Migrate Exchange 2013 to Office 365

Migrating to Exchange Online offers several advantages over Exchange server 2013, including easier manageability, scalability, regular updates, and a wider range of features beyond email and communication. That said, a successful migration demands thorough planning and precise execution to guarantee a seamless transition.

EdbMails Exchange migration software simplifies Exchange 2013 to Office 365 migration, ensuring fast and reliable data transfer while preserving data integrity. It supports incremental migration, which migrates only newly added or changed items after the initial transfer, helping to avoid duplicates and reducing overall migration time. EdbMails also handles automatic throttling management, ensuring compliance with Microsoft's limits by adjusting the migration speed without causing interruptions. The software offers flexible options for selective migration of specific mailboxes or folders, along with detailed reports to track progress. This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough for a complete migration from Exchange 2013 to Office 365.

Professional software to migrate Exchange 2013 to Office 365

EdbMails Exchange server migration software allows you to perform an Exchange 2013 to Office 365 migration effortlessly, without requiring advanced technical skills. With EdbMails, you can migrate selected or entire mailboxes, including contacts, notes, tasks, folders, attachments, emails, archive mailboxes, and shared mailboxes from the source to the target server. It simplifies the process by automating key steps, ensuring that the migration is carried out smoothly, without any downtime or disruption to users' daily activities.

The software also supports secure modern authentication for Office 365 and maintains complete data consistency between the source and target servers. EdbMails can handle migrations from on-premises Exchange to Office 365, Hosted Exchange to Office 365, between different Exchange servers, and across forests or domains.

1. Key considerations before Exchange 2013 to Microsoft 365 migration

   1. Determine if your current environment is Hybrid or Non-Hybrid.
   2. Choose whether you want to migrate everything at once or implement a phased approach.
   3. Prepare end users for the migration process and communicate any changes to relevant stakeholders.
   4. Offer training sessions to help users become comfortable with the new Office 365 setup.
   5. Evaluate the amount of data and the number of mailboxes you plan to migrate.
   6. Check your internet speed and network configuration.
   7. Determine if you want to include Shared mailboxes and Public folders in the migration.
   8. Add and configure your domains for the migration to Office 365 from Exchange 2013.
   9. Update email clients, such as Outlook, to the latest version that is compatible with Office 365.
   10. Create the necessary mailboxes and select the right Office 365 licensing plan.
   11. Perform a test migration to confirm your readiness for the full-scale migration.
   12. Begin the actual Exchange 2013 to Office 365 migration and configure the MX records for the target.
   13. Set up Outlook profiles for users and safely decommission Exchange 2013 once everything is operating smoothly.

2. Exchange 2013 to Office 365 Migration Prerequisites

   • Step 1: Decide on the Exchange to Office 365 migration approach

     The first step in migrating from Exchange 2013 to Office 365 is to plan your migration strategy. Various migration paths are available depending on your source and target environments.

     Current environment and migration requirement	Ideal migration approach	Migration flow
     You want to move all of your email, calendar, and contacts from Exchange Server 2013 to Exchange Online in a single batch.	Exchange cutover migration	Set up your target Office 365 tenant and migrate everything to the cloud in a single sitting.
     You want to move mailboxes from Exchange Server 2013 to Exchange Online in smaller batches or over the weekends	Staged Exchange migration	Migrate your mailbox data in stages and transfer the most recent data first, followed by the others.
     You want to move to Office 365 gradually and you have specific requirements on-premise that are not supported in Exchange Online.	Hybrid migration	In this approach, you migrate from Exchange 2013 to a Hybrid deployment of both the Exchange Server and Office 365.

       Use the Microsoft 365 Mail Migration Advisor to find the best migration path based on your organization's specific needs and requirements.

   • Step 2: Check the bandwidth and network requirements

     Make sure your network and bandwidth can handle the migration. The requirements will vary based on how much data you need to move.

     As a general rule, you should allow for at least 1.5 times the size of your mailbox data to account for overhead.

     For instance, if your mailbox data totals 50 GB, you should plan for at least 75 GB of bandwidth to manage the data transfer. This is a general guideline; your exact needs may vary based on your organization’s size and complexity.

     If you've got a firewall or proxy server set up, double-check that it's set to allow the right traffic between your Exchange Server 2013 and Office 365. You can also test your existing network with Microsoft tools.

