Migrate Exchange 2010 Linked Mailboxes to Office 365: An Ultimate Guide
Summary: Here we have a detailed guide on how to migrate Exchange 2010 Mailbox to Office 365. Moreover, this guide also contains tips for making a linked mailbox from scratch. If your aim is to migrate a linked mailbox, first read the tutorial to convert it into a regular mailbox then migrate it with the method of your choice. All of which is present in separate sections with the blog itself.
In this article, we are going to describe two workarounds that use different approaches to import linked mailboxes from Exchange Server 2010 to Office 365 mailbox. After reading this post, certainly, all the problems of users related to the migration process will be resolved.
Well, the goal of this article is to point you toward each and every piece of knowledge related to linked mailboxes. So we have considered everything, therefore, we start with a quick overview of Linked Mailboxes.
Ideas Migrate Exchange 2010 Mailbox to Office 365 including Linked Mailboxes
The concept of linked mailboxes comes into existence when the user needs to connect the Exchange Server with a resource forest or cross-forest migration. Actually, it gives the power to incorporate Exchange in an individual forest and allow to access the same mailbox. In fact, a trust must exist in between the forest to generate a linked mailbox.
Creating a linked mailbox in Exchange is not rocket science. For this, one can only need to follow the few steps that are mentioned below.
Steps to Create Linked Mailbox Via. Exchange Admin Center
Before we can migrate Exchange 2010 mailbox to Office 365. We first have to create a linked mailbox by either using EAC or Exchange Management Shell. Moreover, before starting the procedure, a user account should be available in the account forest
1. Open EAC and click on Recipients >> Mailboxes
2. After that, click on New and select Linked Mailbox
3. From the New Linked Mailbox page, you need to select the desired account forest name for which the linked mailbox will be created. Then, click Next.
4. In such a situation when the organization creates a one-way outgoing trust, a message prompts and asks for admin credentials in order to acquire access to the trusted forest. So, enter the credentials and click on Next.
Note: If the organization configured two-way trust, then the user will not be prompted to enter credentials.
5. From Select linked master account page, you need to perform the following steps:
- In the linked domain controller box, choose a relevant domain controller in order to get the list of user accounts in the account forest to pick the linked master account.
- Under Linked Master account, click on Browse to locate the user account. Then, click on OK >> Next.
6. In the Enter general information page, fill in the appropriate box with relevant information.
- Name:– Enter a suitable name for the user.
- Organizational Unit (or OU):- Click on Browser and select a different Organizational Unit instead of the default OU and click on OK.
- User logon name: Mention a login name in order to make a linked mailbox.
7. After that, click on More Options to provide additional steps. Else, hit the Save button
8. Finally, the linked mailboxes are created in Exchange.
After understanding linked mailboxes, let’s go through the technique for transferring the Exchange server data to the O365 account.
Procedure to Migrate Exchange 2010 Linked Mailboxes to Office 365
On a fundamental level, there are two ways to transfer linked mailboxes of Exchange Server in Exchange Online which are manual and automated. However, before we move ahead with either one a crucial change has to be made. That is users must convert their linked mailbox into a regular user mailbox.
Also Read: Procedure to Export Public Exchange Folder to PST Format
The reason for this procedure is quite simple as there is no single workaround that directly makes the jump from a linked mailbox located in Exchange to its Online counterpart. Moreover, the change is relatively simple to do via the Exchange management shell. Not to mention this is quite important if you want to successfully migrate Exchange 2010 mailbox to Office 365. For this, you only need to execute the cmdlets given below.
1. First of all, grant permission to user account-
New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role “Mailbox Import Export” -User “Domain\UserName”
2. Now, convert the linked mailboxes into user mailboxes.
Set -User –Identity abc@name_of_domain.com -LinkedMasterAccount $null
After the conversion process, refer to the below approaches for the migration procedure.
Use Cut-Over Migration Technique
This workaround comes under the manual method where we use a specific Cut-Over technique to migrate Exchange Server mailboxes into Office 365 accounts. Officially Cutover migration is only for smaller organizations that don’t have a lot of data to migrate. Moreover, it has various stages that users need to follow for the data migration process.
Stage A. Analyse the domain
Stage B. Establish a connection between the email system and O365
Stage C. Make cutover migration batch
Stage D. Start the process
Stage E. Migrate email to O365 directly
Stage F. Remove the migration batch
Stage G. Allot licenses to O365 users
Stage H. Perform post-migration processes
Unfortunately, Cutover Migration Has Some Consequences
It is true that the manual way to migrate Exchange 2010 linked mailboxes to Office 365 has a few downsides. The major ones are:
- Lots of stages are included in cutover migration. Not to mention each stage has its own set of unique steps that user must figure out on their own. Hence, it is a quite complex and time-consuming process.
- Only 150 mailboxes can be moved at a time, any more than that increases the risk of systematic failure.
- The process has lots of twists and turns so users who are used to a step by step approach of Exchange Server 2010 to Office 365 migration may face difficulty.
- Deep technical knowledge is necessary to utilize this technique properly.
- Organizations that lack sufficient resources may fail to get the desired results.
- There is no guarantee that the entire mailbox data will move to Office 365.
Also read: Steps to Extract Text From PDF To Word Easily
Above all, these demerits make it inappropriate for such a critical task. Therefore, it is advised to use the alternative option if you really care about your data.
Use Reliable Way to Migrate Exchange 2010 Mailbox to Office 365
To overcome cut-over method limitations, we suggest using an outstanding Exchange to Office 365 Migration Software. It is an efficient utility that effortlessly moves Exchange mailboxes to the O365 account within a few clicks. In fact, all the mailbox items such as email, contacts, calendars, etc. can be transferred to Exchange Online in no time. The user just needs to follow some simple steps and the rest of the task will complete on its own.
Step 1. First of all, Download the utility on your device.
Step 2. Open the tool and make the following Selection Exchange as Source, Office 365 as the Destination.
Step 3. In the Workload Selection area mark the boxes next to the type of data you are willing to shift. There is also an option to set Date Filters as well.
Step 4. On the Source page choose Exchange Version (2010), enter Admin Email, and Password, and fill in the IP address of AD as well as the Exchange Server.
Step 5. Type in the Admin Email and also add the Application ID for Office 365 validate and click on Next.
Step 6. Choose one of the Mapping Options if a direct connection is available then Fetch, if you have a premade CSV then Import, otherwise Download the template edit it, and reupload.
Step 7. Look at the user list, mark the start icon if you wish to prioritize a particular set of users, then Validate and hit Start Migration.
Wrap Up
In this post, we have covered the information regarding the methods to migrate Exchange 2010 linked mailboxes to Office 365. Additionally, users can use any workaround illustrated here to move the Exchange mailbox data. However, if we ask experts about their choice all of them sing in unison the name of the professional tool described above. So now it is up to the user, to choose the most suitable method for the migration task.
