Migrate Exchange Archive mailbox to Office 365

Migrating Exchange archive mailboxes to Office 365 is a strategic decision for organizations aiming to improve email management and streamline operations. Traditional Exchange archives often result in high maintenance costs, limited accessibility, and compliance challenges. By migrating archive mailboxes to Office 365, organizations can effectively overcome these issues. Office 365 supports both cloud and hybrid environments, offering substantial storage options ranging from 50 GB to 1.5 TB per user. Each user benefits from an integrated mailbox, either as part of their Microsoft account or through an add-on subscription. With Microsoft managing the Office 365 archive mailbox, organizations are relieved of ongoing maintenance burdens.

EdbMails Exchange migration software offers an efficient method for transferring In-Place Archives from Exchange servers to Office 365. This user-friendly tool allows organizations to migrate emails, calendars, contacts, permissions, and folders directly, eliminating downtime and the need for technical expertise. It features incremental migration, which conserves bandwidth by transferring only new or modified items during subsequent migration operations, and automatic mailbox mapping that reduces the manual effort.

EdbMails prioritizes the security of sensitive data during the migration process. Certified with ISO 27001:2013 and fully GDPR compliant, EdbMails implements robust security measures, including SSL/TLS encryption for secure data transmission, OAuth 2.0 for secure authorization, and Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for enhanced protection. Additionally, EdbMails utilizes modern authentication for Microsoft 365 endpoints, providing an extra layer of security compared to traditional methods.

The following sections detail the migration plan, prerequisites, migration process, and post-migration tasks to ensure a smooth transition.

1. Plan to migrate Exchange Archive mailbox to Office 365

   • Ensure that you create and enable the In-Place Archiving on Office 365.

       See steps to enable In-Place archive in Office 365.

   • Determine whether you want to migrate Archive mailbox to Office 365 primary mailbox or Archive mailbox.
   • If you want to migrate the Archive mailbox directly to Office 365 Archive mailbox, enable the auto-expanding archiving feature on Office 365.
   • Enable the auto-expanding feature only if you require more storage space.
   • By default, the Archives have 100GB of storage when you enable them and the auto-expanding adds additional storage (unlimited archiving) when the threshold is reached. This limit is expandable up to 1.5TB per mailbox.
   • Remember that the auto-expanding works only on Office 365 and you cannot run it on the on-premises Exchange server.

       See the list of auto-expanding archiving restrictions and consider the following points for all users.

   • If you would like to learn more about archiving, see how the auto-expanding archiving works
   • Unlimited archiving is a premium feature that requires Exchange online plan 2 or Exchange online archiving license.
   • Verify if your Exchange online mailbox license allows the archiving feature.
   • If your on-premises archive mailboxes are greater than the Exchange online auto-expanding limits, you can split them into PST files and migrate the PST to Office 365 using EdbMails Office 365 migration tool.

2. Archive mailbox to Office 365 : Pre-migration activities

   Before you migrate Exchange Archive mailbox to Office 365, you must prepare the target Office 365 server as described in the following section.

   1. Ensure that you meet the network and bandwidth requirements for the migration. See network and migration planning, performance factors and best practices for Office 365 migration.
   2. Prepare your target Office 365 tenant. See tenant roadmap for Microsoft 365.
   3. Purchase an Office 365 licensing plan specific to your needs. 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
   4. Create mailboxes for your users in your organization and assign suitable licenses to them. For more information, see the following links.
      1.  Add users and assign licenses to Office 365 users
      2.  Add several users at the same time to Office 365
      3.  Assign Microsoft 365 licenses to user accounts
   5. Enable the archive mailbox on the target Office 365 server.

        See steps to enable online archive in Office 365.

   6. If you are using a global admin account to connect to the source Exchange server, ensure to set impersonation rights.
   7. Configure Office 365 to send and receive large messages

        Follow the steps to increase the message size on Office 365 to 150MB.

   8. If you have a custom email domain from the source to which you want to receive emails after the migration, you must add and verify the custom domain on Office 365.

