Read time 12 minutes
Over the last few years, Office 365 has become the go-to productivity platform for businesses of all sizes. As organizations continue to embrace Office 365, the need for tenant-to-tenant migrations has increased. Although Office 365 provides a number of built-in tools for migrating users and data, the process can still be complex and time-consuming.
To help simplify the Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration process, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide. This guide covers everything from planning and preparation to execution and post-migration tasks. By following these steps, you can ensure a successful migration with minimal disruption to your users.
A tenant in Microsoft 365 is a unique environment of Office 365 services. It is a specific location such as Europe or North America to store organization data. It contains organization data including Office 365 Mailboxes, Documents and Sites on SharePoint, files data on OneDrive, Teams etc. A tenant administrator can use all the features given in the subscription. In business-merger scenarios, the mailboxes need to be moved to another tenant. The migration is not a linear process; you need to do some preparation, meet some prerequisites, and own licenses.
So, here we are going to discuss some basics that can help you migrate mailboxes from one Microsoft 365 tenant to another. Also, here we’ll talk about how you can plan the migration.
Migrate mailboxes, public folders, & archive mailboxes from one Microsoft 365 tenant to another using a professional Kernel Office 365 Migration Tool.
A tenant-to-tenant migration may present various challenges depending on your migrations scenario. Usually, tenant to tenant migrations are done during business acquisitions, mergers, or divestitures. Consequently, you have different migration patterns like a one-time migration, a phased migration, or a split flow/tenant move.
The Microsoft 365 tenant to tenant migration is performed using PowerShell scripts or third-party tools. Before that, there is an Office 365 Pre & Post Migration checklist you should keep in mind.
Step 1. Domain Preparation
Depending on your migration pattern, you may have various considerations before domain preparation. Usual scenarios are:
Based on your requirements, prepare the domain with the following steps:
Step 2. Domain verification
Make sure the domain is in use with only one tenant. Otherwise, the verification will fail.
After performing these steps, it will take around 72 hours for the change to be seen.
Step 3. Migration Scheduling
Step 4. Migration Stage
Stop inbound mail flow
Stop inbound mail flow to the source tenant by changing the primary MS record to an unreachable value or by using a third-party service. As you have noted the lowest value of TTL on the MX record (of primary email domain) in your preparation step, you can plan the time of this step easily.
Source tenant preparation
Before moving the Office 365 mailbox to another tenant, the primary mail domain should be erased from all objects in the source tenant.
Preparing the target domain
It involves verifying the source tenant in the target domain (one hour after the previous step).
Now it is time to decide on the migration method. You can also decide on the type and amount of data to be migrated. Migration can be accomplished using PowerShell scripts. However, this method is very complex even if you are an Exchange expert. You will have to do a thorough preparation prior to migration so that you won’t mess up with cmdlets or steps. Also, it is time-consuming even if you assign multiple hands to complete the task. So, third-party migration tools are recommended as they offer complete control over the migration along with quick and efficient processes automatically.
While during Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration, the last thing you would want is to lose your data. Most migration experts recommend using a reliable and secure migration tool for Microsoft 365 tenant to tenant migration because it assures you to move your data without corrupting it. Even after migration, the data will be present in the same structure and format. It automates the migration and completes it with minimum manual tasks. Simply administrators can continue with their other tasks even during the migration.
Kernel Office 365 Migration is an advanced tool that is specially designed for the Office 365 tenant to tenant migration. It allows users to easily migrate every Microsoft 365 mailbox from one tenant to another. It has some amazing features that make it the best migration tool for Microsoft 365.
Let’s have a look at the working process of this tool:
The migration report can be saved in a CSV format. This way, you can quickly perform Microsoft/Office 365 tenant to tenant migration using the Office 365 Migration tool.
