Steps to Migrate from Exchange 2007 to Office 365

Microsoft has made Exchange administrator’s job easier to execute migration between Servers. With an official online guide (Exchange Server Deployment Assistant), one can choose required options and practice the migration steps to understand how easily an Exchange administrator can migrate Exchange Server 2007 to Exchange Online.

So today I’m sharing Exchange server migration procedure for those administrators/users who’re planning to move towards Cloud servers from Exchange 2007.  

I’ll also start the migration process using Exchange Server Deployment Assistant in this blog, so you only need to follow the step-by-step migration process for upgrading to Office 365. Have a look-

Migration Process of Exchange 2007 to Office 365

Firstly, Launch Exchange Server Deployment Assistant by clicking here and select Cloud Only option.

Select Yes as you’re migrating to Office 365 (Exchange Online), and click Next.

Now select your on-premise Exchange version form the list. Choose Exchange 2007 in your instance and click Next.

There are two options to choose from, you can choose anyone as per your system requirement. However, default option Manage users in Office 365 is already selected. Click Next if you want to choose default selection.

Now provide the information about the number of mailboxes you currently hold on your Exchange Server, and then click Next.

A guide about Migrate all mailboxes to Exchange Online will prompt on your screen.

Just read the complete migration procedure and move further steps for migrating Exchange 2007 Server.

Test the current Setup

Open Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer to ensure that your Exchange Server 2007 environment supports Outlook Autodiscover and Outlook Connectivity (RPC over HTTP). You can go through the guide to verify Exchange 2007 setup. Once you have verified Exchange setup, use Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer to verify Outlook Connectivity. But before migrating the mailboxes, make sure that you have assigned the right permission to mailboxes for migration.   

Now open Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer by visiting https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/. Select Outlook Connectivity and click Next.

Now fill all the required information and select ‘Use Autodiscover to detect server settings’ if you’re using Autodiscover to detect server settings, else select ‘Manually specify server settings’. Enter Verification Code and click Perform Test.

Once test is successful, you can continue to further migration steps. If test is completed with the warning, you can review and resolve the warning message if required.

But in case if test fails, use the report generated and the guide (Exchange Deployment Assistant) to fix the issues.

Setup Cutover Migration

Login at https://login.microsoftonline.com/ and open Exchange Admin Center. Once you logged in, click Exchange from Admin section, and select Migration.

Now choose Migrate to Exchange Online by clicking on + icon.

Now select Cutover migration option from the migration type and click Next.

Enter on premises account credentials and click Next.

Once it will be configured correctly, Autodiscover should resolve the RPC Proxy Server and the on-premise Exchange Server. Now click Next.

Enter new migration batch name and click Next.

Once migration process is finished, you need to select a user account to get the complete report. However, you can also select multiple accounts to get many reports. There are two options - one is ‘Automatically start the batch’, and another is ‘Manually start the batch later’.

Select ‘Automatically’ option if you’re ready to start the migration, or manually option if you aren't ready to start the migration. Click Next.

Now the new migration batch has been created and status is set to syncing in Exchange Admin Center. 

The final migration step will take some time for completion depending on the number of accounts and the size of mailboxes which are being sync’d from Exchange Server. However, you can check the running migration process details by clicking View Details under the Mailbox Status.

Completion of the Migration

You will get an email report once all the mailboxes and accounts have synced from Exchange 2007 to Exchange Online/Office 365. Now, complete the following migration process once you have received that email-

·         Migrate public folders to Office 365.

·         Assign Office 365 licenses to all users.

·         Check that all the DNS records are updated and pointed to Office 365 services.

·         Configure your desktop to use Office 365 services.

Now you can stop the migration batch job if all the migration and MX record DNS replication is finished. Finally, stop Exchange 2007 services once all done.

However, if you're unable to migrate mailboxes using the above process, try software to export Exchange mailboxes to Office 365 account.

That’s it. If you have any question related Exchange server migration, share your query in comment box.

Thanks,