Migrating data between Office 365 tenants is a prevalent practice when an organization goes through a merger or acquisition. In this article, we will look at how to migrate domain mailboxes between Office 365 tenants. And the easiest way for the same.
Microsoft themselves suggest using a reliable third party tool since there is no straightforward way provided by Microsoft to do the same. Trying to perform manually perform the migration may also cause permanent data loss.
Pre-Migration Checklist to Migrate Domain Mailboxes Between Office 365 Tenants
Here are some of the things that we should keep in mind and make sure are taken care of before we start the migration process.
Communication with users
One of the foremost and important steps that you have to do before the migration process is to communicate with the users. The users must be aware of the entire plan of migration. Such as when the migration will take place, how much time it will take. And how it will affect the user experience of the user both during and after the migration process.
Inventory Analysis
Before we perform the migration process we must have an idea on the list of things that we want to migrate. Make sure to make an inventory list of the following items.
- Names of mailboxes their sizes and the email addresses they use.
- Desired storage locations of the mailboxes, the browser, the operating system, and Office application version of the client and their configurations.
- Also have details about the internet connectivity, DNS host, proxy, available bandwidth, firewalls, etc of the client.
Clarity on Current Environment Before Migration
Have a clear idea of these things in the current environment before the migration process.
- Have a clear idea of how to create accounts.
- Have a proper list of licenses that are required by the user accounts.
- Make sure you understand and have a clear idea of the backup policies.
- Look into the network capacity and whether it is capable to do migration or needs improvement.
- Make sure the users get basic training before the migration process.
Create a List of Data to be Migrated
Make sure the data is ready to be migrated and the following things are taken care of before the migration process.
- Update the active directory.
- User accounts that are not in use anymore should be removed.
- The UPN of the source and destination should be the same.
- Setup things for both Online and Offline arching facilities in the future
Getting Office 365 Ready For Migration
- Make sure there are enough Office 365 subscriptions and licenses for migration.
- All domains that you want to migrate should be verified.
- Make sure the security permissions and applications that you want to use are in place.
- Perform a test run to make sure that everything is working.
Professional Method to Migrate Domain Mailboxes Between Office 365 Tenants
As we have discussed in the previous section there are no straightforward manual methods that we can use for this process. Most Reliable Office 365 Migration is one of the best tools in the industry that provides users with an easy and seamless migration experience. The tool offers a lot of additional features that make the migration process that much more hassle-free.
Some Extra Features of the Tool
- Ability to migrate Office 365 accounts from tenant to tenant.
- Support for migrating emails, calendars, tasks, and documents from OneDrive.
- Option for a date filter to filter out data before the migration process.
- Ability to migrate Microsoft teams data securely.
- Supports delta migration to easily migrate newly arrived data from the source account.
- Ability to migrate data between online SharePoint to SharePoint
- Support for advanced features to easily migrate groups and group members between Office 365 accounts.
Steps to Use Professional Tool to Migrate Mailbox to Office 365
Now let us look at the tools that we have to follow to use the professional tool.
- Download and open the software on your system.
- In the setup screen make sure the source and destination are selected as Office 365.
- Now under the workload section select the files that you want to migrate to the new tenant like emails, calendars, email, contact, task, etc.
- If in need the user can use a date filter to migrate data only from a time period.
- Now next in the source tab enter your admin email id and the application id and validate the needed permissions.
- In the next window click on fetch users to add users from the source account that has to be migrated.
- You can also do this manually using a CSV file by downloading the template.
- Once the process is completed on the next screen you can see all the email ids from the source account.
- Now you have to enter the destination email id for these accounts. It can be done either manually one by one or by using a CSV that contains this information.
- After adding the destination email address now we have to add the default password for all the accounts created on the new tenant.
- If needed the user can set priority to the tools so that they can migrate high priority accounts first.
- Once you see the green icon on the screen click on the start migration button to start the process.
- Once the migration is over you can get a report in a CSV file to make sure that all your data is successfully migrated.
Post Migration Checklist to Migrate Domain Mailboxes Between Office 365 Tenants
Here are some of the things that you should cross off the list and take care of as soon as possible after the migration process is completed.
Changing the Destination of Emails
Once the migration process is completed we have to change the destination of where the email is being received. This is done so that the emails are received to the new Office 365 tenant. We also have to make sure that the folders are in the state” This folder is up to date”.
Licenses Allotment
Once the migration is completed it is important for us to assign the right licenses to the accounts. This is because if the licenses are not assigned in the next 30 days then the accounts will simply be disabled and can not be used by the user. This might lead to a pause in the business activities which in turn can cause a loss to the organization.
Turn on Autodiscovery
If you want to connect your Office 365 account to email clients like Outlook then turn on the autodiscover DNS records. This can be done through Office 365 to automate the DNS to discover new email clients when needed and connect to them easily.
Disable Source Tenant
Once you make sure that all the data is migrated from the source tenant permanently. And if you are in a situation where you don’t have any need of the source tenant in the future then you can simply shut it down.
Also read: How to Migrate Teams From One Tenant to Another?
Conclusion
In this article, we have seen how to migrate domain mailboxes between Office 365 tenants. We have learned that there is no straightforward manual method that you can use for the migration process. Hence to have a smooth and trouble-free experience we recommend you use the above mentioned tool.
