Staged Migration – What is it & How to Perform it?

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A savvy business always strives to trim its expenditures while improving quality and efficiency to keep up with the evolving competition. Office 365 offers the same advantages as an on-premises Exchange Server while maintaining cost-efficiency. Furthermore, Office 365 boasts numerous benefits that go beyond what on-premises Exchange can provide. This includes seamless access to MS suite services, such as SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Yammer and expanded cloud storage capacity, all without additional hardware investments.

Staged migration from Exchange to Office 365

Microsoft has streamlined the process of migrating user mailboxes from on-premises Exchange to Office 365 by providing a range of efficient migration methods. When an admin chooses to migrate mailboxes in batches, the approach is known as staged migration. Staged migration is particularly effective in the following scenarios:

• When the mailboxes are more than 2,000.
• When you migrate from Exchange Server 2003 and 2007.

Upon the successful migration, the existing mailboxes will transform into mail-enabled accounts. Subsequently, users must establish an Office 365 profile within their Outlook application. Once configured, Outlook will seamlessly establish connections with these accounts. However, it’s important to note that while a staged migration is adept at transferring user mailboxes, migrating the arbitration mailbox from Exchange 2010 to 2016, necessitates a comprehensive migration strategy.

• You should configure Outlook anywhere on the on-premises Exchange Server system as the migration service will require it to connect to the Server.
• The account you will use for mailbox migration should have adequate permissions to access the mailboxes. These permissions are WriteProperty, TargetAddress, and Receive As.

To successfully migrate mailboxes from an on-premises Exchange Server to Office 365, it is essential to have the identical business domain registered within Office 365. Therefore, confirming your ownership of this domain within the Office 365 environment is crucial.

1. In the Office 365 admin center, go to Setup>Domains>Manage domains>Add domain.
2. Input the Exchange Server domain name and confirm that you own the domain by following the general instructions.
3. Your DNS service provider will help you verify the details using TXT records.
4. After completing the verification, click Finish and close the wizard.

The verification process is a crucial step in any staged migration, as it confirms your domain ownership within Office 365.

Once you confirm the domain name’s validity and determine the specific mailboxes you intend to migrate, you can generate a new CSV file containing pertinent information about the on-premises mailboxes.

Three necessary attributes for this process are: Email Address, Password, and Force Change Password. Below is a fundamental example of a CSV file:

Below is a fundamental example of a CSV file:

The migration endpoint has all the required information of the settings/credentials to connect Exchange mailboxes to Office 365. The migration endpoint is also used to start the migration batch.

1. In the Exchange admin center, go to recipients>migration>more>migration endpoints.
2. Choose New to create the endpoint.
3. Input the email address, account with privilege, and password.
4. Check that the connection is verified.
5. Input a migration endpoint name and click New to create the endpoint.

1. In the Exchange Admin Center, go to Migration>Batch>New migration batch>Migration on boarding.
2. Choose Staged Migration as the desired migration type. Click Next.
3. In the Set endpoint section, create a new migration endpoint or choose the ones you have created in the previous step.
   • Opt for ‘Create a new migration endpoint’ and follow the prompt to create a new endpoint.
   • Select the migration endpoint from the list of previously created and then click Next.
4. Upload the CSV file you created along with all mailbox information.
5. Schedule batch migration, check and verify and save all the details.

1. In the new Exchange Admin Center, go to Migration and choose Batch. Select the batch that you have created and click Start Migration.
2. When the batch starts working successfully, its status will change to syncing.

After successfully completing the migration, you can promptly verify the contents within Office 365 and access them without delay. At this point, it is safe to proceed with the deletion of the staged migration batch.

1. Navigate to the Exchange Admin Center and access the “Migration and Batch” section.
2. Within the batch dashboard, select the batch that has finished processing and click on the “Delete” option to remove it.

Once the migration process is successfully concluded, configure new Office 365 accounts in Outlook using license agreement, Auto discover DNS record, and on-premises Exchange Server decommissioning.. In case the AutoDiscover is not working to setup Office 365 account, consider configuring it manually.

A staged migration offers an effective method for transferring mailboxes from an Exchange Server to Office 365. However, it can be quite time-consuming and necessitates several manual steps before initiating a straightforward batch migration. This process is best for individuals with substantial technical expertise in Exchange Server. Alternatively, you may opt for a reliable Exchange Migration software solution to migrate your on-premises Exchange to Office 365 seamlessly. The merits of using Exchange migration utility includes:

1. Supports migrating Exchange public folders.
2. Quickly migrate data, ensuring data consistency between source and target servers.
3. Allows batch/selective migration based on your requirements.
4. No downtime or impact on productivity after the migration.
5. Allows direct mapping of users between source and target.

Conclusion

Staged migration, even though being quite effective, supports Exchange Server versions 2003 and 2007. For migrating to other versions, the administrator will have to look for different migration methods such as third-party solutions. Kernel Migration for Exchange is an ultimate solution for seamlessly transferring mailboxes from all Exchange Server versions. It helps in fulfilling Exchange migration needs across diverse businesses. The Exchange migration tool ensures a comprehensive solution that seamlessly integrates with all Office 365 plans.