How to migrate Exchange 2010 to Microsoft 365?

Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration

Steps to migrate Exchange server 2010 to Office 365

What you need to know about Exchange 2010 and Office 365

Exchange server 2010 has reached the end of its support lifecycle on October 13th 2020, which means that Microsoft no longer provides technical support for any problems that might occur. Furthermore, the security bugs are not patched leaving your Exchange server vulnerable to attacks or compromise from external threats. Considering this situation, it is now the right time to migrate Exchange 2010 to Office 365. Remember that MS Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Project Server 2010 have also reached their end of support. In addition to the 2010 server, you must also prepare for the Office 2010 client upgrade.

Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration

QUICK LINKS

Migrate Exchange Public folder to Office 365 Migrate Public folders from Exchange 2010 to 2016 Migrate Exchange 2016 to Office 365 Migrating to Office 365 from Exchange 2013

Microsoft 365 is a cloud based equivalent solution of your on-premise mailboxes. By migrating to Office 365, you will transfer your mailboxes to the cloud, which is a good option if you are planning to move away from your on-premise environments. It is therefore highly recommended to weigh the pros and cons and compare the Microsoft 365 plans based on your requirements and existing setup.

When you purchase a Microsoft 365 business or an enterprise subscription, you also get Exchange online. However, you can also have a dedicated or a standalone Exchange online plan. The difference is that Exchange online is focussed on email exchange whereas Office 365 is a full fledged collaboration and productivity suite.

Office 365 has cloud based services such as SharePoint, OneDrive for Business and Teams. Microsoft 365 enterprise plans E3 and E5 include the 365 Apps which is an Office suite that is regularly updated with features from Microsoft cloud. In this guide, we describe the pre-migration activities, the different migration paths from Exchange 2010 to o365 and the post migration activities.

What is the best way to migrate Exchange 2010 mailbox to 365?

EdbMails Exchange migration software is the best application to migrate mailboxes from Exchange 2010 to Office 365 without relying on IT administrators. With its advanced features, the software transforms and simplifies migrations from legacy Exchange servers such as 2010 to Microsoft 365.

It can migrate contacts, calendars, appointments, folders, mail items, permissions from the source to the target with perfect consistency and integrity. In addition, it supports secure modern authentication for Office 365 login and incremental migration feature to avoid duplicates on subsequent migrations to the target. The benefit of using EdbMails is that the application is simple to use and enables you to upgrade to Office 365 without data loss or downtime.

Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration project plan

Before starting the Exchange 2010 to o365 migration, you must carefully plan the approach based on your current environment and migration requirements. The following is a general checklist of items to identify and prepare your environments.

Take a full backup of your Exchange 2010 mailboxes and mail data.
Communicate the changes to your end users and inform the stakeholders.
Ascertain how much data and mailboxes you want to migrate.
Identify the type of your current migration environment (Hybrid or non-Hybrid)
Make a list of items in the source environment such as operating system, hardware, number of users, Active Directory association, network, firewall configuration and installed programs.
Determine whether you want to move everything at once or in stages.
Consider if you plan to migrate mailboxes to on-premises servers and Office 365.
Check your internet connection speed and network configuration.
Decide if you plan to migrate and convert Public folders to Shared mailbox on the target.
Choose a suitable Office 365 license and create mailboxes on the target.
Perform a test migration with a few mailboxes to check if you are ready for a full migration.
Start the actual migration and verify if all the data is transferred.
Add the DNS records on the target and decommission Exchange 2010 server when everything is running fine.

I. Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration prerequisites

Step 1: Consider the Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration approach

The first step is to plan how you want to migrate to Office 365. The following migration paths are available depending on your source and target environment.

Current environment and migration requirement	Ideal migration approach	How does the migration take place?
You want to perform a complete Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration in a single event and in a limited time frame.	Cutover migration for Exchange	In this approach, you set up your target Office 365 tenant and migrate everything to the cloud in a single sitting. Suited for large mailbox migration
You want to perform the migration in phases or migrate mailboxes over weekends	Staged migration to O365	In this approach, you migrate your mailboxes and mail data in stages and transfer the required or the most recent data first, followed by the others.
You want to migrate from Exchange 2010 to Office 365 Hybrid environment	Hybrid Exchange 2010 to Office 365	In this approach, you migrate from the source to the target server in a Hybrid environment
You want to retain on-premises Exchange due to regulatory requirements	Exchange migration	Migrate Exchange 2010 to 2019 Migrate 2010 to 2016 Exchange

Use the Microsoft 365 mail migration advisor to determine which migration method is best suited to your environment.

