EdbMails software for Office 365 migration from DreamHost

DreamHost is a well-known name in web and WordPress hosting. It provides a wide range of services, including dedicated server and VPS hosting, websites, domain name registration, cloud and email hosting, Wordpress, and many others. Its advantages include speed and reliability, as well as a commitment to security and server uptime. DreamHost website hosting also includes an email service with 25GB of storage and built-in spam filters. While DreamHost is ideal for website hosting, it falls short when it comes to email services. Office 365, on the other hand, has dominated the email solution market, which is why many users would like to migrate their emails from DreamHost to Microsoft 365 while keeping their domain name with the former. With its collaboration and integrated features such as Teams, SharePoint, and Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, Spreadsheet, Calendars etc), Office 365 is also better suited as an email platform. In addition, it offers 50 GB of mail storage with features like in-place archive, shared mailbox, public folder, and so on. EdbMails is a Microsoft partnered IMAP migration tool that can help you transfer emails, folders and mailboxes from DreamHost to Office 365. In this article, we explain the pre and post migration activities along with the migration steps.

1. How to plan migration from DreamHost?

   You must have a solid plan in place and make sure you are ready for the migration before you begin the process. For your convenience, we have provided a short list of things.

   • Choose if you want to keep the same domain on DreamHost or switch to a different hosting company.
   • Choose whether you want to move your data in stages or all at once.
   • Make a CSV file that contains the user credentials and a complete list of the mailboxes that need to be migrated.
   • Check to see if the user credentials and CSV file format are accurate.
   • Ensure that every mailbox is fully backed up, and export any large attachments or files to your local disc.
   • Share information about the migration plan and impending modifications with the end users.
   • Choose a suitable Office 365 licensing plan and assign the licenses.
   • Perform a test migration to check that everything functions as planned.

2. Pre migration activities for BigRock to Office 365 migration

   1. Ensure that 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. Also assign the Organization Management role group and impersonation rights to the admin user on Office 365.

   2. Create a list of users in a CSV file, which you want to migrate from DreamHost.
   3. Find the name of your source email server from an email client
   4. Subscribe to 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
   5. 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

   6. 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

   7. 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.

   8. 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.

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

   9. 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.

3. DreamHost to Office 365 migration using Edbmails

   You can follow the below methods to migrate DreamHost to Office 365

   1. Migrate DreamHost to Office 365 from the Exchange admin center (EAC)
   2. Migrate mailboxes directly to O365 with EdbMails IMAP migration

   • Steps to migrate DreamHost to Office 365 from Exchange admin center

     • Step 1: Navigate to ‘DNS Settings’ from the DreamHost Website dashboard
     • Step 2: Verify your DreamHost domain to connect to Microsoft
     • Step 3: Allow for the TXT record and TTL value changes to register
     • Step 4: Create a list of CSV file of user mailboxes to be migrated from DreamHost
     • Step 5: Note down the IMAP server details of your source account
     • Step 6: Create a migration endpoint and migration batch from the Exchange Admin Center
     • Step 7: Validate the migration batch and start migrating to Microsoft 365
     • Step 8: Update MX records on DreamHost server to point to Microsoft’s servers
     • Step 9: Also update other DNS records such as CNAME, SPF, SRV, A
     • Step 10: Verify whether you’re getting all your emails from DreamHost domain to your Office 365 mailbox

     You can also add your DreamHost and Exchange online accounts to Outlook and copy emails from one to the other, allowing IMAP to sync the emails and folders to your webmail account. However, this method and the IMAP migration from the admin center are appropriate if you have less data to migrate with only a few mailboxes. Both methods are time consuming and require extensive manual work for large mailboxes and quick migration. In the section that follows, we'll go over EdbMails, an automated solution that will help you migrate your mailboxes without a hitch.

   • Steps to migrate DreamHost to Office 365 with EdbMails

     EdbMails IMAP migration is an automated tool that can help you migrate from DreamHost in a few easy steps. There is no requirement for any manual procedures and you can directly migrate to Office 365 from an interactive dashboard. It has built-in advanced filters for customized mail and folder selection and its incremental migration feature is practical if you’re looking to migrate without duplicates.

     • Step 1 : Download and Install EdbMails application

       Download EdbMails and install the application on any computer

       

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

       Either ‘Login’ or ‘Start Your Free Trial’

       

       Select ‘IMAP migration’ option

     • Step 2: Connect to the DreamHost server
       • Enter the HostName / IP Address
       • Ensure Port: 993 with SSL/TLS enabled (If you have SSL for your IMAP connection)
       • Enter Email address and password associated with your DreamHost account.

       

       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 3: Select the mailboxes from DreamHost to migrate to Office 365

       After a successful connection, EdbMails loads all of your mailboxes, folders, and items, which you can access on the left side.

       • Select the mailboxes and folders to migrate.
       • 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 to prevent duplicate items.

       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 4: Connect to target Office 365

       EdbMails supports both modern and classic authentication. Select ‘ Auto’ or ‘Manual’ registration for modern authentication and the connection method as Mailboxes, Public folder or Archive Mailbox. EdbMails automatically loads the mailboxes. Also you can use the CSV file to load the mailboxes as well.

       

         Connect to Office 365 server using secure modern authentication

     • Step 5: 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 DreamHost and Office 365. This activity saves time when you’re migrating a large number of mailboxes.

       

     • Step 6: Start the migration from DreamHost 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.

4. 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. After you complete this step, you will be able to receive emails from your customers and partners in your Office 365 account. 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:

• IMAP to IMAP Migration
• Backup IMAP to PST
• IMAP to Exchange Migration
• Gmail to Office 365 Migration