Dovecot to Office 365 migration

Reasons for Dovecot to Office 365 migration

While the basic concept about Dovecot is excellent, it falls short on many points. As businesses scale up and grow in size, mail servers such as Dovecot might seem too simplistic. Its Linux based environment might be challenging for many who are not quite familiar with the technical commands and prefer to migrate to a more graphical platform such as Office 365.

1. Office 365 provides robust security and server uptime. This avoids manual maintenance making it the ideal choice for businesses who are looking to automate their workflow.
2. Popularly used office apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint are built into Office 365 and come bundled with the license for the same cost.
3. Calendars, contacts, emails and many other additional apps such as SharePoint, Teams, Yammer are just a click away with Microsoft’s graphical interface.
4. There is no need to use technical commands to access anything on Office 365 and users can easily connect and integrate their Google Drive, Dropbox and cloud services with it.
5. Microsoft 365 also supports adding domains from other hosts and allows you to directly receive your emails on Outlook and OWA.

User Query

Considering the aforementioned aspects, it is easy to see why there is an increase in queries to migrate Dovecot to Office 365 on many internet forums. There have been quite a few instances where many users have approached us asking for a workable migration solution. Therefore, we describe different methods to transfer your data.

“Currently I have hosted my mail server on Dovecot and am looking to migrate all my emails to Office 365. I have no clue how to proceed and am looking for a step-by-step guide explaining the process in a concise manner. If possible, I would also prefer a one-click solution to login to the mailboxes and simply transfer my data from A->B. Thanks for any information”.

How to plan migration from Dovecot?

Before you actually start with the operation, 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.

1. Decide if you want to retain the same domain on Dovecot or change to another hosting provider.
2. Decide if you want to migrate your data all at once or in stages.
3. Create a CSV file with a complete list of mailboxes to be migrated along with the user credentials.
4. Verify if the CSV file format and user credentials are correct.
5. Make a complete backup of all the mailboxes and export large attachments or files to your local drive.
6. Remove unused and unnecessary mailboxes on the source.
7. Inform the end users and stakeholders about the migration plan and the upcoming changes.
8. Select an appropriate Office 365 licensing plan and assign licenses to user mailboxes.
9. Perform a test migration to ensure everything works as expected.

I. Pre migration activities for Dovecot to Office 365 migration

1. Make sure you have admin access on the source and target serverThe 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 Dovecot.
3. Find the name of your source email server from an email client
4. 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
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.

How to migrate from Dovecot to Office 365?

You can perform the migration with the following three methods.

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

Migrating to Office 365 is possible by creating a list of user mailboxes from the source in a CSV format and using the IMAP connection details to create a migration endpoint. See how to migrate IMAP server to Office 365 from EAC

Steps to migrate Dovecot to Office 365 from the EAC

• Step 1: Create user mailboxes on Microsoft 365 and assign licenses to them
• Step 2: Verify the domain on Dovecot with a TXT or MX record
• Step 3: Add MX, CNAME, SPF TXT record on Dovecot
• Step 4: Find the full name of your source Dovecot server
• Step 5: Create a detailed list of user mailboxes in the form of a CSV file
• Step 6: Create a migration endpoint and migration batch from the EAC
• Step 7: Start Dovecot to Office 365 migration after the batch has been verified
• Step 8: Verify if users are receiving their emails on the target and delete the migration batch
• Step 9: Decommission from Dovecot server and ask users to change their passwords on Office 365.

The limitation with this method is that you need to have the CSV file created exactly in the format which is described in the Microsoft article. Any other format you create results in an error, which fails to connect to your mailboxes. This method is time consuming and requires extensive preparation, which is not suitable if you’re looking for a quick migration method. EdbMails can assist you in overcoming the difficulties associated with the manual methods.

1. Office 365 provides robust security (with Azure services) and server uptime without manual maintenance making it the ideal choice for businesses who are looking to automate their workflow.
2. Popularly used office apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint are built-in and come bundled for the same cost.
3. Calendars, contacts, emails and many other additional apps such as SharePoint, Teams, Yammer are just a click away with Microsoft’s graphical interface.
4. There is no need to use any commands to access anything and users can easily connect their Google Drive, Dropbox and cloud services to Office 365.
5. Microsoft 365 also supports adding domains from other hosts and allows you to directly receive your emails on Outlook and OWA.
6. Inform your users about the migration plan and the upcoming changes.
7. Select an appropriate Office 365 licensing plan and assign licenses to user mailboxes.

