When migrating an on-premises Exchange Server to Office 365, we wish to have a smooth migration with no issues and data loss. For this reason, we use migration endpoints for Office 365. A migration endpoint is not a migration tool but a way to connect both entities. This article will discuss the step-by-step procedure to create migration endpoints for migrating data between the on-premises server to Office 365.
How to Create Migration Endpoint in Office 365?
- Creating Endpoint in Exchange Online
- Setting up the Right Credentials for the Endpoint
- Confirming the Connectivity to the Exchange Server
- Completing the Migration Endpoint Setup
- Create Migration Endpoint in the New Exchange Admin Center (EAC)
1] Creating Endpoint in Exchange Online
First, login with a global administrator in your Office 365 tenant and open the Exchange Admin Center (EAC). Then, click on Migration.
If you only see the Migration batch, open the Classic Exchange Admin Center (EAC) from the left pane at the bottom.
- Click on Recipients and then click on Migration.
- Click on the three dots and click on Migration Endpoints.
- Click on the + button.
Here is where you can select the type of migration endpoint.
If you are using a cutover or staged migration, you must choose the Outlook Anywhere option. If you are migrating data from a non-Exchange Server, you should choose IMAP. You need to create an Exchange Remote endpoint to migrate from a hybrid setup. If you are migrating from a Google G Suite tenant, you can use Google Workspace.
Since we will be migrating from an Exchange Server, Outlook Anywhere is chosen.
2] Setting up the Right Credentials for the Endpoint
In the next step, you will be asked to enter the credentials for the on-premises server. You will be asked to fill in the email address, account, and password.
- Email Address is the full email address of one user you will be migrating and will be used to test connectivity and access.
- Account with privileges is the Active Directory user with full rights on the local Exchange Server.
- Password is the password for the privileged user.
3] Confirming the Connectivity to the Exchange Server
In the next screen, the setup will try to connect to your Exchange Server to get the information and confirm the connectivity with the Exchange Server.
If there is an issue or the server can’t be detected from the Autodiscover services, you will be asked to enter the details of your Exchange Server.
Follow the steps below if you are prompted or have an issue with Outlook Anywhere.
- Enter the full FQDN of the server and the full FQDN for the RPC proxy server. If you have a single installation of Exchange, this would probably be the same as the Exchange Server.
- Click on More Options. This will provide further options for authentication with the server and the security level.
- The Authentication type is either Basic or NTLM. At the same time, the permission level is the user you specified to at which level has access, which is either a Domain admin or Full access on the Exchange Server.
- You can skip the verification by clicking on the Skip Verification option.
4] Completing the Migration Endpoint Setup
In the next screen, you need to confirm the endpoint’s name. In the Maximum concurrent migrations field, you can enter the number of mailboxes that will be migrated at once. In the Maximum concurrent incremental syncs field, you can enter the number of mailboxes that will be synchronized at a point in time. These two fields can be left empty if not needed.
- Click on New to create the Migration Endpoint.
5] Create Migration Endpoint in the New Exchange Admin Center (EAC)
Let’s now see how to create a migration endpoint in the new Exchange Admin Center. In the new portal, you need to create a migration batch first.
- After clicking on Migration, click on add Migration Batch.
- Enter the name for the migration batch.
- Select the migration path. In this case, it would be Migration to Exchange Online. Then, click Next.
In the next step, select the migration type and click Next. In this case, we select the Cutover migration as Staged migration is only supported by Exchange Server 2003 and 2007. You can also use the Remote Move migration if you have Exchange Server 2010 or later with a hybrid setup.
If you have created the migration endpoint already from the classic portal, you can select it from the dropdown or click on Create a new migration endpoint.
From here, the procedure is the same as the classic portal.
In the next screen, you will be asked for the Exchange Server information, Concurrent migrations, and Incremental syncs. As you can see, the maximum concurrent parameters are already set. These are the maximum numbers you can set.
Now, you can continue to set up the migration batch.
Conclusion
You can see that the endpoint relies a lot on Outlook Anywhere. So, if you have connectivity issues due to an incorrectly configured Exchange Server, network limitations, or other domain-related issues, this could be a problem. Also, this method is just to move the user mailboxes. It doesn’t have any support for public folders. In addition, you need a working Exchange Server to migrate the data.
Alternatively, you can use a migration tool to ease the migration. One such tool is the Stellar Converter for EDB. With this tool, you can open multiple Exchange Server databases (EDB) of any version of the server with no limit on size. You can browse through the store and granularly export mailboxes, shared mailboxes, archives, disabled mailboxes, and public folders to PST and other formats. You can also export directly to an Office 365 tenant. The tool offers parallel exports, continuation in case of interruption, priority exports, and automatic/manual user mapping.
