Today almost every organization use web-based applications to gain access back to the data in terms of crises. Office 365 is one such application suite that is used by several businesses and individuals to maintain the continuity of the work. As the business grows, changes become inevitable. Sometimes the organizations change their name, purchase other company, or merges with a competitor. Apart from all this, some more scenarios arise the need to migrate mailboxes from one Office 365 tenant to another. Below is a typical case we have taken from a forum website:
“I am using Office 365 for my business-related works. We have two different domains to work upon. But now, the company has decided to divide the organization into separate domains for making it more successful. We need same data on both of the tenants and unfortunately, it is only in one domain. Hence, I need a trusted solution to migrate mailbox from Office 365 to Office 365.”
In such conditions, users require some flexibility out of usage on Microsoft’s cloud and this all begins with Tenant. No matter what the reason is, recently thousands of organizations decided to migrate Office 365 mailboxes to Office 365 tenant. But, the main issue is HOW?
Considering this question in mind, today we are here with this step-by-step guide.
Migrate Service Settings and Mailboxes From One Office 365 Tenant To Another
The complete process mentioned in this section is based on two fictional organizations – Source and Target that uses separate Office 365 tenants. Suppose the target organization is purchased by the source organization and now it is required to migrate target organization’s users and database to the Office 365 tenant of source organization.
To begin the migration from target Office 365 tenant to source Office 365 tenant first, users have to do such things as given below:
Client Considerations
- In Outlook 2010 and 2013: You have to remove the account of MS Outlook application
- In Outlook 2007 and 2010: While restarting the computer, clients will be configured by auto-discovery and OST file will be generated again
- For Full Lync Clients: After completing the merging process, add all the contacts
Tenant Preparation and Licensing
- It is required to increase the number of licensing in the target Office 365 tenant. It is necessary because the mailbox of source tenant can be merged into the target tenant
- Create all Admins accounts in the source as well as target tenants. It is very useful for merging two Office 365 tenants.
Interaction with Users I
In the organization, to interact with end users for the migration, they have to prepare themselves first with the below-given method:
- Create interaction plans and send the notification of combining two Office 365 tenants and make some changes in the services
- After completing migration successfully, the complete nickname cache must be cleared out on MS Outlook application.
- If any issues occur during the conversion process then, inform the user about the complete procedure for connecting to Outlook Web App(OWA) with all required login details.
Preparation and Pre-migration Plans: Before 3 days of Migrating
Prepare Office 365 Domain
Execute the following set of instructions to prepare the tenant for migration:
- There is a need to start the verification of domain on the target tenant, which is only for source mail tenant
- In the target (second) Office 365 admin center, add the source domain and also create the TXT records in Domain Name System (DNS) for verification
Note: Keep this thing in mind that if one domain is still in use of the other tenant then, the verification will become failed.
- After executing these steps, enable the DNS record time for circulation. It will take around 72 hours.
Migration Scheduling
- Users need to generate a master list of all user mailboxes, which is required to merge.
- After this, you have to create the mailbox mapping
Mail Exchanger Record For Live Testing and Disable Directory Sync in the Source Tenant
Target Tenant Preparation
It includes the complete verification record of source domain in the target tenant. You just have to wait for one hour to delete the domain from an old domain.
- When utilizing AD FS, the user needs to configure the new tenant in the target domain for AD FS
- You need to activate the target tenant and assign all the licenses to a new account of end users
- Set up a source tenant as the primary account
- In the target domain, enter the exact password on each mailbox, if users are not accessing the AD FS or the password sync feature
- Check to test the mail flow to or from a new mailbox in the target (second) domain.
Source Tenant Preparation
Before migrating one Office 365 mailboxes to the target domain, the primary domain must be deleted from all objects in the source tenant
- To configure the SharePoint Online sites first, you need to set the URL of all websites again to the primary domain name
- Remove all the Lync licenses in the source domain via Lync admin portal
- By default, set the email id on the mailbox of source tenant once again and reset the complete domain (email addresses) on the list of Resources, Rooms, Distribution Lists into the initial domain in the source domain.
Using PowerShell Script to Perform Migration of Mailbox from Office 365 to Office 365 Tenant
Now, we need to use the PowerShell command to execute the migration:
- First of all, create a CSV file with the associated name of password.csv
- Then, enter “upn” and “newpassword” columns inside a created file (for example xyz@org.com,Password1)
- Run the below command in Windows PowerShell:
Import-Csv password.csv|%{Set-MsolUserPassword -userPrincipalName $_.upn -NewPassword $_.newpassword -ForceChangePassword $false
- Copy all data from Office 365 account with the specific type of proxy server into CSV fileCreate the Room Mailboxes in MS Office 365
- Remove Secondary Email Address from all Mailboxes in Batch
Shortcomings of Manual Approach
Performing mailboxes migration from Office 365 tenant to another Office 365 tenant manually is quite good however, this method includes some serious drawbacks with it. Such as:
- All the commands are required to follow carefully and sequentially as a single incorrect step can lead to the removal of data
- This procedure is too complicated and takes a long time to execute the migration
- Technical expertise and a lot of time is required to accomplish the entire task successfully
Quick and Automatic Way to Migrate Mailbox from Office 365 to Office 365 Tenant
After considering the drawbacks associated with manual way, it is recommended to opt a direct solution. One such way is automated tool – SysTools Office 365 Tenant to Office 365 Tenant Migration tool to perform the conversion even without any kind of data loss and complexity. With the help of this software, one can easily move emails, contacts, calendars, tasks, shared mailbox from one Office 365 tenant to another Office 365 tenant. The software supports to migrate the mailboxes in different Office 365 domains and provides an option to import the CSV to add Office 365 source and destination mailbox information. Also, it offers ‘Date Filter’ feature to migrate the emails of a specific time interval. The application is compatible with all Windows platform and retains all metadata intact while exporting data from one Office 365 mailbox to another account.
In conclusion
MS Office 365 is a safe and secure place where users can save their crucial data. After considering the above-stated scenario, many users want to execute mailbox migration from Office 365 to Office 365. Thus, in this editorial, we have covered the suitable approaches for the same. Before proceeding with the manual method it is necessary to fulfill all the prerequisites accurately. In order to migrate mailbox from Office 365 to Office 365 tenant.