BigRock to Office 365 Migration

BigRock is a leading provider of domain registration and web hosting services, offering solutions such as Linux and Windows hosting, WordPress hosting, website builders, SiteLock security, cloud and VPS hosting, and bundled email services. Popular among small businesses and professionals, BigRock’s advanced and business hosting plans include unlimited email accounts with storage options of 5GB and 30GB. However, BigRock email is only available as part of its hosting packages and is not offered as a standalone service. Many users prefer to retain their domain and hosting with BigRock while migrating email to Office 365 for enhanced features, security, and collaboration tools. In some cases, Office 365 tenants hosted on BigRock also choose to shift mail services directly to Microsoft servers to benefit from improved reliability and centralized management. Migrating large volumes of email data manually can be complex, time-consuming, and prone to errors without the right migration tool.

EdbMails IMAP Migration Tool, a Microsoft-partnered solution, offers a flawless and automated way to migrate emails from BigRock to Office 365. Key features include delta migration, which transfers only new or modified emails after the initial migration to prevent duplicates and save time, and concurrent migration, enabling multiple mailboxes to be migrated simultaneously for faster results. With multi-factor authentication (MFA) and TLS encryption, EdbMails ensures secure access and protects sensitive data during the migration. It also preserves complete data integrity, maintaining folder structures, attachments, metadata, and formatting, ensuring no information is lost or altered. These capabilities make EdbMails a reliable, secure, and efficient solution for businesses looking to move their email services from BigRock to Office 365.

1. Common Migration Challenges & Solutions

   1. Missing Folders or Incomplete Sync

      Challenge: Some folders or emails may not appear after migration due to interrupted transfers.

      Solution: EdbMails’ delta sync and automatic retry feature ensures all missing or unsynced items are migrated without duplication.

   2. Throttling or Timeout

      Challenge: Servers may slow down or disconnect large migrations because of bandwidth throttling.

      Solution: EdbMails automatically resumes migration from the last synced point, maintaining speed and continuity without data loss.

   3. MX Record Update Delays

      Challenge: Emails may not route correctly after switching to Office 365 due to DNS propagation delays.

      Solution: Verify and monitor MX and Autodiscover records post-migration to ensure smooth mail flow and zero downtime.

2. Reasons for BigRock to Office 365 migration

   While BigRock provides useful features like Global Address Book, IMAP sync, distribution lists, and SSL certificate support, it still falls short of Office 365’s dedicated and fully integrated email environment for below key reasons.

   1. Although BigRock offers features like Global Address Book, IMAP sync, distribution lists, and SSL support, it lacks the fully integrated, collaborative, and feature-rich email environment provided by Office 365.
   2. Office 365 has a much collaborative and dedicated email service with Public folder, Archive and Shared Mailbox facility making it ideal for teams and organizations.
   3. It also includes access to SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer, and other productivity apps all integrated under a single Microsoft 365 license.
   4. Office 365 comes with 50GB mailbox storage as opposed to BigRock’s Advanced and Business plans.
   5. Office 365 also includes desktop versions of Word, Excel, and Outlook, allowing users to work seamlessly across devices and access their tools from virtually anywhere.

3. BigRock to Office 365 migration planning

   Before you actually start BigRock to Office 365 migration, you need to have a proper plan and ensure that you are prepared for the migration. Here is a quick checklist of items for your convenience.

   • Decide whether you want to keep your existing domain hosted with BigRock or move it to a different hosting provider, depending on your long-term email and website management needs.
   • Decide if you want to migrate your data all at once or in stages.
   • Create a CSV file with a complete list of mailboxes to be migrated along with the user credentials.
   • Verify if the CSV file format and user credentials are correct.
   • Make a complete backup of all the mailboxes and export large attachments or files to your local drive.
   • Remove unused and unnecessary mailboxes on the source.
   • Inform the end users and stakeholders about the migration plan and the upcoming changes.
   • Choose a suitable Office 365 licensing plan and assign the necessary licenses to each user mailbox to enable access and services.
   • Perform a test migration to ensure everything works as expected.