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

3. Steps to migrate Archive mailbox to Office 365 using EdbMails

   • Step 1: Download and install EdbMails Exchange migration tool

     • Download and install EdbMails on your computer running on Windows OS that can be connected to both your source Exchange server.
     • System requirements for Exchange Archive mailbox to Office 365 migration.
     • Launch the EdbMails application and 'Login' with required details or 'Start Your Free Trial'

       

     • Select the ‘Live Exchange migration’ option from the drop down menu.

       

   • Step 2: Connect to source Exchange server

     • Choose the required connection options. If you want to connect to the source Exchange server using the global admin account set impersonation rights.
     • Select ‘Connect to Archive Mailbox (In-Place Archive)’ and proceed
     • With EdbMails, you can migrate mailboxes, public folders, and archive mailboxes from the source Exchange server to the designated target server.

       

     • Enter the source Exchange server details and click the ‘Login’ button

       

   • Step 3: Select Exchange Archive mailboxes

     • Choose the Archive mailboxes you wish to migrate
     • Select 'Migrate To Office 365'

       

   • Step 4: Connect to target Office 365 server

     • Choose the required registration method and click the ‘Login’ button

       

     • Select ‘Connect to Archive Mailboxes (In-Place Archive)’ and authenticate on Microsoft Sign in page.

       

     • After successfully connecting to your target Office 365 server, choose one of the options to load the mailboxes. You can also load mailboxes using a CSV file.

   • Step 5: Exchange to Office 365 Archive mailboxes mapping

     • Choose the required mapping option

       

     • EdbMails automatically creates mailboxes on your target server and assigns the required licenses.
     • EdbMails automatically maps the source mailboxes to the target mailboxes, saving you the manual effort.

       

     • Click the ‘Folder and Items Filter‘ button to apply the filters to migrate specific items.

       

   • Step 6: Start Exchange Archive mailbox to Office 365 migration

     • After the completion of mailbox mapping, enter the job name and start migration. A confirmation message will appear once the process is complete. Click the ‘View Log’ button to view the details of migrated folders and mailbox items using the migration report.

       

4. Archive mailbox to Office 365: Post-migration actions

   Step 1: Modify MX records to direct email to Office 365.

   Update MX records for directing email to the new server. Additionally, configure the Autodiscover record to ensure that migrated mailboxes connect smoothly with email clients like Outlook.

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

   If users experience difficulties connecting Outlook to Office 365 mailboxes, manually set up their Outlook profiles in the new domain.

   Step 3: Uninstall and decommission the source Exchange server

   The following steps outline the process for decommissioning an on-premises Exchange server:

   1. Confirm that all mailboxes have been migrated to Office 365.
   2. Check the status via the Exchange admin center or using the PowerShell Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet.
   3. Ensure all Outlook clients are set up to connect to Office 365, verifying connectivity with the Test-OutlookWebServices cmdlet.
   4. Disable mail flow on the Exchange server by either removing the Receive Connector or turning off the SMTP service.
   5. Verify that all public folders have been migrated to Office 365, using the Get-PublicFolder cmdlet for status checks.
   6. Uninstall the Exchange server software through the Control Panel.
   7. Remove any remaining Exchange-related hardware or virtual machines.
   8. Ensure there are no mailboxes or public folders left on the Exchange server.
   9. Finally, delete the server from Active Directory and DNS.
   10. Once everything is confirmed operational, you can proceed to decommission your on-premises server.

5. Troubleshooting guide to migrate Exchange Archive mailbox to Office 365

    Explore the Exchange migration troubleshooting guide and public folder troubleshooting section for possible fixes related to migration errors. For additional insights on EdbMails Exchange migration, visit the frequently asked questions.

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Additional resources:

• EdbMails Exchange migration software
• Exchange archive mailbox migration to Exchange server
• Exchange public folder migration to Office 365
• Exchange 2016 public folder migration to Office 365
• Exchange 2013 public folder migration to Office 365
• Exchange public folder to shared mailbox migration

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