Ways to Migrate Public Folders from Exchange 2010 to Office 365<\/strong><\/h2>The best way to migrate Exchange 2010 Public Folders to Office 365 or Microsoft 365 is to use the scripts provided by Microsoft that create a new migration batch job.<\/p>
Requirements for <\/strong>Migrating Exchange 2010 Public Folders to Office 365 <\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n- Exchange Server 2010 must be updated to the latest updates and Service Packs or at least have the Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 RU8.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The user, who will be used for the migration, has the role of Organization Management and Recipient Management.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- No orphaned Public Folders should exist in your AD. These are Public Folders which exist in your schema but do not exist.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- No Public Folders with duplicate email SMTP address.<\/li>\n<\/ul>
Pre-Migration Steps to <\/strong>Migrate Exchange 2010 Public Folders to Office 365<\/strong> <\/strong><\/h3>To prepare for the migration, you need to download the scripts provided by Microsoft using the link: https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/download\/details.aspx?id=38407<\/u><\/a>. You also need to download the Sync-MailPublicFolders scripts using the link: https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/download\/details.aspx?id=46381<\/u><\/a>. When both scripts are downloaded, extract all the files in the C:\\Scripts\\PFMigration folder. You can use any other folder also.<\/p>![\"PFMigration-folder\"](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/PFMigration-folder-2.png\")
<\/figure>Preparation<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>To start off, you need to add the Office 365 or Microsoft 365 domain as an accepted domain in your Exchange 2010 Server setup by using the Exchange Management Shell command as given below:<\/p>
New-AcceptedDomain –Name “O365 PublicFolders” –DomainName mydomain_com.onmicrosoft.com –DomainType InternalRelay<\/strong><\/p>![\"O365-PublicFolders\"](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/O365-PublicFolders.png\")
<\/figure>Next, you need to check if there are any Public Folders which have a pending migration by using the following command.<\/p>
Get-OrganizationConfig | Format-List PublicFoldersLockedforMigration, PublicFolderMigrationCompleteName, Identity<\/strong><\/p>![\"Public](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/PublicFoldersLockedforMigration.png\")
<\/figure>You also need to check if there are any pending or failed migration processes on the server. For this, use the below command:<\/p>
Get-PublicFolderStatistics -ResultSize Unlimited | Where {($_.Name -like “*\\*”) -or ($_.Name -like “*\/*”) } | Format-List Name, Identity<\/strong><\/p>![\"Get](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Get-PublicFolderStatistics.png\")
<\/figure>If any of the above is ‘True’, you need to clear them out by using the below command:<\/p>
Set-OrganizationConfig -PublicFoldersLockedforMigration:$false -PublicFolderMigrationComplete:$false<\/strong><\/p>![\"Set](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Set-OrganizationConfig.png\")
<\/figure>The next step is to ensure that no Public Folders are created in your Office 365 or Microsoft 365 tenant. Then, create the local Public Folder map to be used to create the structure online. The below command will export the statistics.<\/p>
.\\Export-PublicFolderStatistics.ps1 “C:\\Scripts\\PFMigration\\pfmapping.csv” “ex01.mail.lan”<\/strong><\/p>![\"Export](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Export-PublicFolderStatistics.png\")
<\/figure>The below command will generate the map file to create the folder structure.<\/p>
.\\PublicFolderToMailboxMapGenerator.ps1 20000000000 “C:\\PFMigration\\pfmappingsize.csv” “C:\\PFMigration\\pfmapping.csv”<\/strong><\/p>![\"Public](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/PublicFolderToMailboxMapGenerator.png\")
<\/figure>Migration Process for Migrating Exchange 2010 Public Folders to Office 365 <\/strong><\/h2>You can begin the migration process after you have collected all the above. You can start the synchronization by using the following command.<\/p>
.\\Sync-MailPublicFolders.ps1 -Credential (Get-Credential) -CsvSummaryFile:C:\\PFMigration\\log.csv<\/strong><\/p>![\"Sync-Mail](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Sync-MailPublicFolders.png\")
<\/figure>At this stage, a prompt will appear asking you to enter your tenant’s Global Admin credentials and Office 365 is not set to receive the data. For this process, you need to know the Legacy Exchange DN of the Local Exchange Administrator and the FQDN for the Outlook Anywhere of the local Exchange Server and run the following command.<\/p>
$PfEndpoint = New-MigrationEndpoint -PublicFolder –Name PublicFolderEndpoint –RPCProxyServer $Source_OutlookAnywhereExternalHostName –Credentials $Source_Credential -SourceMailboxLegacyDN $Source_RemoteMailboxLegacyDN –PublicFolderDatabaseServerLegacyDN $Source_RemotePublicFolderServerLegacyDN -Authentication Basic<\/strong><\/p>[byte[]]$bytes = Get-Content -Encoding Byte “C:\\PFMigration\\pfmapping.csv”<\/strong><\/p>New-MigrationBatch -Name PublicFolderMigration -CSVData $bytes -SourceEndpoint $PfEndpoint.Identity -NotificationEmails administrator@mymaildomain.com<\/strong><\/p>If no errors show up, it means that all is fine and you can start the migration of the data using the command below:<\/p>
Start-MigrationBatch PublicFolderMigration<\/strong><\/p>![\"Start](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Start-MigrationBatch.png\")
<\/figure>Although you’ve started the batch job, you are not ready yet as you need to lock the on-premises Public Folders from being updated by the users. To lock the Public Folders, use the command below.<\/p>
Set-OrganizationConfig -PublicFoldersLockedForMigration:$true<\/strong><\/p>![\"Set](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Set-OrganizationConfig-1.png\")
<\/figure>Now, use the below command to run the final sync from the local to the cloud.<\/p>
Complete-MigrationBatch PublicFolderMigration<\/strong><\/p>![\"Complete](\"https:\/\/www.stellarinfo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Complete-MigrationBatch.png\")
