Exchange 2013 migration to MS365 using MS native tool or hybrid exchange server
Hello Experts,
I need to perform an email migration from Exchange 2013 on prem to MS365.
My plan is to setup an Exchange 2013 server as hybrid and perform the migration to MS365. Since this is a small company only 20 mailboxes I do not want to install Azure AD connect to syn password-hash or resources or workstations to Azure AD tenant, instead I will manually disjoin machines from local AD, backup the windows profiles, and manually join each PC to Azure AD join, then enroll in Intune.
My understanding is that to use a Exchange 2013 hybrid email migration to 365 Azure AD connect is mandatory to perform the migration. Is that assumption correct? Can I proceed without Azure AD connect to migrate mailboxes to MS365?
ASKER
Hi Ma,
Thanks for answering my question,,
Could you please be so kind and provide high level steps to do migration without Hybrid and AADConnect?
Cna you please also share some blog, link, article to update the office 365 exchguid same as local server exchguid?
Thank you in advance
Azure AD Connect really isn't that big of a deal. Takes maybe 30 minutes to setup and run, more or less depending on how much time you spend researching the settings. I was worried about it, but it turns out to be no big deal. I then ran Exchange hybrid settings, and configured the Exchange proxy that's required to use the f ree native tools for migrating mailboxes. What I really like is that there isn't some big bang, flin a big switch and pray everything is working moment. Everything proceeds at a nice and controlled pace. We're migrating and finalizing mailbox moves individually and in groups, as we need to work with users to get mobile email reconfigured, make sure they're enrolled in MFA, etc. No email outages for the organization. All very nice.
ASKER
Everyone, I would like to clarify my request as some of the comments suggest AAD connect.
I am trying to find a way to migrate exchange 2013 to exchange online without using AD sync or azure ad. We are going to be building an online only environment in azure/ms365 from scratch. We will be creating users separately and not keeping there accounts as they are.
But we want to keep our old emails and create alias for the old addresses. From what i can tell if you use migrations that are given by Microsoft they want to keep ad sync for changes made to email.
We want to just bring the old email boxes and create shared mailboxes from them, add them to the new account. So we don't need to keep any ad information for the old users.
Is this possible?
You can use AAD Connect as a transition to an exclusively M365 environment, with no legacy AD. All you need to do is after the sync, switch your MX records to O365, and then stop syncing your users and convert them to cloud only.
You can also use any of the various paid 3rd party tools to do a cutover migration.
Check this article for more insight - How to Decide Best Migration Path from Exchange to Office 365?
-->Can I proceed without Azure AD connect to migrate mailboxes to MS365?
Yes you can. You have to update the office365 exchguid same as local server exchguid.
I have recently done migration without Hybrid and ADConnect.