Exchange Online Migration From POP3
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@scottalanmiller said:
As always I highly recommend that DNS not be tied to a Registrar. The system is designed to protect you and putting the two together eliminates a critical separation of duties.
Given that better DNS providers are free, why use the registrar?
My recommendation is CloudFlare.
Reviewing the recent posts and CloudFlare as well.
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@Dashrender said:
You need to start by moving your DNS to another provider. You can simply move them back to network solution if you like, Click on the Manage buttons I've circled below:
When I click on Manage on one of my Network Solutions accounts I see the following:
Now I click on Change where my Domain Points and I get this
If I pick what I have labeled as 1:
Only choose this if you have already setup another provider to be your DNS provider on the web (such as CacheCade) Otherwise choose option 2For option 2:
You will now have Network Solutions provide your DNS for you. Once you accept this page, you'll need to create all of the records you saw on your POP3 control panel.
Excellent...thanks...
Back to exchange online...what can I really accomplish today/this week before I do all of this? Looking back at your suggestions,
@Dashrender said:
This would seem to be a pretty good way to have the users experience as little change as possible.
Here are some steps:- create all users on Exchange
a) log into the web interface for one user and make sure you can send an email from that account and it appears to be coming from your domain, if not, you need to fix this first - create DNS records for autodiscover as directed by MS (DO NOT CHANGE THE MX RECORD, yet)
- create new local Outlook profiles for everyone
a) connect users to O365
b) attach POP3 account to profile, delivery of the POP3 items needs to go to Office 365
c) Import contacts only from PST to O365 (contacts alone won't take but a min or two on average)
d) attach their PST file to that profile (they'll have two sets of inboxes, sent mail, etc, but at least they will have access to their old email)
e) TEST - Now you can change your MX record to O365's settings. You'll start receiving your new mail directly in O365
- after at least double your MX records TTL (if set to 24 hours, wait 48 hours) you can visit the client workstations and
a) remove the POP3 account from the Outlook profile
b) disconnect the PST file
c) import the contents of the PST to O365 (depending on the size and how fast your internet connection is, this might take a while)
I can go up to step 3 today, correct? Was going to start with my ID...
- create all users on Exchange
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Once you do step three, your old email system is cut off from receiving email. DNS determines where email goes. Once you change that, you've switched over.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Once you do step three, your old email system is cut off from receiving email. DNS determines where email goes. Once you change that, you've switched over.
Right...going to do all but 3 today/this week...I think you and @Dashrender have both demystified most of this for me...E-Mail is crucial at this place...and DNS is not my strong suit but improving...
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I would want to move my DNS records at night or some other time when no one else is working. And you'll need to prep everyone that email is going down.
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@Reid-Cooper said:
I would want to move my DNS records at night or some other time when no one else is working. And you'll need to prep everyone that email is going down.
Yes...was planning on that this Friday evening...
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Moving right along...continuing my setup on the Office 365 portal and verifying my domain ownership, it is asking me to create a txt record. Since my POP3 provider handles my advanced DNS, I will do it there.
Assuming the TXT entry is benign at this point, correct?
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@garak0410 said:> Moving right along...continuing my setup on the Office 365 portal and verifying my domain ownership, it is asking me to create a txt record. Since my POP3 provider handles my advanced DNS, I will do it there.
Assuming the TXT entry is benign at this point, correct?
Correct.
But Add the text record in both places as you will be dumping that DNS provider.
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@JaredBusch said:
@garak0410 said:> Moving right along...continuing my setup on the Office 365 portal and verifying my domain ownership, it is asking me to create a txt record. Since my POP3 provider handles my advanced DNS, I will do it there.
Assuming the TXT entry is benign at this point, correct?
Correct.
But Add the text record in both places as you will be dumping that DNS provider.
OK...adding the TXT entry now...
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TXT entries went fine...imported my users but "Plain Jane" (just email and name) as our HR VP didn't want any other info in the shared contacts. Been busy with other things today so not much more progress made.
So really, all that is left now is how/when I plan to update Outlook, mobile users and the time for the DNS/MS entry moves...
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Quick Update - I am doing my one hour "training" at 11PM today...much of those were answered in this thread!
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@scottalanmiller said:
As always I highly recommend that DNS not be tied to a Registrar. The system is designed to protect you and putting the two together eliminates a critical separation of duties.
Given that better DNS providers are free, why use the registrar?
My recommendation is CloudFlare.
I'm only working toward moving DNS back to his registrar for simplicity - I do understand your point on the separation.
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@Dashrender said:
I'm only working toward moving DNS back to his registrar for simplicity - I do understand your point on the separation.
Especially as messed up as this config seems to be.
- Move everything to Network Solutions.
- Get the migration handled.
- Move DNS to another provider.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Once you do step three, your old email system is cut off from receiving email. DNS determines where email goes. Once you change that, you've switched over.
That's not correct.
