Public folder to Exchange server migration

I. Planning a Public folder migration to Exchange server

Before you migrate the Public folder from Exchange online to Exchange on-premises, you need to consider the migration requirements and prerequisites. Following is a checklist of items to identify and prepare your environments.

1. Take a backup of your existing Public folders on Office 365.
2. Identify the size and number of Public folders you want to migrate
3. Install the Exchange server and prepare the target environment.
4. Create Public folders on the target Exchange and make them mail enabled.
5. Determine whether you want to move everything at once or in stages.
6. Check your internet connection speed and network configuration.
7. Identify the type of your target migration environment (Hybrid or non-Hybrid)
8. Decide if you plan to move Public folders to Public folders, primary mailboxes or Shared mailboxes on the target server.
9. Communicate the plan and the changes to your end users.
10. Perform a test Office 365 migration before you start the actual one.
11. Start the migration, verify the endpoint and add DNS records.
12. Create new Outlook profiles and check if you are receiving mails correctly.

II. Pre migration activities for O365 Public folder to Exchange migration

• Step 1: Check that you meet the following requirements on Office 365
  1. Ensure that you meet the network and bandwidth requirements for the migration. See performance factors and best practices for Office 365 migration. 
  2. Decide the migration path you want to take depending on your environment.
  3. 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.

  4. Set the impersonation rights for the admin account in Office 365 to migrate mailboxes on behalf of other users in your organization.Verify if the source and target admin account in general has the following management roles assigned:

     1. ApplicationImpersonation
     2. View-Only Configuration
     3. View-Only Recipients
     4. Public Folders
     5. User management administrator/Global administrator
  5. Check if the Global admin account with the management roles has a valid and non-hidden mailbox on the source and target server.
• Step 2: Check that your system meets the Exchange server setup requirements.

  The following links will help you to know about the network, hardware and operating system requirements for the Exchange server you want to install and migrate to.

  Note: Exchange 2010 has reached the end of support on October 13, 2020 and Exchange 2013 will reach the end of support on April 11, 2023. Therefore it is highly recommended that you migrate your mail data and Public folders to Exchange 2016 and 2019.

  1. Network and directory requirement for Exchange 2019
  2. Network and directory requirement for Exchange 2016
  3. Hardware Requirements for Exchange 2019
  4. Hardware Requirements for Exchange 2016
  5. Supported operating systems for Exchange 2019
  6. Supported operating systems for Exchange 2016
• Step 3: Prepare your target system with the following prerequisites

  Complete the following prerequisites for Active Directory, Windows Mailbox server, and Windows Edge Transport servers before installing the Exchange server.

  1. Exchange 2019 prerequisites for preparing Active Directory (AD)
  2. Windows Server prerequisites for Exchange 2019
  3. Exchange 2016 prerequisites for preparing Active Directory (AD)
  4. Windows Server prerequisites for Exchange 2016
• Step 4: Setup Exchange server for migration

  Given below is a list of key points for installing and preparing the Exchange server for migration. If you have already installed and set up your Exchange server, skip to point 4 in this step.

  1. Prepare AD and domains
     1. Before installing Exchange Server, you need to prepare your Active Directory forest and its domains for the new version of Exchange.
     2. If you have a separate team to manage the Active Directory schema, you need to first extend the active directory schema, else proceed to the next step to prepare the Active Directory.
     3. If you have multiple domains you need to additionally prepare the Active Directory domains.
  2. Install Exchange server on your computer

     Before installing the Exchange server, ensure that you meet the server system requirements and prerequisites as outlined previously. Next, follow the link to install Exchange 2016 or install Exchange 2019 from the setup wizard.

  3. Prepare a clean Exchange target environment
     1. Create and configure a Send connector to send mail outside the Exchange organization.
     2. By default, Exchange automatically creates receive connectors for inbound mail flow when the mailbox server is installed. If you need to configure receive connectors manually, follow the steps in the link.
     3. Add accepted domains to allow recipients to send and receive email from another domain.
     4. Configure the default email address policy to add the accepted domain to every recipient in the organization.
     5. Configure external URLs (domains) on the virtual directories in the Client Access (frontend) services on the Mailbox server to allow clients to connect to your server from the internet (outside the organization’s network).
     6. Configure internal URLs on the virtual directories in the Client Access (frontend) services on the Mailbox server to allow clients to connect to your server from the internal network.
     7. Configure SSL certificates from a third-party certificate authority for services such as Outlook Anywhere and Exchange ActiveSync.
     8. Verify the Exchange server installation by running the command Get-ExchangeServer on the Exchange Management Shell (EMS).
  4. Create mailboxes and Public folders on the Exchange server

     Before you migrate, ensure that you create mailboxes on the target Exchange server and have assigned suitable licenses to them. When you create Public folders, ensure that they are mail enabled.