Step 2: Check the bandwidth and network requirements
Ensure that you meet the network and bandwidth requirements for the migration. See network and migration planning, performance factors and best practices for Microsoft 365 migration.
Step 3: Determine the Microsoft 365 license plan suited to your needs
Office 365 has business and enterprise plans, each suited to different user requirements. Compare Office 365 business plans and compare Office 365 enterprise plans from these links. You can purchase an Office 365 licensing plan specific to your needs or sign up for a 30 day free trial and decide to go with a suitable one later.
Step 4: Set up your target Office 365 tenant for the migration
Plan for your tenant implementation and deploy your tenant. See tenant roadmap for Microsoft 365. If you plan to install Office apps on your computer, see system requirements for Microsoft 365 and Office configuration support matrix. Because Office 365 is a cloud based solution, it is important to learn where your Microsoft 365 customer data is stored.
Step 5: Add and verify the custom domain on Office 365
If you have a custom email domain from your hosting provider to which you want to migrate and receive emails, you must verify and add the domain on Office 365. Next, you must add DNS records to correctly receive emails to your new domain.
Step 6: Create mailboxes and mail-enabled Public folders
Before you migrate to Office 365, ensure that you create mailboxes for your users in your organization and assign suitable licenses to them.
For the Exchange 2010 to Office 365 Public folder migration, ensure that you create the Public folder mailboxes and make them mail enabled on the target server.
1. Create Office 365 Public folder and assign mailbox user
2. Enable In-Place Archive mailboxes in Office 365
Step 7: Set the impersonation role on the source to the admin user
Ensure that you set the following permissions to the admin account on the source and target server and that the mailboxes you migrate are not hidden from the address lists.
1. On the source
  1. ApplicationImpersonation
  2. View-Only Configuration - Run the cmdlet New-ManagementRoleAssignment using the Exchange Management Shell to assign the View-Only Configuration role to the admin.
2. On the target
  1. ApplicationImpersonation
Assign the Organization Management role group in Exchange online to the admin user. It is an elevated permission that is required to migrate Public folders.
Step 8: Verify the mailbox of the admin account
Check to see if the admin account that has been assigned management roles has a valid and non-hidden mailbox on the Exchange 2010 server. This property also applies to all the other user mailboxes.
Step 9: Configure Office 365 to send and receive large messages
Follow the steps to increase the message size on Office 365 to 150MB.

II. Migrate Exchange 2010 to Office 365

After you complete the pre-migration activities, use EdbMails Exchange server migration to migrate the Exchange 2010 mailboxes to Office 365.

Tip: One of the benefits of using EdbMails is that it supports Exchange 2010 cutover, staged, IMAP, hybrid migration and enables you to migrate in a single hop. The application is user-friendly and does not require technical knowledge of PowerShell scripts. This saves a significant amount of time and effort when you want to quickly move your mailbox data.

Migrating Exchange 2010 to Microsoft 365 is possible with the following methods

Cutover migration from Exchange 2010 to Office 365
Exchange 2010 Hybrid migration to Office 365
Migrate to Office 365 from Exchange 2010 with an EDB file
Import mailboxes to O365 using the PST migration method

Method 1: Migrate Exchange 2010 to 365 using the cutover method
Download and install EdbMails Exchange server migration software setup
- 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 server computer.
- Launch the application and click 'Login' or 'Start Your Free Trial'.
  See a detailed list of EdbMails system requirements for Exchange migration.
- Select the migration method as 'Live Exchange migration'
  
  Note: If the Standard folders (such as Inbox, Calendar, Contacts) on your source Exchange server mailboxes are initialized with a different language, follow the below details to migrate these folders to the respective system folders on the target (destination) server.
  For Instance: If your source Inbox folder is named 'Boîte de réception', which is in French language and you migrate this folder directly to the destination server, then by default it will not be mapped to the 'Inbox' folder on the target server. In order to map the folder with the french name to the respective folder, change the regional settings on the target server to match that of your source mailbox folder language (in this case, it is French).
  Know how to change the language and regional settings on Exchange server
- Step 1: Define the connection to Exchange 2010 server
  In the Connect to Exchange server (Source) window, select 'Connect using Global Admin User'. You can also connect to the mailboxes by loading a CSV file. Refer to the link for instructions on how to use the different Exchange server connection methods supported by EdbMails.
  With EdbMails, you can migrate mailboxes, perform Exchange 2010 Public folder migration to Office 365 and also migrate In-Place Archives.
  
