SBS 2011 to Office 365 Migration

Before you migrate SBS 2011 to Office 365 you must carefully plan the approach based on your current environment and migration requirements. Following is a checklist of items to identify and prepare your environments.

1. Assess whether your current migration environment is Hybrid or non-Hybrid.
2. Decide if you prefer to migrate all data at once or take a phased approach.
3. Evaluate the volume of data and the number of mailboxes you intend to transfer.
4. Test your internet connection speed and review your network setup.
5. Determine if you plan to include Shared Exchange mailboxes and Public folders in the migration.
6. Add and configure your domains for the target Office 365 server.
7. Create the necessary mailboxes and select the suitable Office 365 licensing plan.

  Use the Microsoft 365 mail migration advisor to determine which migration method is best for you.

• Step 1: Set the impersonation role on the source to the admin user

  Ensure that you set the ApplicationImpersonation permissions to the admin account on the source Exchange server 2010. Ensure that the mailboxes you migrate are not hidden from the address lists.

• Step 2: Create mailboxes on the target Office 365 server

  Before migrating to Office 365, ensure that mailboxes are created for users in your organization and that suitable licenses are assigned to them. You can use EdbMails to automatically create mailboxes on your target server. However, if you prefer to create mailboxes manually, refer to the links below.

  1. Add users and assign licenses to Office 365 users
  2. Assign Microsoft 365 licenses to user accounts

  If you plan to migrate Public folders from SBs 2011 to Office 365, ensure that you create and configure the Public folder on the target server.

   Create Office 365 Public folder and assign admin permissions

  If your mailboxes are in a Hybrid environment, it is not possible to migrate the Public folders directly to Office 365. Refer to this workaround solution to migrate Public folders in a hybrid environment.

• Step 3: Add a custom domain to Office 365 (Optional)

  If you have a custom email domain from your hosting provider to which you want to migrate and receive emails, you must add and verify the domain on Office 365.

   Steps to add custom domain to Office 365

Step 1: Download and install EdbMails application

• Download and install the EdbMails application on your SBS 2011
• Open the application and click 'Login' by providing appropriate details or click 'Start Your Free Trial' to proceed.

  

• Choose the migration option as ‘Live Exchange Migration' from the dropdown list.

   EdbMails system requirements for SBS 2011 to Office 365 migration.

  

Step 2: Connect to source Exchange server

• In the 'Connect to Exchange Server (Source)' window, choose the necessary connection options. If you are connecting to the source Exchange server using a global admin account, be sure to set the impersonation rights.

    Different options to connect Exchange server using EdbMails

  

• Enter your Exchange 2010 server details , then click the ‘Login’ button.

  

• Once you’ve logged into your source Exchange server, choose the option to load the mailboxes. EdbMails will automatically fetch your Exchange server mailboxes for you. If you prefer, you can also load mailboxes using a CSV file.

  

Step 3: Select Exchange server mailboxes

• Choose the mailboxes and folders from SBS 2011 that you want to migrate to Office 365.
• Then, click ‘Migrate to Office 365’

  

Step 4: Connect to target Office 365 server

• Choose the preferred method for secure OAuth-based modern authentication. The default option, ‘Auto Registration,’ requires Global admin access. Alternatively, in the Manual Registration method, you can use either a Global admin account or any user account with full access rights.

  

• Next, choose your preferred migration option and continue by logging in through the Microsoft sign-in page.

  

• After logging in successfully, choose one of the options to load the mailboxes from the target Office 365 server. You can also load mailboxes using a CSV file.

  

Step 5: Map mailboxes from Exchange to Office 365 server

• Choose the required mailbox mapping option
• EdbMails automatically creates mailboxes on your target Office 365 server and assigns the necessary licenses.

   Learn more about the automatic mailbox creation process on the target Office 365 server.

  

• EdbMails automatically maps the mailboxes and folders between the Exchange server and Office 365. This activity saves manual effort and significant time when you’re planning for a large number of mailboxes migration.

  

• Click the Folder and Item Filter button to customize your SBS 2011 to Office 365 migration process. For example, the date filter allows you to migrate items within a specific date range, enabling selective transfer of emails and other items within that defined period

  

Step 6: Start SBS 2011 to Office 365 migration

• After mapping the mailboxes, enter a job name and start the migration process. Click the View Log button to see the migration report, which details the number of migrated emails, folders, and mailbox items.

  

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

  To receive messages on Office 365, update MX records to enable email to work with the new server you have migrated to. In addition, configure the Autodiscover record to allow Outlook to connect to the migrated mailboxes.

• Step 2: Create a new Outlook profile for users in the new domain

  Configure the Outlook profile for each user in your domain if Outlook has problems connecting to Office 365 mailboxes.

• Step 3: Decommission and uninstall Exchange server 2010

  Follow the instructions provided on Microsoft's website to learn how to uninstall Exchange Server 2010 and see support and solutions for troubleshooting SBS 2011

    See the list of post migration tasks to complete after you finish the Office 365 migration.

  Check the Exchange migration troubleshooting guide for possible solutions to migration errors. For more details on EdbMails Exchange migration, see the frequently asked questions.