Exchange Migration Solution

The new version of Exchange Server, Exchange Server 2016 is packed with the latest technology, cloud-based developments and reliability enhancements. The whole new set of features, services and technologies provide users with the best possible experience and proficiencies for better email communication. Due to these improvements, organizations are making their way towards migrating their data from an old Exchange Server version to the new and refreshed Exchange Server 2016.

If you are also looking for a fast and reliable way to migrate your data from an older Exchange version to the latest Exchange Server 2016, then you’re probably at the right place. Although, you will have native methods to migrate your data, these will be cumbersome, error prone and time consuming. Because of these limitations native methods are giving way to third party tools like Migrator for Exchange.

In this blog you will get familiar with an easy and stress free method to migrate data from an older version of Exchange Server to Exchange Server 2016 and vice-versa.

A step-by-step guide to migrate your data from an old Exchange Server version to Exchange Server 2016 and vice-versa

Step 1: Pre-Migration Analysis

With the help of pre-migration analysis one can easily avoid various problems and errors that may arise during migration and may perhaps become a cause of migration halt.

Create Mailbox Migration Analyzer Job

1. Start the Add Pre-Migration Job wizard from the tools. And then, enter all the desired details.

2. The next step is to select the mailboxes that you want to migrate and then you can also map agents on them in “Load Agent” column.

3. You can also filter the data on the basis of three parameters mainly “Message Classes”, “Date Range”, and “Folders”. After applying filter, click on the Add button.

4. After adding filters, you can see all the settings done in the summary wizard.

5. In the pre-migration page, you can clearly see the total count of items against each mailbox, size, and estimated migration time. This will also display details about load summary i.e. when the agents will get free.

Hence, Pre-migration analysis done effectively.

Step 2: Configure Agents

In case of big migration projects with a huge number of mailboxes, extra system resources are needed to finish everything on time. To solve the problem of extra resources Migrator for Exchange has introduced Agent Based Configuration which can effectively use the resources of network computers.

One can also use other computers’ resources by adding those computers to resources and installing agents on them.

1. To configure Agents, click on Add in the Agent List page. Then, the next step is to add computers in order to install agents. Agents can be installed by four ways:  

From AD: This will add a computer from Active Directory.

Add Manually: With this option, you can add computers manually.

Scan and Add: This option will allow you to scan the entire network and then add the wished-for computer manually.

Add from CSV: This method will use a CSV file to add the intended computers.
Newly added agent will appear in the Agent List Page.


Newly added agent will appear in the Agent List Page.

Step 3: Add Job for Mailboxes

Migrate all and selected mailboxes from an Exchange Server to a target Exchange Server in a different domain.

1. In the Add job for Mailbox wizard, add the project name and the job name. Then, click next.

2. The next step is to enter the source domain details. Select the Exchange Server option from the drop down. And then enter all the required fields.

3. After this, the software will be connected to the source domain. This will enlist all mailboxes of the Exchange Server. Then, all you have to do is select the mailboxes that you want to migrate.

4. Enter the target domain details. To do this, four migration options are there:

Same Domain (Single Exchange): This option is applicable if you want to migrate to existing mailboxes in the same Exchange Server.

Same Domain (Multiple Exchange): This option is applicable if you want to migrate to a new mailbox for the same domain in a different Exchange Server.

Different Domain: Choose this option if you want to migrate to new/existing mailboxes of a different domain’s Exchange Server.

Office 365: Opt for this one if you want to migrate exchange mailboxes to Office 365.

Here we are migrating in different domains.

* Select different domain option and fill all the required credentials. Then click on next.

* It will display all the mailboxes within target Exchange Server. Select all the mailboxes which you want to migrate.

5. The next step is to apply filters to stay away from unnecessary migrations. Three filter options are there, mainly:

Message Classes: All the message classes are selected by default. Discard the message classes that you don’t want to migrate.

Date Range: You can use Include/Exclude button to add or remove messages within a particular date range.

Folders: The Include/Exclude button will include or exclude folders from migration.

6. After setting filters, map source and target mailboxes. There are two ways to do this:

Map Automatically: This will map mailboxes on the basis of their name. Mapping will only be possible if the name of mailboxes in both source and destination are matching.

Map Using CSV: This will do mapping on the basis of mapping stored in a CSV file. After doing mapping, click next.

7. Next step is to select the option for bad items and synchronization.

* Skip Mailbox If Bad Item Count Exceeds: It will skip the mailbox from getting migrated if the number of bad count exceeds the given value.

* Synchronize Migrated Mailboxes: To achieve the co-existence in mailboxes, this will synchronize source and target mailboxes during and after migration.

i. Both Ways: It will synchronize both source and target mailboxes during and after migration.

ii. Source to Target: This will keep only the target mailbox in sync with source mailbox.

iii. Target to Source: This will keep only source mailbox in sync with target mailbox.

