EdbMails software for cPanel migration

cPanel is a control panel from web hosting solutions that enables you to manage your Webmail and other services from a single interface. You can set up and add a cPanel account with your favorite email client such as Outlook, Thunderbird through an IMAP connection or directly access the web email client Roundcube or Horde. cPanel also includes some additional features such as Autoresponders, Forwarders, Email Routing, Global Email Filters, Track Email Deliverability and so on. All of these features, which are quite useful for small businesses, are present on the main cPanel interface. However, when there is a change in the business requirements and enterprises want to migrate to other services for better features and scalability, they find it challenging. One such migration is cPanel to Office 365 migration. EdbMails IMAP to Office 365 migration is a Microsoft partnered software solution that can help you migrate all your emails from your cPanel server. In this article we shall look at the steps to perform the migration using the software.

Reasons for cPanel to Office 365 migration

Although the cPanel interface is excellent for basic needs, large enterprises who demand additional functionality and customizations find it lacking. For instance, Office 365 overtakes its competitors by integrating a wide variety of features, productivity suites and teamwork apps for the same cost. In addition to these features, Microsoft emphasizes security in general and boasts a powerful spam filter. With Office 365, you can access SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams from a single location without having to worry about manual upgrades or maintenance. After taking into account all of these factors, it is clear why moving cPanel to Office 365 has gained traction in recent times.

1. Pre migration activities for cPanel to Office 365 migration

   The following are the pre-migration activities for migrating AOL to Office 365

   1. Make sure you have admin access on the source and target server The admin account that has all the necessary permissions to migrate mailboxes on behalf of all the users in your organization. Assign the global administrator rights to the user in cPanel. Also assign the Organization Management role group and impersonation rights to the admin user on Office 365.

   2. Purchase a suitable Office 365 licensing plan. You can also sign up for a 30 day free trial and decide to go with a suitable one later. Compare Office 365 business plans and Compare Office 365 enterprise plans
   3. Create Office 365 mailboxes and assign licenses to them

       Add users and assign licenses to Office 365 users

       Assign Microsoft 365 licenses to user accounts

   4. If you plan to migrate your mailboxes to Office 365 Public folders, ensure that you create and configure the Public folder mailboxes on the target server.

       Create Office 365 Public folder and assign mailbox user

   5. Similarly, if you want to migrate mailboxes to Office 365 In-Place archive, enable them from the admin center.

       Steps to enable archive mailbox in Microsoft 365.

   6. If you have a custom email domain from the source which you want to retain and receive emails to, you must add and verify the domain on Office 365.
   7. If you are in plan to migrate mailboxes to Office 365 archive mailboxes, ensure to enable In-Place archive in Office 365 admin center.

       Steps to add a custom domain to Office 365 and steps to add DNS records to connect your domain.

   8. Configure Office 365 to send and receive large messages.

       Follow the steps to increase the message size on Office 365 to 150MB. See message size limits on Office 365 for more information.

2. cPanel Webmail to Office 365 migration using edbmails

   You can perform the migration with the following three methods.

   1. Migrate cPanel to Office 365 with the PST import method
   2. Migrate mailboxes directly with EdbMails Office 365 IMAP tool
   3. Migrate MBOX file from cPanel to Office 365

   To migrate your cPanel emails from the first method, you need to set up your webmail account on Outlook and export the PST file which can then be imported into your Microsoft 365 account. You can also export your folders and emails as an MBOX file from your cPanel control panel and then use EdbMails to migrate MBOX to Office 365.

   We first outline the steps to manually migrate with the PST method and then describe the next two automated migration methods with EdbMails.

   • Steps to migrate cPanel to Office 365 with the PST import method

     • Step 1: Obtain the IMAP connection information for your cPanel Webmail account.
     • Step 2: Create Office 365 user accounts and assign a license to the mailbox
     • Step 3: Ensure that you are the global administrator user on the source and target
     • Step 4: Configure your cPanel Webmail account on Outlook desktop
     • Step 5: Sync and export all of your emails to an Outlook PST file.
     • Step 6: Using Azure AzCopy, import the PST file into Microsoft 365.

