SBS 2011 to Office 365 Migration

Before migrating SBS 2011 to Office 365, it’s important to carefully plan your approach based on your current environment and migration needs. Consider the following checklist:

1. Assess your environment – determine whether your setup is Hybrid or non-Hybrid.
2. Choose a migration strategy – decide whether to move all data at once or in phases.
3. Evaluate data and mailboxes – review the number of mailboxes and the volume of data to be migrated.
4. Check network readiness – test internet speed and ensure your network can handle the migration.
5. Include additional resources – decide if Shared Mailboxes and Public Folders will be migrated.
6. Prepare domains – add and configure your domains in Office 365.
7. Set up mailboxes and licenses – create necessary mailboxes and select appropriate Office 365 licensing plans.

  Use the Microsoft 365 Mail Migration Advisor to identify the most suitable migration method for your organization and ensure a smooth transition.

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

  If you are connecting to the Exchange server using a Global admin account, 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 App

• Download and install the EdbMails application on your computer.
• Launch the software, log in with your details, or start your free trial.

  

• Select ‘Live Exchange Migration’ > ‘Live Exchange to Office 365 Migration’.

  

• You can rename the migration job or proceed with the default name.

    EdbMails system requirements for SBS 2011 to Office 365 migration.

  

Step 2: Connect to the source Exchange server

• Click ‘Add New Connection’ to create a new connection to the source Exchange server, or select an existing connection to reuse.

  

• Select the required connection options and click the ‘Next’ button.

   Different options to connect to Exchange server in EdbMails

  

• Enter the source Exchange server details and click the ‘Login’ button

  

• Select one of the methods to load the mailboxes.

  

• Select the mailboxes to migrate, then click ‘Next’.

  

Step 3: Connect to the target Office 365 tenant

• Click ‘Add New Connection’ to set up a fresh connection to the target Office 365. If you've connected before, choose it from the list and click ‘Connect to Existing’ to continue.

  

• Select the required connection options and click the ‘Next’ button.

  

• Select the one of the authentication methods and click the ‘Login’ button to continue.

  

• Authenticate on Microsoft sign-in page.

  

• Select one of the methods to load the mailboxes. You can Select ‘load Mailboxes Automatically’ or load the mailboxes using a CSV file and click ‘Next’.

  

Step 4: SBS 2011 to Office 365 mailbox mapping

• Choose the required mailbox mapping option

  

• You can choose to let EdbMails automatically create and map mailboxes on the target Office 365 tenant.

  

Step 5: Start SBS 2011 to Office 365 migration

• Click ‘Start Migration’ to begin the migration.

  

• Monitor progress through the built-in progress bar. After completion, review the migration summary using the ‘View Logs’ option.

  

• Log in to your Office 365 account to verify that all mail items were successfully migrated.

• 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.