Here we will opt for both ways synchronization.

8. Then select the events on which you want to send notifications along with the email address of the recipient.

9. After clicking next, a screen will open where you can black out hours during which you want to pause migration.


10. With the help of scheduler, you can also decide whether you want to run the job immediately or you want to run the job at some later time. After this you can review the summary of the entire process.

 

Migration Done Successfully

Yes, migration can be that simple!

This is the easiest and simplest way to perform Exchange migration and it will completely eliminate the need of native migration methods. Migrator for Exchange provides organizations with enhanced control over the migration process. It empowers users to solve both simple and complex migration scenarios with the utmost ease.

Manually: This will add a computer manually.
Scan and Add: This will scan the entire network and select the intended computer manually.
From CSV: This will use a CSV file to add the intended computers.


Step 2: Add Job for Mailboxes

Add jobs to migrate mailboxes from Exchange Server to Office 365.

1. Select the project under All Projects tab in the left pane. Then select Add Job for Mailboxes.

2. Select the project from the Project Name drop-down. Enter a name for the new Job. Click on Next.


3. Then enter source domain details. And in the Migrate From tab select your source i.e. Exchange Server.


4. Now select the mailboxes that you want to migrate and click next.


5. Now enter the target domain details where you want to migrate the mailboxes. In this case, select Office 365. For migration, user should have full mailbox access right over mailboxes which should be migrated. If a user does not have obligatory rights and you want Exchange Migration tool to give the rights, select "Delegate full access right to this user" checkbox. Click Next to proceed.


6. Next step is to apply filters so as to migrate messages that are necessary. Three filter options are available namely:


Message Class: By default, all message classes are selected. Deselect message class that you don't want to migrate.

Date Range: It allows you to include or exclude messages within a particular date range.

Folders: It allows you to include or exclude folders from migration.

7. The next step is to do mapping of source and target mailboxes. Mapping can be done by two ways:

Map Automatically: It will map mailboxes on the basis of their names. This will map mailboxes only if the names of source and target Exchange Servers are identical.

Map Using CSV: This will map source and target mailboxes using mappings stores in a CSV file.


8. Next step is to select the options for bad items and synchronization. You can skip mailboxes if number of bad items count exceeds the given value.

9. To achieve co-existence in mailboxes, you can easily synchronize the source and target mailboxes during and after migration. Synchronization can be done by three ways:

Both Ways: Synchronizes both source and target mailboxes during and after migration.

Source to Target: Keeps only target mailbox in sync with source mailbox.

Target to Source: Keeps only source mailbox in sync with target mailbox.


10. You can also send the notifications for a particular event by specifying the email address of the recipient.

11 . Migrator for Exchange also provides you the functionality to schedule migration jobs as per your convenience.  It will run jobs at some later time as specified by you. You can also stipulate login credentials to access Report Viewer.


12. It also allows you to review the summary of the whole process. You can use Back button if you want to go back and make any changes. Click on Finish to complete the process.


New Job is created!

Step 3: View Mailbox Job Reports

Once a migration job has been created and it's running, you can view its status in the Report pane on the All Jobs screen. And then, click on the run button to execute the job.


Migration Done!

These few simple steps are enough to migrate multiple email accounts from any Exchange Server to Office 365 effortlessly. Exchange Migrator provides an easy and simplified way to perform mailbox migration. Besides migrating mailboxes from Exchange Server to Office 365, it also migrates data from one Exchange Server to another Exchange Server. Migrator for Exchange provides organizations an enhanced way to regulate their migration process even in complex migration scenarios.

Moving mailboxes from an old mailbox database to a new one is an important part of the Exchange migration. It essentially involves creation of anew mailbox database in the Mailbox server of Exchange 2010. So when you deploy Mailbox Server role, you need to design the mailbox server storage so as to meet the storage requirements. Compared to its previous versions, Exchange 2010 is very flexible in letting you design the storage architecture. When you move from Exchange 2003/2007 to Exchange 2010, you can design and deploy the mailbox Server storage exactly according to the requirements of the organization. What are the parameters that you require to design the Mailbox server storage optimally?

Prime considerations in Mailbox server storage design

Mailbox storage design in organizations depend on requirements like storage capacity and performance. Also, it depends on considerations like infrastructure cost and manageability. Generally it is necessary to understand the storage I/O and capacity requirements to design the storage architecture. We will just list different I/O and capacity requirements that have impact on Mailbox server storage design:

1.Mailbox count (maximum number of mailboxes to be hosted on a Mailbox server)
2.High availability considerations
3.Mailbox concurrency (percentage of users who connect to Mailbox server per hour)
4.Mailbox size and usage profile
5.E-mail client types and extensions
6. Server applications  

Designing storage architecture

Once you are ready with I/O and capacity requirements, you can start designing the storage architecture. You can either do it manually or do it using Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator. When you design it manually, you need to have good idea about preferred high availability model, database/log capacity requirements, database/log performance requirements, storage configuration/ CPU/memory requirements, and logical unit number (LUN) architecture requirements. While using the calculator, you can get the result by providing the input parameters. It’s good to test the new design in a lab environment before implementing it in your actual production environment.

