Office 365 to Hosted Exchange migration

Office 365 to Hosted Exchange migration involves transferring email data—such as mailboxes, contacts, calendars, and public folders—from Office 365 to a Hosted Exchange server. This type of migration is often pursued by organizations seeking increased control over their email environment, enhanced stability, or specific management features that Hosted Exchange provides.

Hosted Exchange solutions offer benefits like greater administrative control and customizable settings, which can better meet certain business requirements. Evaluating different Hosted Exchange providers, such as Intermedia Exchange, Rackspace, Liquidweb, and Bluehost, helps determine which solution aligns best with your organization's needs.

Key considerations for a successful migration include data volume, mailbox configurations, and compatibility with the target Hosted Exchange environment. Using a specialized migration tool like EdbMails Office 365 migration software can facilitate this process by providing features such as incremental migration, automatic mailbox mapping, comprehensive logging, and batch migration, all of which help ensure a smooth migration.

The following sections will outline the steps involved in planning, executing, and managing the migration from Office 365 to Hosted Exchange, ensuring the transition aligns with your organization’s needs.

1. Planning a migration from Office 365 to Hosted Exchange

   The most critical aspect of migration is planning. A well-thought-out plan saves time and ensures the operation runs smoothly and without stress. Here is a checklist of key factors to consider when migrating from Office 365 to Hosted Exchange:

   1. Prepare a comprehensive inventory of the items you want to migrate from Office 365.
   2. Decide whether to use cutover, hybrid, or staged migration methods.
   3. Determine if you will migrate Public folders and Shared mailboxes along with the primary mailboxes.
   4. Determine if you will migrate Public folders and Shared mailboxes along with the primary mailboxes.
   5. Assess the size of mailbox data and the number of mailboxes to migrate.
   6. Communicate any changes to end users and inform stakeholders.
   7. Select a suitable Hosted Exchange provider and purchase the appropriate mailbox license plan.
   8. Prepare the domains and necessary Active Directory services on the target environment.
   9. Create mailboxes and Public folders on the target Exchange server.
   10. Ensure adequate network capacity and bandwidth for the migration.
   11. Consider throttling and message size limits on both the source and target systems.
   12. Perform a test (pilot) migration before starting the full migration.
   13. Initiate the migration, verify the endpoint, and update the DNS records.
   14. Create new Outlook profiles for users and verify that email is being received correctly.
   15. Remove permissions and licenses from the source Office 365 tenant.

2. Pre migration activities for Office 365 to Hosted Exchange migration

   On the source Office 365 server:

   1. Ensure you have a global admin account with a mailbox for the automatic registration of the EdbMails application on your Entra ID (Azure Active Directory). Alternatively, you can use either a global admin account or a user account with full access rights for manual registration.
   2. Ensure that your network and bandwidth meet the requirements for the migration.
       See network and migration planning, performance factors and best practices for Office 365 to Exchange migration.

   On the target Hosted Exchange server:

   1. Create mailboxes on the target Hosted Exchange serverBefore you migrate, ensure that you create mailboxes on the target Hosted Exchange server and assign suitable licenses to them.
   2. Assign the required permissions on the target server

      If you are using an admin account to connect to the Hosted Exchange server, ensure that you set the impersonation rights to list and migrate other user mailboxes. Alternatively, you can migrate multiple users by assigning full access rights to any user. You can also load multiple users using a CSV file.

   3. Configure the throttling and message-size limits

      Depending on your Hosted Exchange provider, you may have to change the EWS throttling and message size limits on the Hosted Exchange server.

3. Steps to migrate Office 365 to Hosted Exchange server

   There are three methods to migrate to a Hosted Exchange server

   1. Step 1: Download and install EdbMails Office 365 migration software

      • Download and install the EdbMails application on a Windows computer from which you can connect to both the source and target servers.

        

         See a detailed list of EdbMails system requirements for Office 365 to Hosted Exchange migration.

   2. Step 2: Launch EdbMails Software

      • Enter the required details and click the 'Login' button, or select 'Start Your Free Trial' to access the EdbMails application.