@Dashrender said:
- create new local Outlook profiles for everyone
a) connect users to O365
b) attach POP3 account to profile, delivery of the POP3 items needs to go to Office 365
c) Import contacts only from PST to O365 (contacts alone won't take but a min or two on average)
d) attach their PST file to that profile (they'll have two sets of inboxes, sent mail, etc, but at least they will have access to their old email)
e) TEST
Doing step three didn't change the MX record that comes in step 4.
You can do everything including step 3. But once you do step 4, the email will start being delivered to O365, not the POP3 provider.
- create new local Outlook profiles for everyone
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I might add that I hate Network Solutions. They are a horrible web host. Their portal is hard to use. The cost is stupidly expensive compared to pretty much everything else out there.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Once you do step three, your old email system is cut off from receiving email. DNS determines where email goes. Once you change that, you've switched over.
That's not correct.
@Dashrender said:
- create new local Outlook profiles for everyone
a) connect users to O365
b) attach POP3 account to profile, delivery of the POP3 items needs to go to Office 365
c) Import contacts only from PST to O365 (contacts alone won't take but a min or two on average)
d) attach their PST file to that profile (they'll have two sets of inboxes, sent mail, etc, but at least they will have access to their old email)
e) TEST
Doing step three didn't change the MX record that comes in step 4.
You can do everything including step 3. But once you do step 4, the email will start being delivered to O365, not the POP3 provider.
Well, my "free training" got rescheduled...AGAIN...LOL...but I think I am on my way...looks like a lot of work this Friday night though...
Question - I don't remember if this was discussed earlier but should I expect SOME lost emails? Basically, before I move to O365, I will to one, final download of email to the users PST file before moving the PST to the cloud...I should expect any emails still going to the POP3 while it is still up to still go there and perhaps I won't be able to retrieve them, correct? Just wondering what will go on during the crucial DNS and set up period...
- create new local Outlook profiles for everyone
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@JaredBusch said:
I might add that I hate Network Solutions. They are a horrible web host. Their portal is hard to use. The cost is stupidly expensive compared to pretty much everything else out there.
I am looking at cloudflare for the DNS move this weekend...
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@garak0410 said:
@JaredBusch said:
I might add that I hate Network Solutions. They are a horrible web host. Their portal is hard to use. The cost is stupidly expensive compared to pretty much everything else out there.
I am looking at cloudflare for the DNS move this weekend...
You can move directly from the POP3 DNS to cloudflare.
Process- create cloudflare account
- create duplicate records in cloudflare to those in the POP3 control panel
- in the network solution control panel, change the DNS providers to the cloudflare IPs.
finished.
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@garak0410 said:
Question - I don't remember if this was discussed earlier but should I expect SOME lost emails? Basically, before I move to O365, I will to one, final download of email to the users PST file before moving the PST to the cloud...I should expect any emails still going to the POP3 while it is still up to still go there and perhaps I won't be able to retrieve them, correct? Just wondering what will go on during the crucial DNS and set up period...
There's no reason you should lose any emails if you setup the Outlook accounts to have both the POP3 and O365 in them.
If you follow my setup, and have all new messages (after the first visit to the desktop) delivered via Outlook to the O365 account, you won't have to worry that any new messages sent aren't in the PST, because they'll already be in O365.
As soon as you make the DNS switch, you could start visiting the workstations immediately, this time uploading the PSTs to O365, but you wouldn't want to remove the checking of POP3 mail for at least 7 days to ensure DNS propagation.
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@Dashrender said:
@garak0410 said:
Question - I don't remember if this was discussed earlier but should I expect SOME lost emails? Basically, before I move to O365, I will to one, final download of email to the users PST file before moving the PST to the cloud...I should expect any emails still going to the POP3 while it is still up to still go there and perhaps I won't be able to retrieve them, correct? Just wondering what will go on during the crucial DNS and set up period...
There's no reason you should lose any emails if you setup the Outlook accounts to have both the POP3 and O365 in them.
If you follow my setup, and have all new messages (after the first visit to the desktop) delivered via Outlook to the O365 account, you won't have to worry that any new messages sent aren't in the PST, because they'll already be in O365.
As soon as you make the DNS switch, you could start visiting the workstations immediately, this time uploading the PSTs to O365, but you wouldn't want to remove the checking of POP3 mail for at least 7 days to ensure DNS propagation.
@Dashrender said:
@garak0410 said:
Question - I don't remember if this was discussed earlier but should I expect SOME lost emails? Basically, before I move to O365, I will to one, final download of email to the users PST file before moving the PST to the cloud...I should expect any emails still going to the POP3 while it is still up to still go there and perhaps I won't be able to retrieve them, correct? Just wondering what will go on during the crucial DNS and set up period...
There's no reason you should lose any emails if you setup the Outlook accounts to have both the POP3 and O365 in them.
If you follow my setup, and have all new messages (after the first visit to the desktop) delivered via Outlook to the O365 account, you won't have to worry that any new messages sent aren't in the PST, because they'll already be in O365.
As soon as you make the DNS switch, you could start visiting the workstations immediately, this time uploading the PSTs to O365, but you wouldn't want to remove the checking of POP3 mail for at least 7 days to ensure DNS propagation.
Excellent...thanks....about to head into step 3 with my account right now...