The road to execute hassle-free migration from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2013 is a bit tricky and often requires comprehensive planning for ensuring smooth deployment. Since Microsoft doesn’t provide any native path to move directly from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2013; it becomes even more difficult for beginners to perform migration successfully.

In this blog, I’ll discuss step-by-step migration from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2013 so that you can sail through the transitioning process without any trouble.

Step-By-Step Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2013 Migration

Step 1- Exchange 2013 Deployment & Installation

To move from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2013, it is important to first understand how to prepare Active Directory environment and install Exchange 2013 on the desired server.

To prepare Active directory for seamless migration from Exchange 2003 to 2013, first open the PowerShell and then run the following listed commands with a domain joined machine. Although the machine resembles somewhat similar to the Active Directory domain and the site of the schema master, it requires .NET Framework 4.5 version to be installed along with WCF 3.0 (Windows Management Framework).

Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS.\setup /PrepareAD /OrganizationName: lepide/IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

Now, one needs to open the Schema Partition that uses ADSI to validate the Active directory that you recently created using the above command.



 After successful AD validation, one needs to create groups with the AD users & computers console as per the reference screenshot attached below.


Now, for carrying out installation, run the PowerShell commands and check your system time to time for receiving updates.

 Step 2- Configuring Digital Certificates

The immediate next step in Exchange 2007 to 2013 migration is to configure the digital certificates. The first one that we’re going to create here is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which is used to safeguard the inter-communication happening between the server and the client.

Whenever Exchange 2013 is installed, IT administrators need to take care of creating the corresponding SSL certificate which will be required to encrypt the information that client shares within the Exchange server for facilitating communication across the enterprise & outside.

Though Exchange already possesses a self-signed certificate by default, you will have to include correct names and thereby replace the default certificate with a new one that you’re going to create.

One needs to run the following commands after opening Exchange Management Shell to proceed towards creating a digital certificate.

New-ExchangeCertificate -FriendlyName ‘Lepide Exchange 15 Certificate’ -GenerateRequest -PrivateKeyExportable $true -KeySize ’2048′ -SubjectName ‘C=EG, S=”Cairo”, L=”Cairo”, O=”Lepide”, OU=”IT”, CN=mail.contoso.com’ -DomainName‘mail.contoso.com’,’autodiscover.lepide.com’,’legacy.lepide.com’ | out-file c:\sw\e15_csr.txt

In the above command, we’ve used hostname as legacy.lepide.com since similar certificate need to be run on the TMG and Exchange 2007 server.

Now, all you need to do is to just submit the certificate request and import the same by running the following commands.

Import-ExchangeCertificate -filename c:\sw\certnew.cer

After you configure the Exchange server, you need to run the following command for using the certificate.

Enable-ExchangeCertificate -Thumbprint A826389C71ED5870137B866F01192D47F69CE526 -Services IIS, POP, IMAP

Now, one needs to export the certificate using a private encryption key so that the information can’t be hacked by antisocial elements who may be eyeing to break into your server. Import this digital certificate on the Exchange 2007 CAS Servers.

Step 3- Transitioning Client Access 

Configuring Virtual Directories

While migrating to Exchange 2013, one needs to configure virtual directories with the help of Exchange 2013 Management shell.

OWA – Outlook Web App

To configure OWA, run the following command in the console:  

Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -Identity “e12-01\OWA (Default Site)” -InternalUrl https://legacy.lepide.com/owa -ExternalUrl https://legacy.lepide.com/owa

OAB – Outlook Address Book

Use the following command to configure OAB. 

Set-OabVirtualDirectory -Identity “e15-01\OAB (Default Site)” -InternalUrl https://mail.lepide.com/oab -ExternalUrl https://mail.lepide.com/oab

ActiveSync

Following command needs to be run to configure ActiveSync.

Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Identity “e15-01\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (Default Site)” -ExternalUrl https://mail.lepide.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync-InternalUrl https://mail.lepide.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync

Outlook Anywhere

Perform configuration of Outlook Anywhere by running the following command. 

