EdbMails in-place archive to live exchange migrator tool

EdbMails is a Microsoft partnered migration software that can help you migrate In-Place Archive to Exchange in a few clicks. It is an ideal solution to transfer Archive mailboxes from EDB to Exchange server 2016, 2019 and 2013.

If you are looking to migrate In-Place Archive from Live Exchange server instead of an offline EDB file, EdbMails also includes a dedicated Exchange migration tool which you can have a look at.

An advantage of using EdbMails is that it can repair corrupted EDB files and completely restore your mailboxes, emails, calendars, notes, tasks. You do not require any technical skills or cmdlets to perform the repair and migration. The application can also recover EDB from Dirty Shutdown, Jet Engine errors, Database mounting issues and consistency check failures. In the following sections, let us see the steps to recover and import mailboxes from EDB to Exchange.

1. Prerequisites to migrate In-Place Archive to Live Exchange

   • Step 1: Check that your system meets the Exchange server setup requirements

     The following links help you set up your target Exchange server. Learn more about the network, hardware, coexistence scenarios, and operating system requirements for installing Exchange.

     1. Exchange 2013 Server setup
     2. Network and directory requirement for Exchange 2016
     3. Network and directory requirement for Exchange 2019
     4. Hardware Requirements for Exchange 2016
     5. Hardware Requirements for Exchange 2019
     6. Supported operating systems for Exchange 2016
     7. Supported operating systems for Exchange 2019
   • Step 2: Prepare your system with the following prerequisites for Exchange

     Complete the following prerequisites for Active Directory, Windows Mailbox server, and Windows Edge Transport servers before installing the target Exchange server.

     1. Exchange 2019 prerequisites for preparing Active Directory (AD)
     2. Windows Server prerequisites for Exchange 2019
     3. Exchange 2016 prerequisites for preparing Active Directory (AD)
     4. Windows Server prerequisites for Exchange 2016

2. Set up the target Exchange server for migration

   Given below is a list of key points for installing and preparing the Exchange server for migration. If you have already installed and performed the set up operations, jump to Step 4 in this section.

   1. Prepare AD and domains
      • Before installing Exchange Server, you need to prepare your Active Directory forest and its domains for the new version of Exchange.
      • If you have a separate team to manage the Active Directory schema, you need to first extend the active directory schema, else proceed to the next step to prepare the Active Directory.
      • If you have multiple domains you need to additionally prepare the Active Directory domains.
   2. Install Exchange server on your computer

      Ensure that you meet the server system requirements and prerequisites as outlined previously. Next, follow the link to install Exchange 2016 or install Exchange 2019 from the setup wizard based on which server you want to migrate to.

   3. Prepare a clean Exchange target environment
      • Create and configure a Send connector to send mail outside the Exchange organization.
      • By default, Exchange automatically creates receive connectors for inbound mail flow when the mailbox server is installed. If you need to configure receive connectors manually, follow the steps in the link.
      • Add accepted domains to allow recipients to send and receive email from another domain.
      • Configure the default email address policy to add the accepted domain to every recipient in the organization.
      • Configure external URLs (domains) on the virtual directories in the Client Access (frontend) services on the Mailbox server to allow clients to connect to your server from the internet (outside the organization’s network).
      • Configure internal URLs on the virtual directories in the Client Access (frontend) services on the Mailbox server to allow clients to connect to your server from the internal network.
      • Configure SSL certificates from a third-party certificate authority for services such as Outlook Anywhere and Exchange ActiveSync.
      • Verify the Exchange server installation by running the command Get-ExchangeServer on the Exchange Management Shell (EMS).
   4. Create mailboxes and enable archive mailbox on the Exchange server

      Before you migrate your mail data, ensure that you create mailboxes on the target server and assign suitable licenses to them. Also enable Archive mailbox and Public folders.

       See how to create mailboxes in Exchange server

       Steps to create Public folder in Exchange server

       Enable Archive mailbox in Exchange server

   5. Assign management roles to the admin account

      Set the following permissions to the admin account on the target Exchange server to migrate mailboxes on behalf of other users in your organization.

      • ApplicationImpersonation
      • View-Only Recipients
      • View-Only Configuration

      Also assign the Organization Management role group to the admin user, which is an elevated permission for mailbox migration.

   6. Verify the mailbox of the admin account

      Check to see if the admin account that has been assigned management roles has a valid and non-hidden mailbox on the Exchange server.