      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

     Microsoft 365 comes in two options: a cloud-based subscription service or a one-time purchase with a perpetual license. There are Office 365 business plans and Office 365 enterprise plans, each suited to different user needs. Compare the Office 365 business plans and Office 365 enterprise plans through these links. You can select a licensing plan that fits your needs or sign up for a 30-day free trial to decide later.

   • Step 4: Set up your target Office 365 tenant for the migration

     Prepare your tenant implementation and deploy it, following the tenant roadmap for Microsoft 365. If you're installing Office apps on your computer, check the system requirements for Microsoft 365 and the Office configuration support matrix. Since Office 365 is cloud-based, it's crucial to understand where your Microsoft 365 customer data is stored.

   • Step 5: Add and verify the custom domain on Office 365

     If you're migrating to Office 365 and want to receive emails on your custom domain from your hosting provider, you'll need to add and verify the domain in Office 365. This allows you to use your own domain name (like example.com) for email addresses and other Office 365 services.

     To set up your custom domain, follow these steps:

     1. Verify ownership of the domain by adding a TXT record to your DNS configuration.
     2. Add the new domain to your Office 365 tenant.
     3. Update your DNS records to direct to Office 365.

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

   • Step 6: Create mailboxes and mail-enabled Public folders

     Before you migrate Exchange 2013 to Office 365, make sure to create mailboxes for your organization's users and assign appropriate licenses to them. If you need to create multiple user accounts simultaneously, you can use the "Bulk add users" feature to create accounts in bulk using a CSV file.

     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

     If you are planning to migrate Public folders from Exchange 2013 to Office 365, first, create and configure the Public folders on the target server.

     If you are planning to migrate Archive mailboxes from Exchange 2013 server to Office 365, enable In-Place Archive mailboxes in Office 365

   • Step 7: Set the impersonation role on the source to the admin user

     Make sure to grant the following permissions to the admin account on both the source and target servers, and ensure that the mailboxes you migrate aren't hidden from the address lists.

     1. On the source server:
        1. Grant "ApplicationImpersonation" and "View-Only Configuration" permissions.
        2. To assign the "View-Only Configuration" role, use the Exchange Management Shell to run the cmdlet "New-ManagementRoleAssignment" for the admin.
     2. On the target server:
        1. Ensure that you have a global admin account with a mailbox for Auto Registration of EdbMails application on your Entra ID (Azure Active Directory). However, you can use either a global admin account or any user account with full access rights in the Manual Registration method.
   • Step 8: Verify the mailbox of the admin account

     Ensure that the admin account assigned management roles has a valid and non-hidden mailbox on the Exchange 2013 server. To configure user mailbox properties for users from the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) refer to this Microsoft article

   • Step 9: Configure Office 365 to send and receive large messages

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

3. Migrate Exchange 2013 to Office 365 using EdbMails

   Once the pre-migration preparations are complete, use the EdbMails Exchange migration tool to seamlessly transfer your mailboxes to Office 365.

   Step 1: Download and Install EdbMails application

   Download and install EdbMails application on a Windows computer that can be connected to your source Exchange server.

   • View a comprehensive list of system requirements for EdbMails regarding Exchange 2013 migration.
   • Run the application and enter your login details, or choose the 'Start Your Free Trial' button.

     

   Step 2: Select ‘Live Exchange Migration’ option

   Opt for the 'Live Exchange Migration' option from the dropdown and proceed further.

   

   Step 3: Connect to the source Exchange 2013 server

   Choose the required connection options and select your migration option, whether it’s for mailboxes, public folders, or archive mailboxes.

   Refer to the instructions for using the various Exchange server connection methods supported by EdbMails.

   

   Then, input the details for your source Exchange server 2013 and continue with the login process.

   

   Once you've logged into your source Exchange server 2013, select the option to load the mailboxes. EdbMails will automatically display the available mailboxes. You also have the option to upload mailboxes using a CSV file.

    Tip: If you're unsure of your Exchange server name or IP address for the Exchange 2013 to Office 365 migration, take advantage of EdbMails' autodiscover feature. This allows you to directly input your username and password to connect to your Exchange account without requiring manual configuration.