  Tip: You can migrate Exchange 2010 to 365 using the autodiscover settings in EdbMails. This enables you to directly specify the username and password and connect to your Exchange server account.
- Step 2: Select the source mailboxes and connect to Office 365
  Select the mailboxes and folders from Exchange 2010 that you want to migrate to Office 365.
  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. If you have duplicate items in your Exchange 2010 mailboxes, you can remove duplicate emails, contacts and calendars in Exchange with EdbMails Duplicate email remover.
  Click 'Migrate to Office 365' to setup the connection with the target server
  Tip: EdbMails provides the following additional options to help you customize the migration task. With the Date filter option, you perform staged Exchange migration.
  1. Additional Include and Exclude Filter Options
  2. Filter emails by Date: Migrate to Office 365 by applying the Date filter
  3. Filter emails by Size: Exclude emails from migration larger than a specified size.
- Step 3: Connect to the target Office 365 as Global Admin
  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.
  Connect to Office 365 server using secure OAuth 2.0 modern authentication
- Step 4: Match the mailboxes between the source and the target
  The mapping activity in EdbMails can automatically match and map the mailboxes and folders between the Exchange server and Office 365. This activity saves time when you’re migrating a large number of mailboxes.
- Step 5: Start the migration to Office 365 from Exchange 2010
  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.
Method 2: Hybrid migration Exchange 2010 to Office 365
Hybrid migration is a migration method in which Exchange and Office 365 mailboxes coexist in the same Active Directory (AD) environment. You can migrate the Exchange users to Office 365 and your domain works on both the Exchange and Office 365. This migration method is an ideal option if you are planning to retain an on-premises environment, before you finally decide to move to Exchange online.
See the Hybrid migration prerequisites and ensure that you meet the following requirements.
1. Install the latest cumulative updates (CU) on the source Exchange
2. Set up and install Exchange 2016 or 2019 in the target environment.
3. Install at least one instance of Mailbox, Hub Transport, and Client Access server roles installed on Exchange 2010.
4. Update any Edge Transport servers to the latest CU.
5. Register any custom domains you want to use in the Hybrid with Office 365
6. Deploy the Azure Active Directory Connect to enable Azure AD synchronization.
After you have followed the proceeding prerequisites, run the Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) to configure the Hybrid deployment.
Tip: By using EdbMails, you can completely migrate mailboxes from on-premise Exchange 2010 to the target Hybrid Exchange and Office 365 environment.
The following steps briefly describe the hybrid migration operation.
- Step 1: Disable the attribute msExchMailboxGuid on Azure AD connect
- Step 2: Download EdbMails and select Live Exchange migration
- Step 3: Select the mailboxes and folders to migrate to the target
- Step 4: Start the Hybrid migration from Exchange 2010 to Office 365
See Hybrid migration planning strategy and steps to migrate Exchange to Office 365 in the Hybrid environment with EdbMails.
Note: If you want to migrate Public folders within the Hybrid environment, it is not possible to migrate the Public folders directly to Office 365. See this workaround solution for Exchange hybrid Public folder migration
Method 3: Migrate Exchange 2010 to Exchange online with EDB file
If you have an EDB file from Exchange server 2010, EdbMails can help you directly import the EDB to Office 365. You can choose this method if your Exchange server is inaccessible or you have a corrupted EDB file from which you want to migrate without using PowerShell cmdlets. The following steps describe the mailbox migration with the Exchange database file.
- Step 1: Download EdbMails and select EDB to Office 365 migration
  Install EdbMails on your computer and start the application. On the main screen, select the migration technique as 'EDB to Office 365, EDB to Exchange, EDB Public folder'.
- Step 2: Select the Exchange server 2010 EDB file
  Browse the EDB file from your computer that contains the Exchange 2010 mailboxes. EdbMails can fully repair a corrupted Exchange database file and restore the contents. It can also recover deleted emails, mail items and enables you to preview emails, notes, tasks, calendar items, contacts and so forth.
- Step 3: Preview and select the mailboxes to migrate to Office 365
  Next, select the folders, mail items and mailboxes to migrate to the target. Click 'Migrate to Office 365' to connect to the target server.
  Define the Office 365 connection and connect to the target server. Select the mailbox migration method and map the folders and mailboxes between the source and target.
- Step 4: Start the Exchange 2010 to Office 365 mailbox migration
  Finally, start the migration and verify the count of migrated items, folders, emails with the EdbMails comprehensive log report. The application also enables you to pause and resume the migration anytime.
Method 4: Exchange 2010 to Office 365 using the PST migration method
If you have mailboxes exported as PST files from Exchange server 2010, EdbMails can also assist you in migrating to Office 365. Download and run EdbMails if it hasn't already been installed on your system. The following steps outline how to migrate PST files from Exchange to Office 365.
- Step 1: Select the migration method as Office 365 migration
  On the EdbMails migration selection popup, select the migration method as Office 365 migration.
- Step 2: Add PST files in bulk to migrate to Office 365
  To add the PST files, close the Connect to Office 365 (Source) connection window and click 'Migrate PST to Office 365' at the bottom.
- 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.
  Connect to Office 365 server using secure modern authentication
- Step 4: Map and migrate mailboxes from Exchange 2010 to Office 365
  The mapping activity in EdbMails can automatically match and map the mailboxes and folders from the PST file to Office 365. This activity saves time when you’re migrating a large number of mailboxes. After you complete the migration, verify the count of the migrated items, folders and mailboxes with the help of EdbMails log report.

