BPOS to Office365 Transition
Below are the questions that I submitted to BPOS support, for which I still have not received a satisfactory answer. I am wondering if anyone who has already migrated over from BPOS to Office 365 could provide any enlightenment. Between two different accounts that I am managing there are over 200 users to transition, most of whom are running Outlook for Mac 2011 and have numerous devices with their BPOS Exchange account configured. Everyone is signed up for Exchange only, and we are planning to sign up for the Exchange Online P1 plan on the Office365 platform.
There are our main concerns:
1. Some documentation seems to indicate that an administrator password change is necessary to trigger the migration even if complexity requirements are already met. Is this true?
2. Written documentation seemed to indicate a different standard of password complexity for Office 365. However, the last tech I spoke with during a rather lengthy call indicated that the standards for BPOS and Office365 are now the same, so that there will be no need to change user passwords across the board during the Office365 migration. Is this true, or is it false, so that we will have to go changing user passwords across the board? That, btw, would be a major, major inconvenience given the fact that users have multiple computers as well as hand held devices that will need to be reset.
3. Most, if not all, of our users are using Office for Mac 2011. This has been configured by version 2 of the Microsoft Online Services Sign In for Mac. We have also been told to run the script to disable autodiscover. Once the migration is completed, will all of the Outlook for Mac clients need to be reconfigured? If so, will the Microsoft Online Services Sign In application be used to do so, or will it go away? Will autodiscover need to be re-enabled because it is my understanding that I will need to create a CNAME for autodiscover as part of the migration process.
4. Will we need to reconfigure everyone's iPhones, iPads, etc., or will the existing configurations still work post transition?
There are our main concerns:
1. Some documentation seems to indicate that an administrator password change is necessary to trigger the migration even if complexity requirements are already met. Is this true?
2. Written documentation seemed to indicate a different standard of password complexity for Office 365. However, the last tech I spoke with during a rather lengthy call indicated that the standards for BPOS and Office365 are now the same, so that there will be no need to change user passwords across the board during the Office365 migration. Is this true, or is it false, so that we will have to go changing user passwords across the board? That, btw, would be a major, major inconvenience given the fact that users have multiple computers as well as hand held devices that will need to be reset.
3. Most, if not all, of our users are using Office for Mac 2011. This has been configured by version 2 of the Microsoft Online Services Sign In for Mac. We have also been told to run the script to disable autodiscover. Once the migration is completed, will all of the Outlook for Mac clients need to be reconfigured? If so, will the Microsoft Online Services Sign In application be used to do so, or will it go away? Will autodiscover need to be re-enabled because it is my understanding that I will need to create a CNAME for autodiscover as part of the migration process.
4. Will we need to reconfigure everyone's iPhones, iPads, etc., or will the existing configurations still work post transition?
ASKER
I did log into https://portal.microsoftonline.com, but I had to change my password first even though it already met the complexity requirements. This got me in, but there was no mailbox yet for me as I expected.
Although this administrator password change requirement is certainly not encouraging, it does not conclusively answer the question as to whether I will need to reset everyone's user password once the transition is done.
I still also need to know the impact and/or tools that will be available to Office for Mac 2011 users, and I am wondering whether the old settings will work temporarily for desktop and mobile users, and whether some sort of update script can be triggered to automate the process.
It would be so nice to hear from admins who have gone through this process alreadly.
Thank you.
Although this administrator password change requirement is certainly not encouraging, it does not conclusively answer the question as to whether I will need to reset everyone's user password once the transition is done.
I still also need to know the impact and/or tools that will be available to Office for Mac 2011 users, and I am wondering whether the old settings will work temporarily for desktop and mobile users, and whether some sort of update script can be triggered to automate the process.
It would be so nice to hear from admins who have gone through this process alreadly.
Thank you.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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2. Password complexity for O365 is 8 characters (BPOS used to be 7) plus a CAPITAL and a number.
3. Not sure
4. Mobile devices need to be reconfigured because the server address has changed.
This may help with #3...
To set up desktops manually without the script (after you get the 30 day notice):
1. Log in at https://portal.microsoftonline.com with your current BPOS credentials. (If you can’t login, it’s because your password doesn’t meet the requirements and you must change it in BPOS first.)
2. Click on the Downloads link on the right.
3. Click on the Set Up button and follow the wizard.
This may help with #4...
Here’s the link for the mobile device setup wizard:
http://g.microsoftonline.com/0BD00en-US/129
It will ask you to sign into OWA to find your server name, but you can just use m.outlook.com for everyone, even if OWA says something different.