   7. Configure the throttling and message-size limits

      Change the EWS throttling and message size limits manually on the Exchange server by following the steps in the link.

      • Change the EWS throttling settings on Exchange server
      • Change message size limits on Exchange

3. Migrate Archive mailboxes from EDB to Exchange using EdbMails

   • Step 1: Download EdbMails EDB to Exchange software setup

     • Download EdbMails and install the application on your computer. Follow the instructions that appear on screen to complete the installation.

        See a detailed list of EdbMails system requirements for EDB recovery and migration.

       

     • Launch the application and click 'Login' or 'Start Your Free Trial'.

       

     • Select the recovery technique as 'EDB to PST, EDB to Office 365 and EDB to Exchange'.

       

   • Step 2: Select the offline EDB file for recovery and migration

     Before you start the Archive mailbox migration, take a copy of the EDB file as a backup. Browse and select the EDB from your computer that contains the In-Place Archive. EdbMails does not require an Active Directory (AD) association and enables you to directly migrate mailboxes and folders from an offline EDB file to Live Exchange.

     

      Tip: EdbMails supports mailbox.edb, pub.edb, priv.edb and STM files from legacy Exchange servers. If you are using Exchange 2003 then EdbMails will automatically look for the corresponding STM file in the same location. For Exchange 2007 or above, the STM file is no longer used.

   • Step 3: Preview and select the Archive mailboxes for migration

     EdbMails first performs a recovery operation and fully restores the EDB file in case it is corrupted. You can view the mailboxes and preview the mail items such as emails, contacts, folders, notes, tasks, calendars from the application’s preview pane.

      Tip: EdbMails can recover and migrate deleted Exchange mail items to another Exchange server.

     1. Click the 'Show All the folders' check box which is present above the Tree view as shown.
     2. Expand the mailbox and navigate to the 'Recoverable Items' folder.
     3. Click the 'Deletions' folder to view the deleted mails.

     

     Select the required mailboxes / folders and click the 'Migrate to Live Exchange' button to continue. Alternatively, you can right click on the selected mailboxes / folders and select the option 'Migrate Selected Mailboxes / Folders to Exchange Server'.

     

      Tip: EdbMails provides the following additional options to help you customize the mailbox migration to Exchange server based on a Date and other mailbox rules.

     1. Additional Include and Exclude Filter Options.
     2. Filter emails by Date: Import emails to Office 365 by applying the Date filter
     3. Filter emails by Size: Exclude emails and attachments from migration, which are larger than a specified size.
     4. Filter emails by domain name: Extract emails sent to and received from a particular domain.

     

     Add a suitable label to the job for identification. This enables you to quickly load the application’s settings for future export operations. You can view all the labels by clicking 'View Log' that contains all the details of the previous operation.

   • Step 4: Connect to target Exchange server as Global Admin

     Connect to the target server by selecting the option 'Connect using Global Admin User' and the migration scenario as Mailboxes, Public folder or Archive Mailbox based on your requirement. You can also load the mailboxes using a CSV file. See the instructions on how to use the different Exchange server connection methods supported by EdbMails. You can perform the following migration with the application.

     • Source Public folder to the target Public folder
     • Source Public folder to the target mailbox
     • Source Public folder to Shared mailbox

     Note: If the Standard folders (such as Inbox, Calendar, Contacts) in the source EDB file are initialized with a different language, follow the details in the link to migrate these folders to the respective system folders on the target (destination) server.

     For Instance: If your source Inbox folder is named 'Boîte de réception', which is in French language and you migrate this folder directly to the destination server, then by default it will not be mapped to the 'Inbox' folder on the target server. In order to map the folder with the french name to the respective folder, change the regional settings on the target server to match that of your source mailbox folder language (in this case, it is French).

      Click here to know the steps to change the language and regional settings on Exchange

      Tip: If this is the first time you’re migrating with EdbMails, the migration is a full migration. On subsequent migrations from the same source to the target, the migration is incremental.

   • Step 5: Map the mailboxes between the source and the target

     The mapping activity in EdbMails can automatically match and map the mailboxes and folders between the source and target and saves time when you’re migrating a large number of mailboxes.

     

   • Step 6: Migrate the Archive mailboxes to Live Exchange

     That's it! During the migration, you can view the progress as shown where you can also pause and resume the operation. An appropriate message will be displayed on completion. Finally, verify the count of migrated emails, folders and mailbox items with EdbMails text-based log report.