This is the complete Onboarding Task flow for migrating Public Folders from a Hosted Exchange environment to On-Premise Exchange 2013+
We recommend reading the complete guide before the migration starts to understand the process, timeline, and prerequisites. Though some notes are called out throughout the guide, pay attention to these as they may provide information to avoid migration failure; so complete each step in the listed order.
MigrationWiz
MigrationWiz is a migration tool, not a syncing tool. If changes are made at the source after migration, they will not sync to the destination, nor will changes made at the destination sync to the source. We do not have “live” monitoring of changes (as with a sync agent) and we cannot handle scenarios such as conflict resolution without user interaction.
MigrationWiz supports the capability to share migration projects across a Workgroup. When the Project Sharing feature is turned on, all Agents besides those who are Inactive can view all migration projects. For more information, visit Project Sharing in MigrationWiz.
Limitations
Consider the following limitations when performing this type of migration.
- App password usage, MFA/2FA, and ADFS are not supported for the migration admin account/service account being used by this endpoint.
- Exchange Web Services (EWS) must be enabled in both the source and destination for this migration type.
- BitTitan support does not offer post-migration guidance regarding managing and resolving public folders on the source environment.
- The mail-enabling of public folders is not supported for destination endpoints with On-Premise Exchange.
- Due to a code defect in Exchange 2010, timestamps will not be preserved for Public Folders at the destination.
- This migration is typically run in 3 migration passes to move over all selected items and security group permissions. (Migrating of permissions is only supported for Exchange 2010+).
- Public Folder migrations can take some time to properly configure endpoints. We recommend configuring the project endpoints a week or more before the migration to ensure they are ready for use.
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.
Public Folders can only be migrated to other public folders or shared mailboxes. We do not migrate Public Folders to individual user mailboxes or Microsoft 365 Group mailboxes or vice versa. Mail-enabled public folders are not supported for destination endpoints that are Exchange On-Premise and will need to be mail-enabled manually. For additional details about items that are and are not migrated from public folders, see our Migrated and Not Migrated Items article.
Exchange 2007
Migrated
- Public Folders
- Subfolders
Exchange 2010 SP1+ & Microsoft 365
Migrated
- Public Folders
- Subfolders
- User Permissions
- Mail-Enabled Security Group Permissions (Default and Anonymous User Permissions are not supported)
Not Migrated
- Rules
Not Migrated in any Exchange Instance
- Email templates
- Email flags (if the destination is G Suite)
- Safe Sender/Block Lists
- Mail Settings
- Standalone documents stored in Mailbox Folders or Public Folders (Example: IPM.Document item types)
- System Public Folders
- StickyNote folders
Not Migrated in Exchange 2007: Public Folder Permissions
Special Considerations for this Migration
If your migration involves more than 1,000 public folders, some additional steps are required for a successful migration, and BitTitan Support will need to assist you. These steps are not required if your migration is smaller than that, and you may only require one or the other. Make sure you review these steps before beginning your migration.
Order of Operations
You must first successfully complete a Verify Credentials pass in your project before BitTitan Support can assist you with these steps. Follow the steps at Prepare Source Environment through Run Verify Credentials below, then contact BitTitan Support.
More than 1,000 folders (including sub-folders)
If migrating more than 1,000 folders in total (including sub-folders), the folders will need to be SPLIT into multiple line items in your MigrationWiz project. This process increases the efficiency of the migration in case there are specific folders that may cause issues during the migration, and allows folders to be migrated in parallel line items instead of a single one. If you are migrating less than 1,000 folders for the project, this step is not required.
- First, run the following PowerShell command against your source Exchange server. This will generate a file called folders.csv that will be used to create the SPLIT project.
Get-PublicFolder -Recurse -Resultsize Unlimited | select Identity | Export-Csv -Encoding Unicode C:\folders.csv - Once you have that CSV, follow these steps:
- Open the folders.csv file and remove the folder paths for any folders that should not be included in the migration. After you confirm that the folder paths listed in the folders.csv file are the ones to be migrated, save the file (do not change the encoding), attach the file to the ticket, and indicate this step has been completed.
