If any address is already set, we append to overflow contact properties.

Also stores city, country or region, postal code, state, and street

Events

Wedding Anniversary (only for anniversary)

Rest are stored in overflow properties

Relations (value = "assistant")

AssistantName

 

Relations (value = "child")

Children

 

Relations (value = "domestic-partner")

SpouseName

 

Relations (value = "manager")

Manager

 

Relations (value = "partner")

SpouseName

 

Relations (value = "spouse")

SpouseName

 

Relations (value = others)

Others stored in overflow properties

 

Mileage

Mileage

 

ContactPhotoInBytes

Attachments

 

User-defined fields

All stored in overflow properties

 

Name.GivenNamePhonetics + Name.AdditionalNamePhonetics

Stored as extended property

 

Name.FamilyNamePhonetics

Stored as extended property

 

contactEntry.Name.NamePrefix

Stored as extended property

 

Birthday

Stored as extended property

 

Websites

Stored as extended property

 

Preparing the Source Environment

The G Suite (Gmail API) source endpoint requires your tenant service account to be set up and that Google APIs be enabled. 

Prerequisites

  • Subscription to Google Cloud Platform.
  • Google Super Administrator account.
  • Ability to set up a service account on the G Suite tenant.
  • Service account must be set up before the MigrationWiz project is created.
  • All accounts being migrated must be in Active status in the tenant. Users that are set to a status of Inactive will not be able to fully migrate and will fail in the project.

Create a Google Project

  1. Go to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Console and sign in as a super administrator. Choose one of the options below:
    • If you haven't used the Google Cloud Platform Console before, agree to the Terms of Service and click Create Project.
    • If you have used Google Cloud Platform Console before, at the top of the screen next to your most recent project name, click Down to open your projects list. Then, click New Project.
  2. Enter a project name and click Create.

If you are not able to create a project here, it may be that the ability to create projects has been disabled for your tenant. To check this, navigate to the Google Admin Center, click on Apps > Additional Google Services, and select the Google Cloud Platform. Once there, you should see a setting that can be toggled to allow users to create projects.

Enable APIs for Service Account

  1. From the Google Cloud Platform Console, click Menu (Google_Menu.png) > APIs & Services > Library.
  2. Enable the following APIs by selecting the specific API and clicking Enable. Repeat for each API:
    • Google Drive API
    • Google Calendar API
    • Gmail API
    • Contacts API
    • People API
    • Admin SDK

Make sure that the Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts services are enabled within the Google tenant. You can control services for your users using the instructions on this page: Control who can access G Suite and Google Services.

Create a Customer Tenant Service Account

  1. From the Google Cloud Platform Console, click Menu (Google_Menu.png) > API & Services > Credentials > CREATE CREDENTIALS > Service account.
  2. Click Create Service Account and enter a name.
  3. Click Create.
  4. Assign the role of Owner to the new Service Account by selecting Owner from the Role Dropdown menu.
  5. Click Continue.
  6. Click Done.
  7. Click on the service account and select ADD KEY > Create new key.
  8. Make sure that JSON is selected and click Create.
    • Make sure that you download the key as a JSON file and make a note of the name and location of the file. This JSON file will be used when setting up the migration endpoint in the Mailbox Migration project.
    • The JSON file must contain information in the following fields: “type”, “private key”, and “client email”. If these mandatory fields are empty the file upload during endpoint creation will fail.
  9. Click Close.

Find your Unique ID

  1. Click Menu Google_Menu.png > API & Services > Credentials from the Google Cloud Platform Console.
  2. Find the service account set up in step 3 of the Create a Customer Tenant Service Account section.
  3. Find the Unique ID field for that service account and copy the ID number. This is the Client ID number that will be used in a later step.
    • This field often needs to be added to the view. Click on the Column display options button ||| and add a checkmark to Unique ID, then click OK.
    • This Client ID should be considered similar to Administrator account passwords and handled securely.

Setting the Scopes for the Migration

  1. Go to the G Suite admin page at admin.google.com
  2. In the admin console, go to Menu Google_Menu.png > Click Security > Access and data control > API controls> Manage Domain Wide Delegation.
  3. Click Add new.
  4. In the Client Name field, paste the Unique ID copied above.
  5. In the scopes field, paste all scopes listed below:
    https://mail.google.com/, https://www.google.com/m8/feeds, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.readonly, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.group, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive, https://sites.google.com/feeds/, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.sharing, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.basic, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.group.readonly,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user.readonly,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.other.readonly 
  6. Click Authorize.

You should now see your specific Unique ID and the scopes listed, similar to what is shown below:

40520a97-ba80-46f1-ae4b-710e52fe251f.png

2c5866c2-efbb-499f-89a2-e55f36b8f5e7.png

Preparing the Destination Environment

Create Users on G Suite

Google provides clear, step-by-step guidance for this project.

Service Account

The G Suite (Gmail API) destination endpoint requires your tenant service account to be set up and Google APIs to be enabled. You can either create a separate service account for the destination or use the same service account setup for the source.