Features |
Manual Methods |
Kernel |
Migrates mailboxes | Yes | Yes |
Migrates archive mailboxes | Yes | Yes |
Migrates public folder data | Yes | Yes |
Supports batch migration | Yes | Yes |
Migration is possible from any version of Exchange | Yes | Yes |
Easy to set up the environment | No | Yes |
Easy migration | No | Yes |
Can be done by non-technical users | No | Yes |
Is reliable and secure | No | Yes |
A similar procedure for all migrations | No | Yes |
Fast and accurate | No | Yes |
Offers easy selective migration of data | No | Yes |
In this step-by-step guide, we’ve outlined the process of migrating your Office 365 tenant to a new one. We understand that migrations can be daunting, but with careful planning and execution they don’t have to be. If you follow these steps and reach out for help if needed, you should be able to successfully migrate your organization to a new Office 365 tenant. But if you’re looking for a tool to help make the migration process easier, Kernel has an Office 365 Migration tool that can automate much of the process for you. Plus, this migration tool is available free of charge so there’s no reason not to try it! Get started today.
A- Microsoft 365 tenant to tenant migration depends on multiple business scenarios such as business mergers, acquisitions, business data migration projects, re-branding, etc.
A- For the migration process, it is vital to have a domain attached to a single domain, either source or destination at a time. So, source domain data need to be transferred to the destination account before detaching it from the source account. Then, attach the domain to the destination account and finally detach from the source account. For all these processes. This source domain in the destination account needs to be verified for authentication via TXT records in DNS for authentication purposes.
A- Hardly, there is any manual process to migrate a Microsoft 365 tenant to another which is a complex process of using PowerShell scripts, and limits of 500 mailboxes migration is another challenge that needs to be completed by using a smart and robust Microsoft 365 Migration tool.
A- A reliable professional Microsoft 365 migration tool like Kernel Office 365 Migration tool offers many advantages to its users by facilitating quick migrations, intelligent filters, unlimited data migration, all sorts of content from mailboxes, groups, public folders, tenants migration with support to all plans and Windows OS versions without compromising the original structure and properties.
A- To run cmdlets in Exchange Online PowerShell for performing data migration, you need to connect Windows PowerShell to Exchange Online, i.e. configuring Exchange Online account in the PowerShell application.
All thanks to the software and support team for their efforts and guidance. The software has all the essential features which makes the migration process very easy, quick and secure.
Great explanation of how the software works. It saves my time and money. Also thanks to your customer support team which is always their with solution. It is a nice time with you guys.
It’s nice to have this kind of tool in my kitty. The best part about the tool is its self-explanatory graphical interface and filter option. This provides us with the ability to sort the data for migration. Thank you as well for your hard work and dedication to client requests.
I feel that the software is sufficient for the migration. No need to waste any time on manual procedure. The graphical interface of the software is itself a guide, which explains what to do next. If not, the support team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to offer unlimited support.
The software is capable of transferring all data like public folders, archive mailboxes and groups easily from one tenant to another. The developers have also done a great job in making this tool very user friendly and fast. I also like the filter option that makes migration more effective.
The tool is fantastic, Its features are very precise and effective. It can be used to manage multiple Office 365 tenants. No issues when transferring data.
Before this, I have tried various third party applications. but none of them are that good. I specially like its user friendly and self descriptive GUI and accuracy.
This tool is an outstanding approach for Office 365 tenant migration of different domains. Very easy to use, and quick tool. Thank you for sharing this blog for the detailed process information.
This tool is very handy and easy to use as i migrated two tenants into another parent tenant with out any issue. just populate the CVS file required information and click on Import from CSV then all the migrations went without any issue while the users were still using their mailboxes.
Very happy with the tool and definitely recommend it.
If the migration gets interrupted, is there any feature in this office 365 migration tool to prevent duplicate items?
Yes, if the migration gets interrupted, you can perform the migration again skipping the already migrated items. To skip the already migrated items you can check the “Skip Previously migrated items (incremental)” check box on the filter selection page. [See screen in step 8]