Easymail migration to Office 365

[witch]

Witch,

I am about to do the same thing you are doing. I also spoke to SWGFL about 4 months ago about the migration and they said it was a free service but there were a few delays - that has obviously now changed. I have since synced all users via windows azure link up and verified an alternate domain name ready, so mailbox migration is the next step...

I just wanted to add that after looking at the imap migration tool, I think it should work for you. Have you ever set a user up at your school with an imap mailbox on outlook? The incoming mail server just gets set to imap.domainname.gloucs.sch.uk.

Let me know what stage you are at and we can probably do the project together.

Andy

So are you saying that we HAVE got imap access? This is getting more complicated by the second

[plexer]

@witch did you read the SWGfL link I posted? you add an account in the full outlook client with imap as the connection type just to test if you already have imap access.

 

I just added the test account Geoff gave me as a connected account to my Office 365 account.

 

http://plextech.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/email_test.png

 

Interesting thing about that picture is that the connection port is 143 i.e imap so a migration using the Office 365 tools should work.

 

Ben

[witch]

I'm utterly lost

Presumably you mean Outlook in Office 365. I don't have an account yet

I can't even find where to go to set up an Office 365 A2 free account.

I am sure to get it all wrong and lose everyone's emails. How on earth I would do it when I am only part-time and not here when the teachers aren't is beyond me.

[plexer]

No I mean outlook as in the Microsoft email client or any other email client that supports imap connection, thunderbird will do it as well.

 

Just to setup with your own account details to test if you can connect to the current service via imap this is nothing to do with Office 365 at this point.

 

Ben

[jamesbmarshall]

I can't even find where to go to set up an Office 365 A2 free account.

 

http://microsoft.com/uk/office365edu

[speckytecky]

I SO sympathyse with you @witch I'm in the same boat!

 

I often have calls when I'm not - I don't mind if it's a genuine issue but sometimes I'm left speechless!!

 

I'm utterly lost

Presumably you mean Outlook in Office 365. I don't have an account yet

I can't even find where to go to set up an Office 365 A2 free account.

I am sure to get it all wrong and lose everyone's emails. How on earth I would do it when I am only part-time and not here when the teachers aren't is beyond me.

[witch]

I have had confirmation that SWGfL are NOT OFFERING FREE MIGRATION ANYMORE.

I did point out that it would be nice for us to be told.

Apparently their new subscription service thing includes email migration using SIMS and single sign-on. Apart from the cost, that is no good to me as I don't have SIMS

[witch]

On another note - I am trying to set up this test Outlook account but what do I put in the incoming and outgoing mail server boxes? Sorry, never done it

[plexer]

mail.domainname or possibly imail.domainame don't worry too much about outgoing if you have to put something try smtp.domainname

 

We don't need to be able to send just receive via imap.

 

Ben

[tj2419]

Hi Witch,

 

Don't know if it helps but what here is what we did as ours was a council run email system with no clear migration route.

 

 

1. Set up our new account with office 365 trial.
   
2. Told staff to not use emails after a certain date.
   
3. Asked our LEA to redirect our email to the office 365 account.
   
4. On this date we reset everyones password to something only we knew
   
5. Set up a laptop with MS outlook client installed on it.
   
6. Added a new email account (One of the staffs, did it alphabetically) This was their current email on the old system.
   
7. Also added their new office 365 account.
   
8. Once all the emails had downloaded on the old account we selected them all and copied them over to the O365 account and synced it back up.
   
9. Then once it was complete removed the two accounts and repeated for each account.
   

 

 

Didn't take too long to do.

 

Here is a link to the easy mail process for linking to outlook.

How to setup POP3/IMAP using Microsoft Outlook to receive RM EasyMail Plus emails

[witch]

Blimey

There's only me on three hours a day - don't think I would manage all that

It's been a very long day..

Not sure what you mean by ask the LA to redirect emails - that's possible then? What are they redirecting to? Outlook or O365?