- Once the folders.csv file has been used to create a secondary SPLIT project (it will have _SPLIT included in the name), this will be the project used to migrate your public folders moving forward.
SPLIT Folder Paths
Only folder paths in the folders.csv file used to create the SPLIT project will be migrated. Any new folders added at the source after the creation of the SPLIT project will need to be manually added. For suggestions on working within this restriction, see Best Practices for migrating Public Folders.Open a Ticket with BitTitan Support
Once you have completed the Run Verify Credentials step, open a ticket with BitTitan Support by following the instructions in How do I get support for your products? Make sure to include the following information in your ticket:
- The subject of the ticket should be “Public Folder SPLIT or Mapping Scripts Needed”
- Make sure to attach the folders.csv file to the ticket from the above step for migrating more than 1,000 folders.
If you have already submitted a ticket for another issue, simply add the new information to that existing ticket.
Prepare the Source Environment
- Grant admin permissions
- Break up large folders (if required)
Grant Admin Permissions
- Grant elevated the 'Organization Management' administrator role to the migrating administrator account. Refer to Assigning the Elevated Admin Role 'Organization Management' to a Public Folder Account for Migration.
- Ensure that the source administrator account has a mailbox enabled and is located on the same Exchange server as the source Public Folder database or mailbox.
- Ensure that the migrating administrator account has permission in all Public Folders ("Read-only" or "Reviewer" access rights should be enough). For more information, see Granting Necessary Permissions to Source Public Folders.
Break up Large Folders
You will want to perform these tasks first before beginning your migration. If you are migrating more than 1,000 folders (including subfolders) or more than 20GB of data, break these folders up before contacting BitTitan Support.
- Split up large Public Folders: if any source Public Folders contain more than 100,000 items (if Source = Microsoft 365, Exchange 2010 or later), these should be split into multiple Public Folders as they can cause migrations to be held up with processing of the high number of items. Breaking up these folders can help with faster migration speeds. For more information, see Finding Public Folder Size for Migration.
- Any individual Public Folders over 20GB in size should be split into smaller folders of 20GB or less. Failure to complete this step can negatively impact migration performance and speed.
Prepare Destination Environment
- Create the primary hierarchy public folder mailbox in the Exchange Admin Center (there is only one and should be the first one you create)
- Ensure that the destination administrator account has a mailbox enabled.
- Ensure the migrating administrator account has the permission of Owner applied at the root of the public folder hierarchy in the Exchange Admin Center.
MigrationWiz Steps
The following steps will be performed in MigrationWiz.
- Create project
- Set endpoints
- Add items
- Run Verify Credentials
- Purchase licenses
- Set Advanced Options
Create a Public Folder migration project. Read the MigrationWiz Projects article for more information on project types and troubleshooting.
- Click the Go to My Projects button.
- Click the Create Project button.
- Select Public Folder as the migration type.
- Click Next Step.
- Enter a Project name and select a Customer.
- Click Next Step.
Set the source and destination Endpoints (select Exchange Server Public Folder for the source Endpoint, and Exchange Server Public Folder for the destination Endpoint). For both endpoints, enter the OWA URL for the server where the public folder mailboxes are located.
Add the items you wish to migrate.
- Select Add
- Select Quick Add
- Enter a forward slash ( / ) in the Root Folder Path field.
We recommend this because it will migrate all Public Folders, and you will only need one Public Folder license per 10GB of data, regardless of the number of top-level Public Folders. Refer to Migrating all Public Folders from the Root Level Down
If targeting specific source folders for the migration, please add a folder filter to the line item to migrate these specific folders. For information on how to filter folders, please see our Folder Filtering & Mapping in MigrationWiz article.
Now that your project has been created a / added for the Root Path or the specific folders to be migrated have been added, run Verify Credentials from the Start menu in the MigrationWiz project.
Large Migration Steps
If your migration includes more than 1,000 folders (including subfolders) or more than 20GB of data to be migrated, contact BitTitan customer support at this time, and follow the instructions laid out below based on which situation applies to your project.
