Read time 7 minutes
With the emergence of highly effective cloud platforms and their streamlined services, numerous business proprietors are exploring the transition from On-premises Exchange to Office 365. Exchange mailbox sizes are typically substantial, making the process of migrating them a potentially time-consuming and error-prone endeavor. Fortunately, there are several methods available to assist you in accomplishing your migration objectives.
A CSV file is an ideal choice for efficiently migrating large mailboxes to Office 365 in bulk. You can employ a CSV file in conjunction with either the Exchange admin center (EAC) or the New-MigrationBatch cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell to establish a migration batch. The following migration scenarios benefit from the use of a CSV file:
The onboarding remote move migration method facilitates the migration of mailboxes from on-premises Exchange to Office 365, particularly in the context of an Exchange hybrid deployment scenario.
Offboarding remote move migration serves as the inverse of onboarding remote move migration. In this process, you can migrate Office 365 mailboxes back to your on-premises Exchange environment.
In Staged Exchange migration, you can migrate a subset of mailboxes from an on-premise Exchange organization to Office 365.
In this type of migration, you can migrate mailbox data from an IMAP server (including Exchange server) to Office 365.
The CSV file follows a specific format in which you can input the necessary mailbox information. The first row, known as the header row, contains the names of attributes or fields, arranged vertically. Each attribute is separated by a comma. Each subsequent row below the header row represents a user and provides all the required information for the migration. The attributes in each row should be in the same order as the attribute names in the header row.
It is advisable to create the CSV file using a text editor or, even better, in a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet, which provides dedicated cells for each attribute and makes it easier to organize the information. Always remember to save the file in either .csv or .txt format.
Note: If a record has a null attribute value, you should leave that attribute blank but include a comma to separate it from the next attribute in the CSV file.
The following section will describe you what attributes you should enter for different methods of migration –
Attribute – EmailAddress, Password, ForceChangePassword.
Attribute – EmailAddress, UserName, Password.
Cutover migration is a suitable approach when the number of mailboxes in the Exchange account is less than 2000. Here’s a brief overview of the cutover migration process conducted by an Exchange Administrator:
The Hybrid Migration is done when you have to maintain both on-premises exchange and online Exchange. This can be done when:
The Kernel Office 365 Migration tool is a powerful solution designed to migrate an unlimited number of mailboxes from both on-premise and hosted Exchange environments to Office 365. This tool eliminates the need for extensive prior preparation and ensures a comprehensive migration of mailboxes. Furthermore, it provides a detailed report upon successful completion of the migration. Let’s explore how this migration tool operates:
Note: You can save the CSV report of the process by clicking on the Save report to CSV option.
While various native methods for mailbox migration to Office 365 can be technically complex, the Kernel Office 365 Migration tool eliminates the need to navigate through these intricacies. With this tool, you can commence your migration process without encountering such complexities. Simply begin by mapping your mailboxes and filtering their content.