III. Post-migration tasks

The following post-migration activities help you with the proper mail flow so that your users correctly receive emails.

Step 1: Update the MX records to point to Office 365
To receive messages on Office 365, change the DNS records known as MX records to enable email to work with the new server you have migrated to. In addition, 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
Outlook 2010 has reached the end of support. As a result, ensure you have the latest version of MS Office to avoid compatibility issues. Configure the Outlook profile for each user in your domain if Outlook has problems connecting to Office 365 mailboxes.
Step 3: Decommission and uninstall Exchange server 2010
Wait a few days and check to see if you are receiving emails correctly and that everything is working as expected. Follow the instructions provided on Microsoft's website to learn how to uninstall Exchange Server 2010.
See the list of post migration tasks after you finish the Office 365 migration.

IV. Exchange migration troubleshooting

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

Advantages of EdbMails for Exchange to Office 365 migration

Exchange mailbox migration and export in one
EdbMails allows you to migrate a single Exchange mailbox or multiple mailboxes. You can migrate folders, specific attachments, contacts and calendars from On-Premise to Office 365 or even export Exchange 2010 mailboxes to PST.
Automatic handling of Office 365 throttling
EdbMails Exchange migration is a fully automated tool that is capable of automatically handling Office 365 throttling and connection interruption during the migration.
Incremental Exchange to Office 365 Migration
EdbMails supports incremental migration wherein it migrates the new and updated items avoiding duplicates on subsequent migrations to the same target mailbox. The incremental migration is valid for all Office 365 mailboxes, Public folder, Shared mailbox, and Archive mailboxes.
Single hop Exchange 2010 to 365 migration
EdbMails is a tailor-made solution to accomplish direct migrations from legacy Exchange servers such as Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010 to Office 365. Furthermore, it can migrate mailboxes from Exchange 2019, 2016, Hosted and Live Exchange server and also enables you to migrate large Archive mailboxes to Office 365. As a result, you can migrate all of your mailbox data from a single tool without the need for intermediate migration hops.
Facility to include and exclude email items and folders
During the Exchange 2010 migration to Office 365, you can use filter options in EdbMails settings to include or exclude mail items based on Date, Subject, Sender, and Recipient Address. You can also exclude emails and attachments if their size exceeds a specified limit.
Simple solution to migrate Exchange server to Office 365
If you plan to migrate to Office 365 on your own, there will be challenges and technical roadblocks. EdbMails removes the complexity and technicalities of the Exchange server to Office 365 migration and enables you to complete the mailbox transfer in a few clicks. You can perform Hosted Exchange migration to Office 365 and Public folder to Shared mailboxes from a single user-interface.

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Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration

Steps to migrate Exchange server 2010 to Office 365

What you need to know about Exchange 2010 and Office 365

What is the best way to migrate Exchange 2010 mailbox to 365?

Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration project plan

I. Exchange 2010 to Office 365 migration prerequisites

II. Migrate Exchange 2010 to Office 365

Method 1: Migrate Exchange 2010 to 365 using the cutover method

Method 2: Hybrid migration Exchange 2010 to Office 365

Method 3: Migrate Exchange 2010 to Exchange online with EDB file

Method 4: Exchange 2010 to Office 365 using the PST migration method

III. Post-migration tasks

IV. Exchange migration troubleshooting

Advantages of EdbMails for Exchange to Office 365 migration