<\/figure>Once this is complete, you can remove the local Public Folders or decommission the local Exchange Server 2010.<\/p>
In Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>As you can see from the above, you need a considerate amount of time to perform the migration process. Also, there are several points of failure in the process. To migrate Exchange Server 2010 Public Folders to Office 365 or Microsoft 365, your Exchange Server must be in top shape and the Public Folder databases must be online and mounted.<\/p>
- \n
- Exchange Server 2010 must be updated to the latest updates and Service Packs or at least have the Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 RU8.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The user, who will be used for the migration, has the role of Organization Management and Recipient Management.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- No orphaned Public Folders should exist in your AD. These are Public Folders which exist in your schema but do not exist.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- No Public Folders with duplicate email SMTP address.<\/li>\n<\/ul>
Pre-Migration Steps to <\/strong>Migrate Exchange 2010 Public Folders to Office 365<\/strong> <\/strong><\/h3>
To prepare for the migration, you need to download the scripts provided by Microsoft using the link: https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/download\/details.aspx?id=38407<\/u><\/a>. You also need to download the Sync-MailPublicFolders scripts using the link: https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/download\/details.aspx?id=46381<\/u><\/a>. When both scripts are downloaded, extract all the files in the C:\\Scripts\\PFMigration folder. You can use any other folder also.<\/p>
<\/figure>Preparation<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>
To start off, you need to add the Office 365 or Microsoft 365 domain as an accepted domain in your Exchange 2010 Server setup by using the Exchange Management Shell command as given below:<\/p>
New-AcceptedDomain –Name “O365 PublicFolders” –DomainName mydomain_com.onmicrosoft.com –DomainType InternalRelay<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>Next, you need to check if there are any Public Folders which have a pending migration by using the following command.<\/p>
Get-OrganizationConfig | Format-List PublicFoldersLockedforMigration, PublicFolderMigrationCompleteName, Identity<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>You also need to check if there are any pending or failed migration processes on the server. For this, use the below command:<\/p>
Get-PublicFolderStatistics -ResultSize Unlimited | Where {($_.Name -like “*\\*”) -or ($_.Name -like “*\/*”) } | Format-List Name, Identity<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>If any of the above is ‘True’, you need to clear them out by using the below command:<\/p>
Set-OrganizationConfig -PublicFoldersLockedforMigration:$false -PublicFolderMigrationComplete:$false<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>The next step is to ensure that no Public Folders are created in your Office 365 or Microsoft 365 tenant. Then, create the local Public Folder map to be used to create the structure online. The below command will export the statistics.<\/p>
.\\Export-PublicFolderStatistics.ps1 “C:\\Scripts\\PFMigration\\pfmapping.csv” “ex01.mail.lan”<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>The below command will generate the map file to create the folder structure.<\/p>
.\\PublicFolderToMailboxMapGenerator.ps1 20000000000 “C:\\PFMigration\\pfmappingsize.csv” “C:\\PFMigration\\pfmapping.csv”<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>Migration Process for Migrating Exchange 2010 Public Folders to Office 365 <\/strong><\/h2>
You can begin the migration process after you have collected all the above. You can start the synchronization by using the following command.<\/p>
.\\Sync-MailPublicFolders.ps1 -Credential (Get-Credential) -CsvSummaryFile:C:\\PFMigration\\log.csv<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>At this stage, a prompt will appear asking you to enter your tenant’s Global Admin credentials and Office 365 is not set to receive the data. For this process, you need to know the Legacy Exchange DN of the Local Exchange Administrator and the FQDN for the Outlook Anywhere of the local Exchange Server and run the following command.<\/p>
$PfEndpoint = New-MigrationEndpoint -PublicFolder –Name PublicFolderEndpoint –RPCProxyServer $Source_OutlookAnywhereExternalHostName –Credentials $Source_Credential -SourceMailboxLegacyDN $Source_RemoteMailboxLegacyDN –PublicFolderDatabaseServerLegacyDN $Source_RemotePublicFolderServerLegacyDN -Authentication Basic<\/strong><\/p>
[byte[]]$bytes = Get-Content -Encoding Byte “C:\\PFMigration\\pfmapping.csv”<\/strong><\/p>
New-MigrationBatch -Name PublicFolderMigration -CSVData $bytes -SourceEndpoint $PfEndpoint.Identity -NotificationEmails administrator@mymaildomain.com<\/strong><\/p>
If no errors show up, it means that all is fine and you can start the migration of the data using the command below:<\/p>
Start-MigrationBatch PublicFolderMigration<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>Although you’ve started the batch job, you are not ready yet as you need to lock the on-premises Public Folders from being updated by the users. To lock the Public Folders, use the command below.<\/p>
Set-OrganizationConfig -PublicFoldersLockedForMigration:$true<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>Now, use the below command to run the final sync from the local to the cloud.<\/p>
Complete-MigrationBatch PublicFolderMigration<\/strong><\/p>
<\/figure>Once this is complete, you can remove the local Public Folders or decommission the local Exchange Server 2010.<\/p>
In Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>
As you can see from the above, you need a considerate amount of time to perform the migration process. Also, there are several points of failure in the process. To migrate Exchange Server 2010 Public Folders to Office 365 or Microsoft 365, your Exchange Server must be in top shape and the Public Folder databases must be online and mounted.<\/p>