What is cutover migration and how to perform it?

Read time: 5 minutes

Regularly updating business platforms ensures cost-efficiency and higher productivity and keeps you in line with top-performing businesses. However, preserving data from old platforms in the updated one is vital to avoid downtime and other performance issues post-migration. Microsoft provides native migration solutions that help facilitate the seamless migration of mailboxes from Exchange to Office 365. Let us learn how we can perform a migration while securing the originality of the data, but before that, it’s essential to understand Office 365.

What is Office 365?

Office 365 is a cloud-based service that provides access to Exchange Online (a robust email server). Office 365 and on-premises Exchange server provide a similar mailing experience. Once the migration process is complete, the organization can conveniently access the emails using any browser, any device, and from anywhere with utmost convenience.

The cutover migration is the most straightforward option among the various migration strategies for transitioning from Exchange to Office 365. Exchange Cutover migration, as it’s known, involves the seamless transfer of your entire mailbox data from any version of Exchange Server to Office 365 or Microsoft 365. This method is particularly well-suited for smaller organizations, thanks to its scaled-down scope and simplicity.

Run cutover migration method when:

1. Your organization works with MS Exchange Server 2003 or later as an on-premises Exchange environment.
2. Your organization works with less than 2000 mailboxes.

This method can also seamlessly handle older versions of Exchange Server, facilitating swift migrations of MS Exchange 2010 mailboxes to Office 365, migrations of MS Exchange 2010 mailboxes to Office 365.

Before initiating the Exchange cutover migration from on-premises Exchange to Office 365, making certain adjustments to the source Exchange Server environment is essential. Starting the migration directly is not possible without these necessary preparatory steps.

• Configure ‘Outlook Anywhere’ on the source Exchange Server to connect the email migration services to the on-premises Exchange Server.
• Always use a certificate from a certification authority during Outlook Anywhere configuration.
• After configuring Outlook Anywhere, you should run it to verify that it can connect with Exchange Server.
• Get a server account with FullAccess and Receive As permissions to access the Exchange organization to migrate mailboxes from Exchange to Office 365. When you grant permissions to other Office 365 mailbox users, they are ready for migration.
• Make sure that the desired mailboxes are not hidden from the address lists.
• In your on-premises Exchange Server, disable Unified Messaging. After the migration, you can turn on Cloud Voicemail in Office 365.

Note: The cutover migration method offers the capability to seamlessly migrate mailboxes, mail users, contacts, and mail-enabled groups, including their respective memberships. Prior to commencing the migration process, it is advisable to clear any other objects.

Once you’ve successfully completed all the necessary prerequisites, you’re ready to proceed with the migration process. This journey involves distinct steps and milestones at various stages of the transition.

The Exchange cutover migration process seamlessly transfers email addresses from your on-premises Exchange server to Office 365, with the domain name serving as the crucial link connecting these two environments. Therefore, ensuring that you have verified ownership of the same domain within your Office 365 account is imperative.

1. In Office 365 Admin Center, follow Setup>>Domains>>Add domain.
2. Input the domain name that you use on on-premises Exchange and click Next.
3. To verify the domain name, choose either sign in to GoDaddy or any other registrar to input the DNS records. For other registrars, select the option to add a TXT record instead and click Next.
4. Follow the steps provided by the DNS hosting provider and add the TXT record to check the ownership.
5. In the domain wizard, click verify now and check the verification page. Then, click Finish.

The migration endpoint encompasses the credentials and configurations necessary to connect the Exchange Server and Office 365. Primarily, it empowers the concurrent migration of multiple mailboxes.

1. Open Exchange Admin Center, go to the Recipient category, and choose Migration.
2. Click three dots and choose Migration endpoints.
3. Click New on the migration endpoint page.
4. Choose Outlook Anywhere as the migration endpoint type and click Next.
5. On entering the on-premises account credentials page, enter the given fields like email address, account with privileges, and password of an account with privileges. Click Next.
6. When Office 365 relates to the Exchange Server, its details are mentioned. Choose Next.

Note: If the connection to the server cannot be established, please provide the necessary information for both the Exchange Server and RPC proxy server.

7. On the new migration endpoint page, mention the name of the endpoint and click new.

We will establish a new migration endpoint that is essential for the Exchange cutover migration to connect seamlessly with Office 365.

1. In the recipients’ category in the Exchange admin center, choose Migration.
2. Click New and choose Migrate to Exchange Online.
3. On the migration type page, select cutover migration and click Next.
4. Choose the migration endpoint that you have created and click Next.
5. On the Move configuration page, input the name of the migration batch and click next. It will start to appear on the migration page.
6. Start the batch page shows you two options: start the batch or manually start the batch later automatically. You can make your choices and click the start option.
7. Click Save and a new migration batch will be created.

The Office 365 cutover migration batch will appear in the migration category.

The Office 365 cutover migration batch will require some time to complete the migration of all mailboxes, ensuring uninterrupted use throughout the process. As the migration starts, the status will display on the dashboard as Starting.

1. Go to recipients and click Migration. Choose the batch and click Start.
2. The batch will start successfully, and the status will be changed to syncing now.

The Office 365 cutover migration batch will require some time to complete the migration of all mailboxes, ensuring uninterrupted use throughout the process.

Conclusion

Migrating mailboxes using the cutover migration method can be time-consuming as you must fulfill all prerequisites first. However, tools like Kernel Migration for Exchange are automated solutions that support instant migration with the utmost security and safety of user information. This robust Exchange migration solution has no limitations on the number of mailboxes a user can migrate. Get this tool to transfer bulk mailboxes from Exchange Server to Office 365 seamlessly.