User Query

Considering the aforementioned aspects, it is easy to see why there is an increase in queries to migrate Dovecot to Office 365 on many internet forums. There have been quite a few instances where many users have approached us asking for a workable solution. Therefore, we detail step-by-step methods to easily transfer your data.

" Currently I have hosted my mail server on Dovecot and am looking to migrate all my emails to Office 365. I have no clue how to proceed and am looking for a step-by-step guide explaining the process in a concise manner. If possible, I would also prefer a one-click solution to login to the mailboxes and simply transfer my data from A->B. Thanks for any information"

How to migrate from Dovecot to Office 365?

Migrating from DoveCot to Office 365 is possible by creating a list of user mailboxes in a CSV format and using the IMAP connection details from your Dovecot server to create a migration endpoint.

Steps to migrate Dovecot to Office 365

• Step 1: Create user mailboxes on Microsoft 365 and assign licenses to them.
• Step 2: Verify the domain on Dovecot with a TXT or MX record.
• Step 3: Add MX, CNAME, SPF TXT record on Dovecot to sync it with Microsoft’s servers.
• Step 4: Find the full name of your source Dovecot server (IMAP details).
• Step 5: Create a detailed list of user mailboxes in the form of a CSV file.
• Step 6: Create a migration endpoint and migration batch from the Exchange admin center.
• Step 7: Start Dovecot to Office 365 migration after the batch has been verified.
• Step 8: Verify if users are receiving their emails on the target and delete the migration batch.
• Step 9: Decommission from Dovecot server and ask users to change their passwords on Office 365.

The limitation with this method is that you need to have the CSV file created exactly in the format which is mentioned in Microsoft's help pages. Any other format used will result in error failing to connect to your mailboxes. This method is time consuming and requires lots of preparations which is not suitable if you’re looking for a quick method. EdbMails can assist you in overcoming the difficulties associated with these manual methods.

• Steps to migrate Dovecot to Office 365 with EdbMails IMAP migration EdbMails IMAP migrator is a tailor-made application for performing a direct migration from Dovecot to Office 365. The application maintains a perfect replica of the source data on the target and provides additional filter options to help you select the required folders and emails based on various conditions. Without further ado, let’s look at the steps to migrate with the software.
• 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 the Dovecot server with an IMAP connection

  You can get the Dovecot server connection details if you have set up your email account on Outlook mail client or from the control panel of the server. The Hostname is usually of the form mail.yourdomainname.com but you can also enter the IP Address of your server if you know it. For an IMAP based connection, the Port Number is usually 993 with SSL/TLS enabled.

  Enter the email address and password to connect to your source account. EdbMails is a highly secure application that never saves your credentials and supports modern OAuth 2.0 authentication for Office 365 login.

  

  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 Dovecot to migrate to Office 365

  Following 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 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 Dovecot and Office 365. This activity saves time when you’re migrating a large number of mailboxes.

• Step 5: Start the Dovecot 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 Dovecot to Office 365 by using MBOX files

EdbMails MBOX to Office 365 migration tool can also help you migrate MBOX files from Dovecot. This is another simple method if you have an exported MBOX file and are looking for ways to directly migrate the data to Office 365.

• Step 1: Select and add the the MBOX file from Dovecot in EdbMails

  Dovecot supports exporting all your emails to MBOX format, which you can add in the EdbMails interface as shown in the following screenshot.

  

• Step 2: Select the mailboxes and folders to migrate from MBOX to Office 365

  EdbMails lists the mailbox and mail items from the MBOX file. You can preview the items and select the required ones for migration.

• Step 3: Start MBOX migration from Dovecot to Office 365

  Click ‘Migrate to Office 365’ and connect to your target tenant. Map the mailboxes and start the migration. EdbMails incremental migration technology ensures no duplicates on successive migration operations. This option is quite practical if you're looking to remigrate in batches.

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

III. 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.

IV. Migration troubleshooting

 See the migration troubleshooting guide for possible solutions related to common errors. For more information on EdbMails IMAP migration, see frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Concluding Words

Although Dovecot is a secure IMAP server, many Windows users prefer Office 365 because of its cloud-based support for apps and desktop Outlook client. Its graphical interface has also earned it loyal customers who are unfamiliar with Linux. Recently, there has been an increase in demand to migrate Dovecot to Office 365, and the process appears to be more complicated than ever. Manual methods are frequently discouraged because they do not guarantee data transfer success. EdbMails is the ideal tool for Dovecot to Office 365 migration. Being a Microsoft Partner, it is committed to making cloud migrations as simple as possible and ensuring data consistency and security throughout the process.