Purchase Licenses
Purchase Public Folder licenses. To obtain an estimate of the number of Public Folder migration licenses required for your migration project, follow the directions in Estimating the Required Public Folder Migration License Count.
Set Advanced Options
Important
The advanced option steps listed below should be followed in the order that they are entered as they are required for this migration scenario.
- Under the Support tab add the RemoveFilterBasedOnFolderType=1, this support option is required if Public Folders contain items other than mail, such as calendar and contact items. This option stays in place for the entire migration process.
- Under the Source/Destination tab, set the value for Migrate Permissions For from New Folders Only to New folders and existing folders. This is required because Public Folder mapping scripts have been created. See Migrating Public Folder Permissions
- Under the Licensing tab, set the value for Maximum licenses to consume per item per pass licensing count, by default 1. This allows up to 10GB to be migrated.
Example: If migrating all Public Folders, using the forward-slash ( / ), and the total data size = 78GB, then increase this value to 8 (otherwise the migration will pause at 10GB). See MigrationWiz Licenses.
Perform Migration
You will now begin your migration. This will occur in multiple phases. Each migration pass has additional required advanced options and will be submitted as a Full Migration. Each pass must be completed successfully before moving on to the next migration pass.
- First migration pass
- Second migration pass
- Security group permissions migration pass
First Migration Pass Steps
The first migration for this scenario usually takes more time to complete than the subsequent passes, and completes the following tasks:
- Folder and file/item discovery
- Migrate user folder permissions if a match can be found. For more information on the requirements for migrating user permissions, see Migrating Public Folder Permissions
Additional Advanced Options
Set first pass Project Advanced Options (this is considered your pre-stage pass as the older items will be migrated first).
Public folders are generally much larger than individual mailboxes. This means that the migration will run for a longer time and that there is more possibility of errors during migration due to simple connection problems, maintenance issues, or other intermittent, infrequent problems. These intermittent problems cause MigrationWiz to focus only on the first part of the data (e.g., the first 25GB) because every time that MigrationWiz starts a (Full/Delta Pass) migration, it has to check if any of the items have changed or have not been previously migrated. To avoid this, follow the steps below.
Under Support Options add:
- MaintainWatermarkCompletionState=1
Under Filtering:
- Select By Date
- Check box Only migrate items older than the specified date
- Set date range (month, day, hour, minute) for items to migrate. We suggest migrating items older than six months. Dates will be calculated by the most recent modification date.
Perform the First Migration Pass
Perform the first pass for items older than 6 months by running a Full Migration from the Start menu.
Second Migration Pass Steps
The second migration pass will migrate data only. No permissions will be migrated and no mail-enabling of migrated folders will occur.
Additional Advanced Options
Under Support Options:
- Remove MaintainWatermarkCompletionState=1
- Add SkipImportFolderWhenPublicFolderExists=1
- Select By Date
- Check box Only migrate items newer than the specified date
- Set date range (month, day, hour, minute) for items to migrate. This date should be the same date and time used for the first migration pass
Perform the Second Migration Pass
Perform the second pass for items newer than 6 months by running a Full Migration from the Start menu.
Security Group Permissions Migration Pass
This pass will migrate mail-enabled security group permissions if an existing match can be found in the destination. The Primary SMTP address of the security group searches the matches. If you do not run this pass, none of the security group Permissions will migrate. If you do not have any security group permissions, this migration pass can be skipped. For more information on Security Group permissions, see Allowing Security Groups Permissions to be Migrated During a Public Folder Migration Project
Additional Advanced Options
Under Support Options:
- Remove SkipImportFolderWhenPublicFolderExists=1
- Add AllowAllMailboxTypesForPFPermissions=1
Perform Migration Pass for Security Group Permissions
Perform a pass for migrating security group permissions by running a Full Migration from the Start menu.
Post-Migration
Request the migration statistics. Click the bar chart icon on the MigrationWiz dashboard to receive an email containing all the project migration statistics.