Presumably you had to set up office 365 accounts for everyone first. Then set up an outlook account for everyone. Don't understand where you say "added their new O365 account" To where? Then the emails were downloaded to outlook? PST? Then copied to O365? Would this method keep ALL their emails, past and present?

Goodness. And all this with staff not being able to use their emails.

Edited November 7, 2013 by witch

[plexer]

That's why originally said it may be worth getting them to pay for a company to do it as your time is limited.

 

Just confirm for the others you do have imap access as I was able to add your test account into the outlook client and connect to receive email via imap.

 

I'm guessing everyone who has easymail does have imap access even if they don't know it so migration using the built in tools that Office 365 provides will work.

 

Ben

[Boredguy]

On another note - I am trying to set up this test Outlook account but what do I put in the incoming and outgoing mail server boxes? Sorry, never done it

 

To see if you have IMAP connection to your easymail, in outlook set your incoming mail name to imap.schooldomainname

outgoing should be post.schooldomainname

 

Otherwise you can use imap.easymail.ifl.net and post.easymail.ifl.net

 

I've just tried with our Office365 instance and setup a IMAP migration endpoint for the primary school that we support that uses SWGfL easymail, and it fails to connect so a PST upload would likely be the route to go.

[Edu-IT]

In all honesty for £300, is the school really not willing to pay that? If you have 60 users then it's £5 per user. Do you pay for EasyMail at the moment? In the long term you won't have that to pay for so it could even itself out? Plus you won't have the headache and on your part time hours, I imagine you have enough to do.

[plexer]

@witch I am 99% sure that and imap migration using the office 365 portal would be a success.

 

Ben

[plexer]

@witch I'm now 100% an imap migration from easymail to Office 365 will work.

 

But as it doesn't look like there is anyway to export contacts from easymail they have to re-enter any external contacts.

 

Ben

[hellgate24]

its interesting to be keeping an eye on this as this is a task that I will have to undertake in the near future.

[plexer]

So I think this is the procedure:

 

1: Sign up for Office 365.

2: Add your domain.

3: Verify domain by using a txt record.

4: Setup user accounts for all users via csv upload on the Office 365 portal - From this point users can login and use Office 365.

5: Start a migration using the exchange control panel.

6: Modify MX record so that inbound mail now flows into your Office 365 tenant.

7: Users now use Office 365 exclusively.

8: Once all mail has migrated the migration is finished.

9: Old provider decommissions Easymail for you.

 

Anyone see an issue with the steps?

 

This is just the high level overview some of the steps will require a bit of work.

 

Ben

[Edu-IT]

How are you going to combat mail that comes in while you do the migration? That will flow to the old mailbox and I think once a migration is complete it wouldn't go back to check for new mail would it, there has to be a cut off. Would it not make sense to change the MX first, after creating the new mailboxes, so any new mail flows to the Office 365?

[plexer]

The migration sync runs until you tell it to stop.

 

You would tell it to stop after you had changed the mx record it then does a final sync of email.

 

Ben

[plexer]

Allthough swapping 5 & 6 around wouldn't hurt.

 

Ben

[witch]

Sorry @plexer

I don't understand steps 5 and 6. I dont have access to modify the Mx record - I have had to do a change request to swgfl to do that for the domain verification.

Where or what is the exchange control panel?

[plexer]

As your DNS is controlled by the LEA then yes for any of those changes you will have to submit a change request to them for that.

 

The exchange control panel is part of Office 365, there are different places you do admin in Office 365 depending on what you are doing.

 

Ben

[Boredguy]

SWGfL were quite quick at doing my change requests for 365 back at the end of August. Most of them were done within 48hrs of logging them on the esi site.

[witch]

Thanks - I did wonder, but I have no understanding of what the modification would be?

 

*I'm not trying to be difficult - I just need to understand exactly what I am doing, before I even start this - and currently I am not sure at all

Edited November 7, 2013 by witch