Set-OutlookAnywhere -Identity “E15-01\Rpc (Default Site)” -InternalHostname mail.lepide.com -ExternalHostname mail.lepide.com -InternalClientAuthenticationMethod Ntlm -ExternalClientAuthenticationMethod Basic -ExternalClientsRequireSsl $True -InternalClientsRequireSsl $true

Web Services

Run the following command to configure Web Services-:

Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity “E15-01\Rpc (Default Site)” –InternalUrl https://mail.lepide.com/ews/exchange.asmx --ExternalUrl https://mail.lepide.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

Unified Messaging

Run the following command to configure Unified Messaging -:

Set-UMVirtualDirectory -Identity “UnifiedMessaging (Default Web Site)” –InternalUrl https://legacy.lepide.com/UnifiedMessaging/services.asmx –ExternalUrl https://legacy.lepide.com/UnifiedMessaging/services.asmx

TMG (Threat Management Gateway) 

You will either need to update or create TMG rules to publish them.

Updating records in Domain Name Servers

Don’t miss this. You will need to update records in the domain name servers. Moreover, it will also be required to perform testing after accumulating test scenarios for both internal & external clients.

Step 3- Migrating Mailboxes

After completing the testing process, you need to migrate your Exchange mailboxes from older version to newer version. To perform mailbox migration, you shall proceed running the following commands in the EAC or Shell
New-MoveRequest -Identity ‘neha@lepide.com’ -TargetDatabase “DB01″

Step 4- Move your Public Folders

Now it’s time to migrate your Public Folders. Just open the Exchange 2007 Management Shell and run the following commands -:

Get-PublicFolder -Recurse | Export-CliXML C:\PFMigration\Legacy_PFStructure.xml
 Get-PublicFolderStatistics | Export-CliXML C:\PFMigration\Legacy_PFStatistics.xml
Get-PublicFolder -Recurse | Get-PublicFolderClientPermission | Select-Object Identity, User -ExpandProperty AccessRights | Export-CliXML C:\PFMigration\Legacy_PFPerms.xml

Rename the folders with a Backslash

Run the following commands in order to rename all the public folders that possess a backslash.

Get-PublicFolderDatabase | ForEach {Get-PublicFolderStatistics -Server $_.Server | Where {$_.Name -like “*\*”}}

Set-PublicFolder -Identity 000000001A447390AA6611CD9BC800AA002FC45A0300D13A87259D34A142BB480F3E89AA82BF00004FD5389E0000 -name “MCS TF2″

Now, for getting public folders that don’t have any previous records of migration, run the following command –

Get-OrganizationConfig | Format-List PublicFoldersLockedforMigration, PublicFolderMigrationComplete

CSV File Generation

To create CSV files, run a script on Exchange 2007 and create the name-to-folder size-mapping file by using the following command.

.\Export-PublicFolderStatistics.ps1 PFStat.csv e12-01

Command To create more CSV files, just copy them to Exchange 2013 while running the above script.

New Mailbox Generation

For generating new mailboxes, you need to run the following command.  

New-Mailbox -PublicFolder Mailbox1 –Database DB01 –HoldForMigration: $true

Start Migration Request

To start migration request, you need to run the following command -:

New-PublicFolderMigrationRequest -SourceDatabase (Get-PublicFolderDatabase -Server e12-01.lepide.local) -CSVData (Get-Content FolderToMailbox.csv -Encoding Byte)

Monitoring Migration Status

To obtain migration statistics, run the following command –

Get-PublicFolderMigrationRequest | Get-PublicFolderMigrationRequestStatistics

After you execute all the above steps, run the following command in the Exchange 2007 Management Shell for Exchange 2007 decommissioning. 

Get-MailboxDatabase | Remove-MailboxDatabase

Now open command line and navigate to the bin directory. After you enter into the bin directory, execute the following code:

Setup.com /mode:uninstall

Performing Migration the Easy Way – Get rid of all the Complexity, Move Content Automatically in just a few Clicks 

No matter what ways you adopt, there’s a lot of complexity associated with moving content from one server to another and hence ensuring 100% smooth & seamless migration still remains a dream for most of the IT organizations.

Besides executing all the above steps, we have an alternative way for you – a reliable, fast and risk-free migration with professional 3rd party tools like Migrator for Exchange. Yes, you heard that right!! You can perform the transition from Exchange 2007 to 2013 by making this challenging task easier, quicker and safer with this tool that not only lets you overcome the limitations & problems encountered in native Exchange migration tools but also helps you in carrying out successful migration. From flushing out all Exchange Migration worries to performing secure migration, this tool can actually meet your business requirements by resolving scalability issues and eliminating all your migration headache. Molreover, this tool can also act as an EDB to PST conversion tool that can transform EDB files in Exchange 2007 directly to Outlook compatible PST files while also helping you to import these PST files later to the live Exchange Server 2013.

So, what are you waiting for? Choose the easy way to migrate hassle-freely from one Exchange server to another and contact our sales team to get the demo version of this tool absolutely free. For expert migration guidance, you may contact our technical experts.