Hybrid Exchange server migration planning and steps

Hybrid Migration Planning and Strategy Guide

Steps to Migrate Exchange Server in Hybrid Environment

Hybrid Migration Planning And Strategy Guide

Hybrid migration is a migration technique that allows you to sync your on-premise Exchange data with Office 365. Hybrid migration, in general, synchronizes the on-premise Exchange mailbox with Exchange online / Office 365 to the same Active Directory. It gives complete flexibility to migrate the mailbox data to the cloud and migrate the data back to the on-premise environment. You can also choose hybrid deployment to move or transfer mailboxes between on-premise Exchange and Exchange online. One benefit of hybrid migration is that users with mailboxes both on-premises and in the cloud can access Global Address Lists (GAL) or the shared address book. Additionally, there is no need to create new user mailboxes or import user data. An administrator who requires on-premises control can have his mailbox on Exchange on-premises, while other users can have their mailboxes on Office 365.

How to perform Hybrid migration using EdbMails Exchange migration tool?

Migrating data within the hybrid environment
Migrating to a hybrid environment from another environment
Migrating from a hybrid environment to another environment

Migrating data within the hybrid environment

This process involves transferring your data within the hybrid environment from an on-premise Exchange to Office 365 or vice versa (within the same Active Directory). Before you start with this procedure, you need to check whether you are using Azure Active Directory Connect or an AD synchronization tool to synchronize data within your hybrid environments. (i.e between Office 365 and on-premise Exchange). Ensure that the attribute msExchMailboxGuid is not synced between these environments. Another point to note is that public folders cannot exist simultaneously on both Office 365 and Exchange on-premises and you cannot migrate public folders if you plan to migrate data within the hybrid environment. You can migrate within the hybrid environment after disabling the attribute msExchMailboxGuid as described in the previous article.

Migrating to a hybrid environment from another account

When migrating data to a hybrid environment, you will be migrating from an existing account (either Exchange or Office 365). Since the target hybrid environment is having both Exchange and Office 365, you can use EdbMails tool to migrate to Office 365 or Exchange by connecting to your respective target accounts as outlined in the steps below.

Migrating from a hybrid environment to another account

When migrating from a hybrid environment to another account, you just need to connect to the respective source mailboxes (Exchange account in the case of on-premise and Office 365 in the case of your cloud Office 365 account) and select the target account for migration as illustrated in the steps below.

Steps to perform Hybrid Exchange migration

Download and install the EdbMails application.
Login using EdbMails account credentials.
Select required migration technique from the menu.
Connect to your source Server.
Follow one of the below links to connect source mailboxes
Connect to source Exchange server
Connect to source Office 365 with modern authentication
On successfull login you will be display with the list of mailboxes
Select the mailboxes you want to migrate.
Select the mailboxes for migration
- Select the mailboxes that you wish to migrate.
- Choose the migration type as 'Full migration' or 'Incremental migration'.
- Click the 'Migrate to Destination Exchange [Incremental]' button to continue.
Connect to your destination Server.
Follow one of the below links to connect destination mailboxes
Connect to target Exchange server
Connect to target Office 365 with modern authentication
On successfull login you will be display with the list of mailboxes
Map Source and Target mailboxes.
Click here for the details to map source and target mailboxes.
Start the Migration operation.
During migration operation, user can view the progress and also can view the migration operation log using view log.