4. Pre-migration activities for BigRock to Office 365 migration

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

   5. 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

   6. 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.

   7. 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.

   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.

5. Steps to migrate from BigRock to Office 365 with EdbMails

   • Step 1: Download and Install EdbMails software

     • Start the migration process by downloading and installing the EdbMails application on your Windows computer.

       

     • Launch the EdbMail application and log in using your registered email address and password. If you don’t have an account, click ‘Start Your Free Trial’ to begin using EdbMails instantly without registration.

       

     • Select the option ‘IMAP (Gmail, Outlook & more) Migration’.

       

     • Select ‘IMAP to Office 365 Migration’.

       

     • By default, a job name is assigned automatically. If you'd like to make it easier to identify, click ‘New Job’ and choose a custom name.

       

   • Step 2: Connect to the source BigRock server

     • To migrate a single BigRock mailbox, choose the ‘Single User / Account Migration’ option and then click ‘Next’ to proceed.

       

     • Before starting the migration, gather the IMAP connection details for your BigRock account, which can be found in the BigRock Control Panel under DNS settings. Once you have this information, enter the following details:
     • HostName/IP Address: mail.yourdomainname.com (Example: abc.bigrock.in)
     • Port: 993 with SSL/TLS enabled (If you have SSL for your IMAP connection)
     • Email address and password associated with your account.
     • Click the ‘Login’ button.

       

     • To connect and migrate multiple Zimbra user mailboxes at once, select the ‘Multiple (Bulk) Users/Accounts Migration’ option, then click ‘Next’ to proceed

       

     • Click ‘IMAP Migration CSV File’ and specify the location to save on your local drive.

       

     • Open the CSV file and fill in the necessary details, including the email address, password, IMAP server hostname, and port number for each mailbox. After completing the entries, save the CSV file and close.

       

     • Now, click the 'Load Modified CSV File' button, open the CSV file and click ‘Next’ to proceed.

       

   • Step 3: Select source BigRock server mailboxes

     • Choose the specific mailboxes or individual folders you wish to migrate. Once your selection is complete, click ‘Next’ to continue.

       

   • Step 4: Connect to the target Office 365 server

     • To set up a new connection with your Office 365 account, click ‘Add New Connection’. If you’ve previously connected an account, just select it from the available list and click ‘Connect to Existing’.

       

     • Choose the desired connection options and click ‘Next’ to proceed.

       

     • Choose your preferred authentication method and click the ‘Login’ button to proceed.

       

     • Authenticate on Microsoft sign-in page.

       

     • Select one of the methods to load the mailboxes. EdbMails automatically loads Office 365 mailboxes. However, due to Microsoft API limitations, it displays only the first 100 mailboxes. For loading more than 100, use the CSV file option and proceed by clicking ‘Next’.

       

   • Step 5: BigRock to Office 365 mailboxes mapping

     • Choose one of the available options to map the source and target mailboxes

       

     • EdbMails lets you automatically create the required mailboxes in your target Office 365 account.
     • It also automatically maps your source hMailserver mailboxes and folders to the matching ones in Office 365, making large migrations easier to manage.

       

   • Step 6: Start Bigrock to Office 365 migration

     • Verify the mailbox mapping, then click the ‘Start Migration’ button to begin the migration process.

       

     • Click the ‘View Logs’ button to access the full migration report. The report provides detailed information, including the mailbox mapping, an overall summary of the migration, and the item count for each mailbox and folder that was migrated.

       

6. BigRock to Office 365 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.

7. Troubleshooting guide for BigRock to Office 365 migration

     For common migration issues, check the knowledge base articles. For more information on EdbMails IMAP migration, visit the frequently asked questions (FAQs) section or contact our technical support team.

---

Additional Resources:

• Barracuda to Office 365 migration
• AWS Workmail to Office 365 migration
• 123 Reg to Office 365 migration
• Bluehost to Office 365 migration
• Dovecot to Office 365 migration
• hMailServer to Office 365 migration