Office 365 (Microsoft 365) Migration Guide

Before you migrate from Office 365, it's important to take the time to plan and prepare. This will help ensure that your migration goes as smoothly as possible and that you don't encounter any unexpected issues along the way.

• Step 1: Evaluate your current infrastructure

  The first step in any Office 365 migration is to evaluate your current infrastructure. This includes assessing your hardware, software, and network, as well as identifying any potential compatibility issues.

• Step 2: Choose the right migration method

  There are several ways to migrate to Office 365, including cutover migration, staged migration, hybrid migration and IMAP to Office 365 migration. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it's important to choose the one that's right for your organization.

• Step 3: Determine your migration scope

  After you've chosen your migration method, you'll need to determine your migration scope. This includes deciding which data and applications you want to migrate, as well as identifying any data that may need to be archived or deleted.

• Step 4: Create an Office 365 migration plan

  With your migration scope in mind, you can now create an Exchange online tenant to tenant migration plan. This plan should outline the steps you'll need to take to migrate your data and applications to Office 365, as well as any potential roadblocks you may encounter along the way.

On the source Office 365

1. Obtain a global admin account that has a mailbox
2. Ensure that your network and bandwidth meet the requirements for the migration.

   Refer to the following links for network and migration planning, performance factors and best practices for Microsoft 365 email migration.

3. If you want to migrate the source Public folders, make sure to assign the admin permissions.
4. To migrate In-Place archives from one tenant to another, make sure that the archive mailbox is enabled on both the source and target. See steps to enable online archive in Office 365.
5. If the standard folders (such as Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts) in your source mailboxes are set up in a different language, for example, if your source Inbox folder is named ‘Boîte de réception’ in French, a direct migration to the destination server will not automatically map it to the ‘Inbox’ folder on the target server. To ensure the folder with the French name is correctly mapped to the corresponding folder, refer to this link.

On the target Office 365

1. Prepare your target Office 365 Tenant. See Tenant roadmap for Microsoft 365.
2. EdbMails automatically creates Office 365 mailboxes and assigns licenses on target servers. However,if you want to manually create mailboxes for your organization's users and assign the appropriate licenses to them navigate through the below links.
   • Add users and assign licenses to Office 365 users
   • Add several users at the same time to Office 365
   • Assign Microsoft 365 licenses to user accounts
3. Explore various Office 365 licensing plans to find one that best fits your needs. You have the option to start with a 30-day free trial and later select a plan that suits your requirements. Make use of the resources available to compare different Office 365 business and enterprise plans before making a decision. Compare Office 365 business plans and Compare Office 365 enterprise plans.
4. If you intend to migrate the source Public folders to Public folders on Office 365, make sure to create and configure the corresponding Public folder mailboxes on the target server
5. To migrate In-Place archives from one tenant to another, make sure that the archive mailbox is enabled on both the source and target. See steps to enable online archive in Office 365.
6. Use Global admin account having mailbox to connect to Office 365 in EdbMails
7. If you have a custom email domain from the source to which you want to receive emails after the migration, you must add and verify the custom domain on Office 365.

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

8. If you are using Active Directory Federation Services, you must configure a new domain on the target tenant for AD FS.
9. Configure Office 365 to send and receive large messages

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

EdbMails Office 365 migrator simplifies the migration process, ensuring a stress-free experience. The software efficiently migrates all Office 365 mailbox data, including emails, contacts, calendars, appointments, tasks, journals, public folders, archive mailboxes, and Office 365 groups from one account to another, guaranteeing comprehensive migration without any data loss.

• Step 1: Download and Install EdbMails application
  • Download EdbMails and install EdbMails on your computer.
  • Double click the EdbMails setup (EdbMailsSetup.exe) to install the application.
  • Follow the instructions that appear to complete the installation.

     See EdbMails system requirements for Office 365 migration.

    

• Step 2: Select the Office 365 migration option
  • Click 'Login' or 'Start Your Free Trial' to access the application

    

  • Select the option ‘Office 365 migration’ and proceed

    

• Step 3: Connect to source Office 365 server
  • In the Connect to Office 365 (Source) window, keep the default ‘Auto Registration’ method and click the ‘Login’ button.

    

    Click here for the steps to manually register EdbMails in Azure Active Directory.

  • Choose the required connection method and authenticate on the Microsoft sign-in page with the global admin account having a mailbox.

    

• After the successful authentication, choose one of the methods to load the mailboxes. You can also load and migrate the mailboxes using a CSV file.
• Step 4 : Select the mailboxes and connect to the target server
  • Select the mailboxes and folders from the left pane of the main migration window.
  • Click ‘Migrate to Office 365’ to set up the connection with the target server.

    

• Step 5: Connect to the target Office 365 server

  Connect to your target Office 365 server using the Global admin account, just like you have connected the source server. Choose the right connection method and option to load the mailboxes.

  

• Step 6: Map source and target mailboxes

  In the mapping window, you can choose from the following options:

  1. Automatically create mailboxes on the target server and map source mailboxes accordingly.
  2. Use existing mailboxes on the target server and map source mailboxes to them.
  3. Use previously saved migration mappings.

  EdbMails automatically creates mailboxes on your target server and assigns the required licenses. Click here to know more about automatic mailbox creation.

  

  After successfully creating mailboxes on your target server, EdbMails automatically maps mailboxes and folders between source and target tenants, which is particularly beneficial for large-scale migrations. Alternatively, you have the flexibility to manually map source folders and subfolders to specific target locations as needed.

  

• Step 7: Start Office 365 to Office 365 Migration

  After completing the mailbox mapping, click the ‘Continue’ button and enter the job name and proceed

  

  Now, the migration is initiated . EdbMails will notify you upon migration completion, and you can verify the details with the log report. You can also pause or resume the migration if necessary.

  

• Step 1: Update the MX records to point to Office 365

  Start by adding your current domain to Office 365. If you haven't updated DNS records before, change the MX records to ensure emails can flow into Office 365 and be received properly. Also, configure the Autodiscover record to enable Outlook to connect easily to the migrated mailboxes.

• Step 2: Clear the Auto-Complete list in Outlook

  See manage suggested recipients with Auto-Complete.

• Step 3: Create a new Outlook profile after migration
  • Ensure each user has the latest Outlook version installed to avoid compatibility issues.
  • Set up Outlook profiles for each user in your domain if they experience connectivity problems with Office 365 mailboxes.
  • Configure Outlook with the new server settings, including server address, username, and password.
  • Test email functionality to confirm that users can send and receive emails successfully.
• Step 4: Remove the old Office 365 subscription plan

  Once the migration is complete and you have confirmed the integrity of the migrated mailbox data, proceed to remove the Office 365 subscription plan from the source tenant, along with any associated domains.

• Best Practice 1: Choose the right Office 365 plan

  There are several different Office 365 plans to choose from, each with its own features and pricing. It's important to choose the plan that best fits the needs of your organization and provides the features and functionality you require.

• Best Practice 2: Follow a phased approach

  Migrating to Office 365 is a complex process, so it's important to follow a phased approach to minimize risk and ensure a successful migration. This may involve migrating different mailboxes in stages, rather than all at once.

• Best Practice 3: Work with an experienced partner

  It's important to work with an experienced partner such as EdbMails who can provide guidance and support throughout the migration process. EdbMails provides 24x7 free migration support and personalized Office 365 migration assistance for all your requirements.