      See how to create mailboxes in Exchange server

      Steps to create Public folder in Exchange server

      Enable Archive mailbox in Exchange server

  5. Assign management roles to the admin account

     Set the following permissions to the admin account on the Exchange server.

     1. ApplicationImpersonation
     2. View-Only Recipients
     3. View-Only Configuration
  6. 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 server.

  7. Configure the throttling and message-size limits

     You can manually change the EWS throttling and message size limits on the target Exchange server by following the steps outlined in the links below.

     1. Change the EWS throttling settings on Exchange server
     2. Change message size limits on Exchange

  Note: For migrating Office 365 Public folders to Exchange with EdbMails, you do not require PowerShell scripts. The following steps describe the public migration method from the application’s graphical user interface (GUI).

II. Migrate Public folders from Office 365 to Exchange

There are two methods for migrating Public folder with EdbMails Office 365 migration tool.

1. Direct migration of Office 365 Public folder to Exchange
2. Migrate to Exchange with the PST import method

Steps to migrate Public folder to Exchange by using the direct method

• Step 1: Download and install EdbMails Office 365 migration software

  • 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.

     See a detailed list of EdbMails system requirements for Office 365 migration.

    

  • Launch the application and click 'Login' or 'Start Your Free Trial'.

    

  • Select the migration technique as Office 365 migration

    Select the option 'Office 365 Migration' (Tenant to Tenant migration & more...) from the drop down and click on Let’s Go!

    

  Note: If the Standard folders (such as Inbox, Calendar, Contacts) on the source server mailboxes are initialized with a different language, follow the details in the link 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).

   Steps to change the language and regional settings on Office 365

• Step 2: Connect to the source Office 365 as Global Administrator

  In the Connect to Office 365 (Source) window, select the authentication method as Auto or Manual registration for modern authentication and the connection method as Public folder. Enter your global administrator credentials to authenticate.

   Connect to Office 365 server using secure modern authentication

  

  

  After you authenticate and log in successfully, select one of the methods to load the mailboxes. You can also load and migrate the mailboxes using a CSV file.

  Note: If you want to migrate your Office 365 Public folder to the target server in a Hybrid Exchange environment, see hybrid migration planning and strategy guide with EdbMails.

• Step 3: Select the mailbox items and then connect to Exchange server
  1. EdbMails displays a list of Public folders from the source Office 365 tenant.
  2. Select the folders that you want to migrate.
  3. Click 'Migrate to Live Exchange' to setup the connection with the target server

  

   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.

  EdbMails provides the following additional options to help you customize the migration task.

  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 or attachments larger than a specified size.

  

• Step 4: Connect to Exchange server as Global Admin User

  In the Connect to Exchange server (Destination) window, select 'Connect using Global Admin User'. You can also connect to the mailboxes by loading a CSV file. See the instructions on how to use the different Exchange server connection methods supported by EdbMails.

  With EdbMails, you have the following migration choices:

  • Migrate the source Public folder to target Public folder
  • Migrate the source Public folder to target mailboxes
  • Migrate the source Public folder to the Archive mailbox
  • Migrate the source Public folder to Shared mailboxes

  

• Step 5: Map the mailboxes between the source and the target

  The mapping activity in EdbMails can automatically match and map the mailboxes and folders between the source and the target. This activity saves time when you’re migrating a large number of mailboxes.

  

• Step 6 : Start the Public folder migration to Exchange

  Start and monitor the migration operation after you complete the mapping. Finally, verify the count of migrated emails, folders and mailbox items with EdbMails text-based log report.

Office 365 Public folder migration using the PST import method

If you have a PST file of the Public folder, you can also use EdbMails to import the PST to Exchange. The following steps outline the migration operation.

• Step 1: Select the migration method as Exchange migration

  Download and run EdbMails if you haven’t installed it on your system. On the EdbMails migration selection popup, select the migration technique as Exchange migration.

• Step 2: Add PST files in bulk to migrate to Exchange

  To add the PST files, close the Connect to Exchange (Source) connection window and click 'Migrate PST to Exchange' at the bottom. Add the required PST files and click 'Continue'.

  

• Step 3: Connect to Exchange server as Global Admin User

  In the Connect to Exchange server (Destination) window, select 'Connect using Global Admin User'. You can also connect to the mailboxes by loading a CSV file. See the instructions on how to use the different Exchange server connection methods supported by EdbMails

  

• Step 4: Map and migrate Public folders to Exchange

  The mapping activity in EdbMails can automatically match and map the mailboxes and folders from the PST file to Exchange. This activity saves time when you’re migrating a large number of Public folders. After you complete the migration, verify the count of the migrated items and folders with the help of EdbMails log report. You can also log in to the Exchange server and verify the migrated folders and items.