     This method is only appropriate if you have very little data to migrate and is thus not recommended if you plan to migrate large amounts of data. This procedure also includes a number of technical steps that are not user-friendly. For example, if you have a large amount of data, you must copy the PST file to a hard drive and ship it to Microsoft so that they can upload it for you. The best solution is to use EdbMails to automate the migration process and avoid all the manual steps.

   • Steps to migrate cPanel to Office 365 with EdbMails IMAP migration

     EdbMails IMAP migration software can simplify the migration from cPanel to Office 365 from its graphical user interface. You connect to the source and target server, map the mailboxes and start the migration operation. Let's take a look at the migration steps.

     Download EdbMails and install the application on any computer that is connected to the source and target environment. You can also perform the migration operation by installing EdbMails on a non-Exchange computer.

      See a detailed list of EdbMails system requirements for IMAP migration.

     Launch the application and click ‘Login’or ‘Start Your Free Trial’ Login to the application (if you have purchased a license and already have the username and password). The free trial version allows you to migrate 30 items from every folder of the source account to the target.
     Select the migration method as ‘IMAP migration’ in the main window

     • Step 1: Connect to your cPanel Webmail server from EdbMails
       Enter the IMAP Host Name (mail.yourdomain.com), Port Number (993) and account credentials (Email address and Password) in EdbMails. You can find the IMAP connection details in your cPanel main interface under Email Accounts > Connect Devices > Mail Client Manual Settings

       

       If you want to migrate multiple mailboxes, select ‘Multiple (bulk) Users/Accounts Migration’. Download the sample CSV file from EdbMails and fill in the required details such as mailbox name, password, host name and port. Load the CSV file into the application and verify the list mailboxes to continue.

        See steps to connect to single and multiple users in EdbMails IMAP migration

       

     • Step 2: Select the mailboxes from cPanel and connect to Office 365
       • Select the mailboxes and folders from the left panel.
       • Click ‘Migrate to Office 365’ to set up the connection with the target server.

          See tips to optimize IMAP migration to Exchange online

       

       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.

       EdbMails provides the following additional options to help you customize the migration task.

       • Additional Include and Exclude Filter Options
       • Filter emails by Date: Migrate to Office 365 by applying the Date filter
       • Filter emails by Size: Exclude emails from migration larger than a specified size.
     • Step 3: Connect to target Office 365 as Global Admin User

       EdbMails supports both modern and classic authentication. Connect to the target server by selecting Auto or Manual registration for modern authentication and the connection method as Mailboxes, Public folder or Archive Mailbox. You can also connect to the mailboxes by loading a CSV file of users from the Office 365 tenant.

        Connect to Office 365 server using secure modern authentication

     • Step 4: Map the respective folders from the source to the target

       The mapping activity in EdbMails can automatically match and map the mailboxes and folders between cPanel and Office 365. This activity saves time when you’re migrating a large number of mailboxes.

     • Step 5: Start the cPanel migration to Office 365 and verify the operation

       Start and monitor the migration operation after you complete the mailbox mapping. Finally, verify the count of migrated emails, folders and mailbox items with EdbMails text-based log report. You can also pause and resume the migration.

   • Steps to migrate cPanel to Office 365 from an MBOX file

     Export an MBOX file from your cPanel account containing your folders and emails and then use EdbMails to directly migrate the MBOX file to Office 365. Let’s look at the steps.

     

     • Step 1: Log in to your cPanel Webmail account from the service provider
     • Step 2: Right-click any folder you want to migrate to Office 365 and select the 'Export' option
     • Step 3: Select the option to save (download) it as an MBOX file
     • Step 4: Using EdbMails, migrate the downloaded MBOX file to Office 365

        If you require further assistance, contact EdbMails 24x7 support. Try the free trial version today to start the migration!

3. Post-migration tasks

   Step 1: Update the MX records to point to Office 365

   If you have not done this step previously, change the DNS records known as MX records to enable and receive email messages on the target Office 365 server. In addition to this setup, configure the Autodiscover record to allow Outlook to connect to the migrated mailboxes.

   Step 2: Create a new Outlook profile for users in the new domain

   Configure and recreate the Outlook profile for each user in your domain if Outlook has problems connecting to Office 365 mailboxes.

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Additional resources:

• Videos - IMAP to Office 365 migration
• Videos - IMAP to Exchange migration
• Videos - Migrate MBOX file to Office 365