  • Different service accounts for destination - Follow the steps outlined in Set Up Google API before configuring the destination endpoint in MigrationWiz.

  • Shared service account between destination and source - If you are sharing the service account already set for the source endpoint, then only the following additional steps are required to enable scopes for the destination.

Find your Unique ID

  1. Click Menu Google_Menu.png > API & Services > Credentials from the Google Cloud Platform Console.
  2. Find the service account set up in step 3 of the Create a Customer Tenant Service Account section.
  3. Find the Unique ID field for that service account and copy the ID number. This is the Client ID number that will be used in a later step.
    • This field often needs to be added to the view. Click on the Column display options button ||| and add a checkmark to Unique ID, then click OK.
    • This Client ID should be considered similar to Administrator account passwords and handled securely.

Setting the Scopes for the Migration

  1. Go to the G Suite admin page at admin.google.com
  2. In the admin console, go to Menu Google_Menu.png > Click Security > Access and data control > API controls> Manage Domain Wide Delegation.
  3. On the Manage domain-wide delegation page, click Add new.
  4. In the Client Name field, paste the Unique ID copied above.
  5. In the scopes field, paste all scopes listed below:
    https://mail.google.com/, https://www.google.com/m8/feeds, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts.readonly, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.group, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive, https://sites.google.com/feeds/, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.sharing, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.basic, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts
  6. Click Authorize

You should now see your specific Unique ID and the scopes listed.

MigrationWiz Steps

Create a Mailbox Migration Project

  1. From the MigrationWiz dashboard, click Go To My Projects.

  2. Click Create Project.

  3. Select a Mailbox migration type. 

  4. Click Next Step.

  5. Enter a project name and select a Customer from the list.

    1. If the customer hasn’t already been created, you can do so now.

    2. To create a new Customer, click New, provide the required details including Primary Email Domain and Company Name, and click Save.

  6. Click Next Step.

  7. Select or create your source and destination endpoints
  8. Click Save and Go to Summary.

Endpoints

The steps for this section outline how to create the endpoints in MigrationWiz. If you select an existing endpoint, remember 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.

Create your Endpoints

If you have not previously created endpoints, the following steps will guide you through the project on your Source or Destination Settings tab.

Source Endpoint Destination Endpoint

Create your source endpoint by following the next steps:

  1. Click New .
  2. Type any name you want for the endpoint.
  3. Select G Suite (Gmail API) from the source endpoint type dropdown list.
  4. Select the JSON file created for the source service account.
  5. Enter the email for the super administrator for the source tenant.
  6. Click Add.
  7. Click Next Step.

Region of Destination Tenant

The Region of Destination Tenant feature optimizes the migration performance and speed by choosing the region closest to the destination tenant. MigrationWiz displays a dropdown that allows you to select the destination region when configuring your destination endpoint. 

Tip

You can find the region of your destination tenant directly in the Admin Console by navigating to Data > Compliance > Data Regions.
For more information about the region of your destination tenant review the Choosing the Region of the Destination Tenant article, where you can find the recommended ways to verify it.

Warning

If you do not complete this field you will not be able to save your project and the “This field cannot be left blank.” error will appear

Endpoint Validation

Once the information has been provided for both, the source and destination endpoint, and the customer selects Save and Go to Summary, MigrationWiz performs an endpoint validation check.

This validation tests the administrator credentials entered into the project and the Modern Authentication setup only. If there is an issue, the screen redirects to the endpoint and provides an error message or flyout that can be selected for more information regarding the error.

Advanced Options

Support Tab

The following Support Options are the most useful for this scenario. 

  • StoreOverflowGooglePropertiesInNotes=1 
  • StoreOverflowGooglePropertiesInNotesPrefix="enter your text here" 

Add Accounts (Items)

In MSPComplete, 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 one at a time. To do so, you'll only need to provide an email address if you entered administrative credentials when setting up the project. If you did not, enter the following user information:
  • An email address
  • Login name
  • Password
  • Mailbox status
Bulk Add

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.

MigrationWiz allows you to bulk import mailboxes into the system.

To import one or more mailboxes:

  1. Sign in to your MigrationWiz account.
  2. Select the Project for which you want to perform the bulk import.
  3. Click Add.
  4. Click Bulk Add.
  5. Follow the instructions on the page.

Run Migration

The following sections will guide you through running 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, the expected duration, any usage instructions during migration, and any expected steps or notifications for the post-migration timeline.

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

On the DNS provider's portal, change the primary MX record to reflect the DNS settings for the destination G Suite tenant.

Full (Delta) Pass

  1. Select the users.

  2. Click the Start button from the top.

  3. Select Full Migration.

  4. Select/ Deselect check boxes (for Contact, Calendars, Mails) based on your migration need.

  5. Click Start Migration.
    This migration should be completed quickly since most data is migrated during the Pre-Stage 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 was 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.

Post Migration

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

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