   Step 4: Select the Exchange 2013 mailboxes to migrate to Office 365

   Select the mailboxes and folders that you intend to migrate from Exchange 2013 to Office 365.

   Tip : If this is your initial migration using EdbMails, it will be a full migration. For any subsequent migrations from the same source to the target, the process will be incremental. If your Exchange 2013 mailboxes contain duplicate items like emails, contacts, or calendar entries, you can utilize EdbMails' duplicate email remover to scan for and eliminate them prior to migration.

   Select 'Migrate to Office 365' to initiate the connection with the target server.

   

   Step 5: Connect to target Office 365

   In the ‘Connect to Office 365 (Destination)’ window, select the required method for the secure OAuth based modern authentication. The default ‘Auto Registration’ method requires Global admin access. You can use either a Global admin account or any user account with full access rights in the Manual Registration method.

   

   Next, select the desired migration option and proceed with the log in on the Microsoft sign-in page.

   

   After logging in successfully, choose one of the options to load the mailboxes from the target Office 365 server.

   

   Step 6: Map mailboxes between Exchange 2013 and Office 365 servers

   Select the appropriate mapping option.

   

   EdbMails automatically creates mailboxes on the target Office 365 server. Also, it automatically maps the mailboxes and folders between Exchange 2013 and Office 365, making the process seamless and significantly reducing the time and effort needed when migrating a large volume of mailboxes.

   

    Tip: EdbMails offers a variety of filter options to customize your migration task.

   Additional include and exclude filters: You can use these filters to determine which items should be included or excluded from the migration process. For example, certain emails or folders can be included or excluded based on sender address, recipient address, cc address, bcc address etc.

   Date filtering: This option allows you to migrate only emails within a specified date range, which is helpful if you want to focus on recent emails or those from a specific period.

   Size Filtering: This option lets you exclude emails from the migration if they exceed a certain size, which is useful for skipping large emails and attachments.

   Step 7: Start the migration from Exchange 2013 to Office 365

   After finalizing the mailbox mapping, enter the job name and start the migration operation. EdbMails generates a comprehensive migration report for the migrated emails, folders, and mailbox items with precise counts.

   

4. Exchange 2013 to Office 365 Post migration tasks

   Following are the post migration tasks you might want to consider once you've completed the Exchange 2013 to Office 365 migration.

   • Step 1: Verify the migration

     Once the migration process is done, ensure that the mailbox data has been migrated to Office 365 correctly. With the EdbMails migration report, you can view the count of migrated emails, number of folders, number of mailbox items etc.

   • Step 2: Update the MX records to point to Office 365

     Update MX record to accept emails in Office 365 to allow it to function in the new server you have moved to. Also, configure the Autodiscover record for Outlook to work with the moved mailboxes depending on your environment.

   • Step 3: Create a new Outlook profile for users in the new domain

     At this point, Ensure you have the latest version of Outlook installed to avoid compatibility issues. If you are an Office 365 user on a mail client such as Thunderbird , you go to the mail account settings and update the servers to Office 365. This is how you configure the Outlook profile for every user in the domain when Outlook experiences issues with connecting to Office 365 mailboxes.

   • Step 4: Decommission and uninstall Exchange server 2013

     It is advisable to wait for several days, log in to your email, and ensure that all items are functioning properly. Finally, decommission the source Exchange server.

     1. Remove the Exchange server from the load balancer: Next, if your Exchange 2013 server is in a load balancing environment, then it must be taken offline, to avoid receiving new connections.
     2. Remove the Exchange server from the Exchange organization: After you remove the Exchange server from the load balancer, ensure that you uninstall it or, at least, delete it from the Exchange organization. This has to be done with either Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell.
     3. Uninstall Exchange 2013: Next, uninstall the Exchange server from the Add/Remove Programs feature in Windows or the Exchange Setup program to uninstall the Exchange server from the system.
     4. Remove the server from Active Directory: Lastly, delete the server from the Active Directory to completely decommission it. To do this, you can use the Active Directory Users and Computers tool or the Active Directory Sites and Services tool.

       Check out Microsoft’s guidelines to determine how to decommission Exchange Server 2013 to familiarize how it should be done. See the list of post migration tasks after you finish the Office 365 migration.

5. Exchange 2013 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)