hMailServer to Office 365 migration

User Query

Now that we've covered the reasons for migrating to Office 365, let's look at some of the frequently asked questions on forums and other internet platforms. Many of them find it difficult to migrate without proper guidance and support and seek step-by-step guidance. We decided to list two methods: the first is a manual method, and the second is using the EdbMails application.

“We are currently running hMailServer on Windows and would like to migrate our business emails to Office 365 now that our team has grown. We are looking for a suitable method or approach to safely migrate our data without leaving any loose ends. Could anyone please assist us step-by-step? Thanks for the guidance”

1. Have admin access for the source hMailServer and target Office 365 server

   The admin account with all the necessary permissions is required 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. Prepare a CSV file including a list of users to migrate from the hMailServer account. Collect the IMAP server details and the app password if you have set.
3. Have an 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. To migrate hMailServer to Office 365 Public folders, ensure that you create public folders and assign permissions on the target server.

     Create Office 365 Public folder and assign mailbox user

6. Similarly, if you want to migrate mailboxes to Office 365 archive mailbox, enable In-Place archive in target O365 server

     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.

How to migrate from hMailServer to Office 365?

Since hMailServer supports IMAP, you can use Microsoft's Exchange admin center to create a migration endpoint and perform IMAP migration to your target Office 365 tenant. Another recommended solution is EdbMails IMAP Migration

Steps to migrate hMailServer to Office 365 from the Exchange admin center

• Step 1: Create user mailboxes on Office 365 and assign licenses to them
• Step 2: Verify your domain with hMailServer by adding a TXT record
• Step 3: Configure MX records to route emails from hMail to Microsoft 365
• Step 4: Note down the hMailServer connection details to create a migration endpoint
• Step 5: Prepare a list of users to be migrated in the proper format and save it as .CSV file
• Step 6: Create a migration endpoint and batch from the Exchange admin center
• Step 7: Migrate from hMailServer to Office 365 and check the sync status
• Step 8: Allow the batch to run and synchronize emails for a few days.
• Step 9: Confirm that emails are being routed to your Microsoft Office 365 tenant
• Step 10: Disconnect user mailboxes on the hMailServer

The limitation of this method is that the user details in the CSV file must be entered in the correct format. The entire process is also quite technical and time consuming for the average user. There is little help if the operation becomes stuck in the middle or if you experience mail synchronization / connection errors. It is therefore not recommended to use this method if you have a large amount of data or need a quick solution to safely transfer your data.

Steps to migrate hMailServer to Office 365 with EdbMails

EdbMails migration software for IMAP server is a simple solution to perform hMailServer to Office 365 migration without any data loss. You can easily migrate your emails from hMailServer to Office 365 by following the below steps.

• Step 1: Launch EdbMails Application

  Download EdbMails and click 'Start Your Free Trial' which allows you to use and test the application for free.

  

  Select the option ‘IMAP migration’ from the dropdown to proceed to connect to your hMailServer.

  

• Step 2: Connect to hMailServer

  Enter the hostname and ensure Port Number is 993 with the SSL/TLS option checked. Enter all the details including your user credentials (username and passwords) to connect to your source server.

    EdbMails is a highly secure application and does not store or retain credentials anywhere.

  

  For 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 3: Select the mailboxes and connect to the Office 365 tenant

  • Choose the mailboxes and folders from the left panel.
  • Click ‘Migrate to Office 365’ to proceed the connection with the target server.

      See tips to optimize IMAP migration to Exchange online

  

  Tip: With the EdbMails, initial migration is always a full migration. On subsequent migrations from the same source to the target, the migration is incremental.

  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 4: Connect to target Office 365 server

  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. EdbMails can automatically load the mailboxes and also you can use a CSV file to load Office 365 mailboxes

  

    Connect to Office 365 server using secure modern authentication

• Step 5: Map the mailboxes and start hMailServer to Office 365 migration

  EdbMails can automatically map the mailboxes hMailServer and Office 365. This will save time when you’re migrating a large number of mailboxes. Start the migration and 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 if you require.

Post-migration tasks

Step 1: Update DNS records (MX record) 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: Decommission or delete the user mailboxes on hMailServer

After you verify that you are correctly receiving emails on Office 365, you can safely decommission and disable user mailboxes on the source Plesk server.

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

Remove any previous instances of hMailserver accounts on Outlook to avoid conflicts with the new server. Configure and recreate the Outlook profile for each user in your domain if it has problems connecting to Office 365 mailboxes.

Migration troubleshooting

  See the migration troubleshooting guide for resolution to common migration errors. For any queries related to EdbMails Office 365 migration, visit frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Advantages of using EdbMails for hMailServer to Office 365 migration

Simple and reliable solution

With the EdbMails you can perform absolutely risk-free hMailServer to Office 365 migration. Because this tool is built using the most recent encryption technology, the procedure is quite straightforward. There is no path that might result in the data on the hMailServer being compromised. Additionally, the interface of the app never keeps user data.

Migrate Multiple hMailServer data to Office 365.

EdbMails supports batch hMailServer to Office 365 migration.You must first prepare a CSV file with all of your hMailServer user credentials to perform bulk mailbox migration. Data from hMailServer can easily be transferred to an administrator account in Office 365.

Selectively Migrate Emails:

You can migrate certain mailboxes from hMailServer to Office 365 using EdbMails Filter Settings. Users can use it to sort emails by subject, email address, date range, etc. You can also exclude standard and custom folders from migration.

Maintains exact source folder structure on the target:

The tool keeps the on-disk folder structure during the migration of hMailServer to Office 365. The migration is 1:1 between the source and the target server without any data loss.

• IMAP to IMAP Migration
• Backup IMAP to PST
• IMAP to Exchange Migration
• Gmail to Office 365 Migration

Final Thoughts

hMailServer is a free and open source email server for Windows that is suitable for small businesses and individual users. However, as businesses grow in teams and size, hMailServer falls short in many areas, including cutting-edge apps, features, security and platform integration. As a Microsoft partner, EdbMails is the best solution for migrating hMailServer to Office 365. You can connect and migrate your mailboxes using its graphical interface without any technical knowledge or manual procedures. It also includes free and personalized 24x7 customer support if you need assistance with the entire operation.