Transferring a domain from one Office 365 (Microsoft 365) tenant to another involves a complete migration or a simple split of tenant and data. A domain name transfer is not a simple task and must be planned well, especially if you would also be transferring the data. In this article, we will go through the process of transferring domain from one Office 365 tenant to another.
Why would you Move a Domain to another Office 365 Tenant?
There are different reasons why you would need to transfer a domain to another Office 365 tenant. Let’s explore some of the business scenarios.
- There is merger or acquisition of a company and the organization’s decision is to consolidate domains under a single tenant to increase control, manageability, and security.
- There is a company which splits into different companies and there is a need to split the domains into different entities or tenants.
- In large corporations, there could be regulatory compliance that would require to either split or transfer the data to a specific region or country.
Process to Transfer Domain from One Office 365 Tenant to Another
You can follow the below stepwise procedure for transferring a domain from one tenant to another.
Fulfill the Prerequisites
The process involves detachment of the domain from current Office 365 and attaching it to another domain. Since the source and destination are on the same platform, it isn’t just a switch from one to another. This would involve the following prerequisites:
- Check ownership of the domain as this would be needed when verifying the domain in the tenant. Apart from this, you should check the ownership and access to the domain’s DNS Zone as some changes are needed to change the MX records and the TXT record for the verification as well as for other Office 365 CNAME, TXT, and service records.
- Get an inventory of all the resources that is going to be transferred. Also, get a list of all the resources that will change, such as shared mailbox, distribution group, etc. This would include consolidation or removal of unused mailboxes, any specific forwarding, or aliases with the domain that is going to be transferred.
- Prepare the new tenant that will be hosting the domain with the users, Microsoft 365 Groups, Microsoft Teams, distribution groups, public folders, security groups, and licensing that matches the source when it comes to the size of mailbox and online archive.
- Prepare the auto-expanding archive in case of large online archives.
- Decide on a cut-off date with the stakeholders.
Transfer the Domain
Once ensuring the above prerequisites, you can begin transferring the domain. To detach the domain from the source tenant, proceed with the following steps:
- Log in to the source Office 365 tenant with the user with global admin rights.
- Launch the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
- Click on the Show All option. This will show all the options.
- Expand the Settings section and then click on the Domains option.
- Click on the domain in question. When it is open, click on the Remove Domain button.
- You will be prompted to confirm. Click on the Remove domain button.
- This will start the removing the aliases from all the resources of the source tenant and replace them with the onmicrosoft.com default domain. When this is complete, it will finalize the detachment of the domain.
This process will release the domain from the source domain, allowing you to attach it to the new tenant. The next step is to create the domain on the destination tenant via the admin center. Here, you will need to follow the instructions on the screen to verify and add the domain. Here is where you will need to have access to the domain’s DNS hosting plan in the registrar’s portal to change the provided DNS records, which would include TXT, MX, and other records.
Transfer the Data
Transfer of the data would be a little bit tricky. You can use Purview to export the data to PST and import it into the tenant, but this would require manual intervention with the possibility of some data being missed. There is a large amount of manual work involved and it will take substantial time and effort for completing the task, depending on the size and complexity of the data.
When having such task in hand, you should reduce the complexity, decrease the impact on business as much as possible, and have the guarantee that all the data has been migrated. In such situations, Stellar Migrator for Exchange can come in handy. This tool guarantees a smooth migration of data from an Office 365 tenant to another, making it one of the most robust tools for tenant-to-tenant migration which is available. It can also be used for Exchange Server to Office 365 migration, Exchange Sever to Exchange Server migration, and to roll back to on-premises from Office 365. It features full reporting and automatic mapping from source to destination.
Conclusion
As you have seen, the task to move a domain from one tenant to another can be done with a few steps. However, if not planned well, it can have a disastrous effect on the business. When it comes to data transfer, you should have the right solution to reduce the time of completion, guarantee integration and success, as well as reduce the effort needed. Stellar Migrator for Exchange is an apt solution to migrate data from one Office 365 tenant to another without much effort and time.
