Exchange Online Migration From POP3
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Our POP3 provider is shutting down their POP3 server on August 31st, so this has forced us (which is a good thing) into Exchange Online. We got our quote, link to setup account and approval to proceed from our Office Manager. I've done several searches for best practices and even consulted another forum with some questions but no straight talk and conflicting info. Tip of the hat to the ML community in that I tend to find the best advice here.
Oh, and I have a weeks vacation next week too. SO, 3 days remaining this week and then I had planned to come back head first into the migration on the 18th. Unless I could do it the next three days.
SO my questions are:
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Can the POP3 and new Exchange Online be running at the same time, even after various DNS MX entry changes?
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Do I need a downtime night? Or can I do this progressively?
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We will be uploading PST files as, for years, we just downloaded POP3 mail to PST files to local hard drives that were not backed up. So, I know I'll need time for that. I was planning on starting with the low usage email users first and working my way up.
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Is there a good guide online to this kind of migration? I feel I can search well but not finding a good, handy guide to this.
I found this article about keeping the POP3 and Exchange Online up at the same time: thoughts? http://community.office365.com/en-us/w/exchange/786.simple-domain-sharing-for-smtp-email-addresses.aspx
Thanks!
Brian -
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I did this for a small customer a short time ago (though they were on another hosted Exchange solution, not using POP3 - so you'll actually have an easier time with it).
Can the POP3 and new Exchange Online be running at the same time, even after various DNS MX entry changes?
Yes, Sorta. Once you change the MX records (hopefully only with ones containing the O365 information) all new mail will go to Office 365.
Once the change is made, I'd create an entirely new Outlook profile (you are using Outlook, right?) and connect to your Office 365 account. You can add a second connection to your new Outlook profile that is a connection to your POP3 account. If the naming convention that you used to connect to the old POP3 was the same as the name for the MX records, you'll have to use a local host file to fake out these clients until DNS propagation is complete and you no longer need to connect to the POP3 provider.
Example of this: Let's say your MX record is Mail.acme.com and your POP3 server is also Mail.acme.com, when you change the IP address for Mail.acme.com, you won't be able to connect to the POP3 site any longer by name, you have two choices, either create an entry in your local host file to force your computer to the old IP, or if you client allows (I'm not sure if Outlook does or not) you might be able to put the IP address of the POP3 server instead of a FQDN (in this case Mail.acme.com)You will set all mail received from the POP3 to be delivered to your Office365 inbox, by passing any need for a local PST file.
Do I need a downtime night? Or can I do this progressively?
I can't see any way to do this progressively, that said, you could visit all of your users and setup their new Outlook profiles connected to Office365 and the POP3 as noted above before switching the MX records, additionally you'd need/want to connect their old PST files so the users have access to their old email until you are able to import the old PSTs into Office365.
In this scenerio, your mail would still be delivered to your POP3 account, but your Outlook client will pull down the mail and instantly send it to your Office 365 account, no longer putting new messages into the local PST.We will be uploading PST files as, for years, we just downloaded POP3 mail to PST files to local hard drives that were not backed up. So, I know I'll need time for that. I was planning on starting with the low usage email users first and working my way up
Sounds good to me.
If you were using an online type of webmail, it might have been possible to suck the messages directly from the server into Office365, but since you have it all in PSTs you'll have to upload from those.
How many users do you have?
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We are right at 50 users and purchased 55 licenses for future use...17 on E1 and the rest on basic email only. 5 are in the field and would need me to send them directions on changing the settings in their phone/tablets.
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Your Office365 partner will probably do all of this for you.
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@garak0410 said:
We are right at 50 users and purchased 55 licenses for future use...17 on E1 and the rest on basic email only. 5 are in the field and would need me to send them directions on changing the settings in their phone/tablets.
Why pay for licenses you're not using? You can literally add new users any time.
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@Dashrender said:
@garak0410 said:
We are right at 50 users and purchased 55 licenses for future use...17 on E1 and the rest on basic email only. 5 are in the field and would need me to send them directions on changing the settings in their phone/tablets.
Why pay for licenses you're not using? You can literally add new users any time.
With the office manager only wanting to be billed once a year with no autodraft on the card on a monthly charge, she made the decision to buy extra...didn't question it...
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Your Office365 will probably do all of this for you.
Huh?
Sorry. The word partner got missed.
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You can always run email servers side by side. MX records determine where the email goes.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Your Office365 partner will probably do all of this for you.
How does the partner create new profiles on the end user machines?
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Your Office365 partner will probably do all of this for you.
How does the partner create new profiles on the end user machines?
Same way as anyone else. You grant access. Many partners have migration teams that do this stuff.
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@scottalanmiller They wanted $5,000 to assist...I was thinking this wouldn't be too hard, even if I had to do it all in an evening...
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@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller They wanted $5,000 to assist...I was thinking this wouldn't be too hard, even if I had to do it all in an evening...
We are a partner that often does free migrations. Desktop profiles are never free but that price seems awfully high for so few users.
Did the partner offer something really compelling to make them a great option?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller They wanted $5,000 to assist...I was thinking this wouldn't be too hard, even if I had to do it all in an evening...
We are a partner that often does free migrations. Desktop profiles are never free but that price seems awfully high for so few users.
Did the partner offer something really compelling to make them a great option?
No...except lowest price I could get...
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@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller They wanted $5,000 to assist...I was thinking this wouldn't be too hard, even if I had to do it all in an evening...
We are a partner that often does free migrations. Desktop profiles are never free but that price seems awfully high for so few users.
Did the partner offer something really compelling to make them a great option?
No...except lowest price I could get...
But that said, I've YET to complete the sign up so they have not been given credit for it... :0
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You kinda need downtime. There is a period of time
Isn't the price set my MS? The price comes from them not the partners. We, as a partner, can't vary the price only raise the service level.
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Can I ask what price you got?
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Back in topic....
You don't need downtime per se. But...
You have many hours while the MX records propagate. During that time it is best to not have people using the email if you can help it.
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Uploading PSTs can be done after the core migration is done.
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Generally the main migration you want to do in a single shot. Like Friday night into Saturday.
Then once new emails are working and everyone is functional you look to migrate historic emails.