        

      • Select ‘Office 365 Migration’ as migration option from the dropdown list

        

   3. Step 3: Connect to the source Office 365 server

      • In the ‘Connect to Office 365 (Source)’ window, choose the appropriate method for secure OAuth 2.0 based modern authentication. The default ‘Auto Registration’ method requires Global admin access. Alternatively, you can use either a Global admin account or a user account with full access rights for the Manual Registration method.

        

      • Select the required migration operation

        

      • Authenticate on the Microsoft sign-in page with the global admin account having a mailbox.

        

      • Accept the required permissions

        

      • If you have already set up an Office 365 connection with EdbMails, the list of mailboxes will be saved and can be reused. For a new connection, click the ‘No’ button to access the mailbox loading options.

        

      • EdbMails automatically loads mailboxes from your source Office 365 server. If you cannot list the required mailboxes using the automatic loading option, you can use a CSV file to load the mailboxes. Additionally, you can choose to load mailboxes from a previously saved list.

        

   4. Step 4: Select the mailboxes for migration

      • Select the mailboxes you want to migrate from the left pane, then click ‘Migrate to Live 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.

   5. Step 5: Connect to target Hosted Exchange server

      • In the ‘Connect to Exchange server (Destination)’ window, select 'Connect to Hosted Exchange Server’ and the required mailbox types .

        

         With EdbMails, you can migrate mailboxes, public folders, and archive mailboxes from Microsoft 365 to Hosted Exchange server.
      • Choose the required option to connect to your Hosted Exchange server. In the below screenshot ‘Multiple User Migration using Full Access Permission’ option is selected.

        

         Click here to know more details about various methods to connect to Hosted Exchange server
      • Choose the appropriate option to connect to your Hosted Exchange server. You can use the ‘Connect Using Autodiscover Email’ option if you want to connect using an email address and password enabled with the Autodiscover service, or choose ‘Default Connection’ to connect using the Exchange server's domain name or IP address.

        

         Click here to know the different methods to connect to the Exchange server in EdbMails.
      • Verify the Hosted Exchange server details and click the ‘Login’ button

        

      • If you have previously connected EdbMails to your target Hosted Exchange server, the mailbox list is saved for future use. If you need to set up a new connection, click the ‘No’ button to access options for loading mailboxes.

        

      • EdbMails automatically loads mailboxes from your target Hosted Exchange server. If the required mailboxes are not listed using the automatic loading option, you can load mailboxes using a CSV file. Alternatively, you can select the option to load mailboxes from a previously saved list.

        

   6. Step 6: Map source and target mailboxes

      • Ensure that mailboxes are created on your Hosted Exchange server. Then, select the appropriate mapping option.

        

         Click here know about user-defined mailboxes / folders mapping
      • EdbMails automatically maps mailboxes and folders between the source and target servers, which is especially useful for large-scale migrations. Alternatively, you can manually map source folders and subfolders to specific target locations as needed.

        

   7. Step 7: Start Office 365 to Hosted Exchange migration

      After completing the mailbox mapping, click the ‘Continue’ button, enter the migration job name, and proceed. Once the migration is complete, a message will appear. You can click the 'View Log' button to check the migration report.

      

       See a detailed list of EdbMails system requirements for Office 365 to Hosted Exchange migration.

4. Post-migration Activities

   1. Step 1: Update the MX records to point to the Exchange server

      To receive messages on your target server, update the DNS records (MX records) to enable email functionality with the new server you have migrated to. Additionally, configure the Autodiscover record to allow Outlook to connect to the migrated mailboxes.

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

      Configure a new Outlook profile for each user in your domain if Outlook encounters issues connecting to the Office 365 mailboxes.

   3. Step 3: Remove the old Office 365 subscription plan

      Once the migration is successful and you have verified the data, remove the Office 365 subscription plan and any associated domains if you no longer plan to use them.

5. Office 365 migration troubleshooting

    See the troubleshooting solutions for Office 365 to Hosted Exchange migration. For more details about EdbMails Office 365 migration, see the frequently asked questions.

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Additional resources:

• EdbMails Office 365 migration software
• Office 365 Public folder migration
• Office 365 Archive mailbox migration
• Office 365 Public folder to Shared mailbox migration
• Setting custom throttling policies on Exchange server
• Office 365 mailbox migration guide

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