Office 365 Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Step-By-Step Methods

Summary: Are you worried about transferring your data from one tenant account to another? Finding solutions for Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration? This blog depicts both needs and methods for this process. You can manually migrate or use the Office 365 Migrator Tool . Therefore, you can keep all your files and documents in one place, whether you are switching or merging with another organization.

Need for Microsoft 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration

MS Office 365 is a widely used suite among people offering different productive and collaborative tools. However, at times it needs to migrate from one tenant to another. The reasons are as follows:

• It is required for collaboration and to streamline smooth communications.
• To simplify management, reduce cost and time, and enhance administration.
• Also, it is essential for secure data access and to maintain integrity.
• Moreover, during updates moving with new Office 365 provides advanced features.

Basic Requirements for M365 Migration Tenant to Tenant

Before selecting the right tool for migration, we must ensure these:

• Categories that a mailbox can migrate like contacts, calendars, emails, etc.
• The capacity of the tool to migrate data quickly without loss.
• In addition, it must be cost-effective and user-friendly.
• Backup the data from both the source and destination tenant's account.
• Particularly, it must be secure enough to protect from viruses and threats.

Methods for Office 365 Tenant-to-Tenant Migration

Generally, tenant-to-tenant migration is done during acquisitions, mergers, etc. Consequently, there are different migration patterns. Furthermore, there are two ways in which you can perform this migration: Manually or Professionally. The detailed step-by-step procedure for these methods is discussed below.

Exchange Online Tenant to Tenant Migration Manually

This method involves a pre-migration, migration, and a post-migration stage. Follow the steps below:

Stage 1: Pre Migration

1. Preparing Domain

Manage your domain as required: Re-branding, No re-branding, or Cloud tenant. Further, follow these instructions:

• Ensure you have enough licenses for the destination Office 365.
• Generate admin accounts in the source and destination tenants to migrate without errors.
• Next, create the respective user inboxes, room/resource mailboxes, and distribution groups in targets.
• Subsequently, use the AD DS tool (if needed), and manually synchronize both the domains.
• Lastly, remember to train end users about the changes after migration.

2. Verifying Domain

This can be done by:

• Configure source domain to destination admin center in Office 365. Verify the destination domain.
• Create TXT records in DNS. In particular, make sure that only one tenant uses the domain.

Note: It takes about 30 minutes to 72 hours to reflect changes.

3. Scheduling Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration ?

• Create a CSV file containing the list of user mailboxes that need to be migrated.
• Subsequently, note the Time to Live on the source email domain i.e. MX record.
• Additionally, disable the directory sync for the source tenant account.

Stage 2: Microsoft 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration

1. Terminate Incoming Mails

Change the default MS record to an unexpected value or use a third-party application to put a stop to incoming mail flow. In addition, specify the target time limit based on the TTL recorded in the MX.

2. Arranging Source Tenant

Before moving further, delete the primary mail domain from everywhere in the source domain. Furthermore, complete the following tasks:

• Restore the default email address of Microsoft 365 as the initial email address.
• Next, utilize the Lync Admin Portal to remove all respective Lync licenses from the primary tenant.
• Further, reset the default email address of distribution lists, rooms, and resources to the native domain.
• Moreover, delete the secondary email ID from all tenant objects.
• At last, run the Windows PowerShell command:

?Get-MsolUser -DomainName xyz.com

• It will extract all entities, still using the primary email address or restricting removal.

3. Arranging Destination Tenant

Before beginning this step, ensure an hour has passed. Now, follow the given steps:

1. Set the auto-discover CNAME configuration.
2. Next, if using AD FS, configure a brand new domain in the destination tenant.
3. Afterward, enable the new user accounts in the objective domain and assign necessary licenses.
4. Further, set the source domain as the initial email address (with the help of PowerShell). Also, convey the passwords to end-users.
5. Subsequently, when the user mailboxes are working, replace the mail routing. Direct MX record to the new Office 365 email address.
6. Lastly, test the inbound and outbound flow of email.

Stage 3: Post-Migration

Follow the given instructions:

1. In case, the number of users is less than 500, migrate mail, calendar, and contacts separately. It ensures a smooth migration process.
2. Limit the migration process by any criteria, like date.?
3. If users are more than 500, use the multi-pass technology. It involves migrating mailbox data into multiple batches, enhancing efficiency, and reducing potential disruptions.
4. Additionally, you have the option to choose specific data to transfer, such as contacts, specific week information, calendars, and more.?

This marks the end of the manual process. However, it is time-consuming, lengthy, risky, and too complicated. Instead, of using this method for migration, it is suggested to go for an expert-recommended tool.

Automated Tool for Office 365 Tenant-to-Tenant Migration

If you are a novice user, it is clearly understood that the manual method is not the right approach. It requires high technical expertise. However, for seamless and quick tenant migration, you can use the Office 365 Migrator Tool. This ensures you can maintain a backup of your data files, having extra security. Moreover, this tool makes the migration process easy and has numerous unique features, such as:

• Migrates Office 365 mailboxes to O365 and other email clients.
• Also, removes duplicates and performs the migration within seconds.
• Moreover, it is highly compatible with systems and supports bulk migration.

Steps for Tenant-to-Tenant Migration

1. Download and install the tool on your system. Run it as an administrator.
2. Click on Backup > Continue.?
3. Next, select Authentication mode, and enter Office 365 account details.?
4. Check the box Assign Impersonation for migrating from multiple user accounts and Sign In.
5. Further, import the CSV file, choose Mailbox type and respective users, and click on Next.
6. After that, select the file or folder to backup from the tree hierarchy and click Next.
7. Subsequently, select Office 365 from the drop-down menu. Enter the destination tenant ID and click Sign-in.
8. Later, choose the optional filters and click Next. Furthermore, select the tenant IDs to which you want to migrate data, choose mailboxes, and click Next.
9. Finally, hit the Convert button.

Conclusion

Overall, this blog tells that the Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration requires absolute planning and execution. You can go for the manual method, but it will be troublesome. Therefore, it is suggested to be optimal and use the recommended professional tool for extra benefits.