Problems in migrating emails while upgrading Exchange Server
The biggest hazard involved in upgrading Exchange Server in any organization is the migration of mailboxes and its contents. The process of transferring emails includes different challenges such as compatibility with the new server, incomplete migration, non-selective transfer, no option to recover corrupted mailboxes, etc. In this article, we will describe the issues in migrating emails while upgrading the Exchange Server and their resolution.
Limitations of Inbuilt Tools
Inbuilt tools available for mail migration suffer from different drawbacks. These tools are created for specific versions and don’t allow email migration from unsupported versions. Move Mailbox Wizard allows migration from Exchange Server 2000 to 2007, 2003 to 2007, 2007 to 2000, 2007 to 2003, and 2007 to 2000. However, this tool cannot be used to transfer the mailboxes from Exchange 5.5 to 2007. One has to transfer the emails first from 5.5 to 2003, and then 2003 to 2007.
Similarly, MailMig can only transfer the emails from old versions to Exchange 2003 but doesn’t support upgraded versions. Moreover, this utility cannot migrate the Address Book and Distribution Lists. Even though ExMerge is considered as stronger in email migration and exporting mailboxes to PST, yet it fails to deal with oversized Exchange files.
Similarly, Windows PowerShell supports Exchange Migration from Exchange Server 2003 to 2007 / 2010 and 2007 to 2010 / 2013. However, it doesn’t support direct migration from Exchange Server 2003 to 2013.
Other Major Issues
None of these inbuilt tools discussed herein above are capable to recover and transfer the corrupted mailboxes. Some of them need the old Exchange server to be online while performing the email migration, as they don’t accept offline EDB files as a source. In addition, there is no option to search for particular mailboxes and recover only the desired ones.
Compatibility Problem
Most of the mailboxes doesn’t work adequately even after migration. This is because of the compatibility issues. For example, some mailboxes created in Exchange 2003 may not work with Exchange 2010.
Migrator for Exchange
Migrator for Exchange is the one-stop solution to migrate the mailboxes, Public Folders, mailbox permissions, mailbox properties, Outlook rules, Outlook profiles, and Global Address List from one Exchange Server to another regardless of their versions. It supports both cross-forest and intra-forest Exchange migration.
This tool performs the following migration.
- Migration to-and-fro between
- Exchange Server 2003 to 2007 / 2010 / 2013
- Exchange Server 2007 to 2010 / 2013 / 2003
- Exchange Server 2010 to 2013 / 2003
- Migration from Exchange Server to Office 365
The users can make use of features like agent-based load sharing, scheduling, and notifications to perform a hassle-free Exchange Migration. What’s more? Migrator for Exchange let you establish the synchronization and coexistence between two Exchange Servers.
Summary
Migrating the Exchange Server is a cumbersome task that becomes more unmanageable in the absence of a fully automated solution. If you need a one-stop solution for migrating Exchange Server along with its content and properties, Migrator for Exchange is the perfect option.