Exchange Online Migration From POP3
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Vacation is over and I am spending my Saturday Morning collating the advice in this thread and will post what I come up with and any questions I may have... thanks again everyone,.
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@garak0410 Good luck!
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Back at the office, ready to tackle this. @Dashrender and @JaredBusch ...both of you had great suggestions and I've collated the best of both of these into some steps for me to do this week.
So, the first thing to do would be to "pilot" my own email, correct, or at least another one?
And forgive me if I don't understand how the MX records work in reference to this question...if I follow the directions you both provided, I should be able to start with the quick start options on the portal right? They read as this:
quick start
The fast track to getting your pilot or basic deployment running
• Create new users and mailboxes.
• Share documents and collaborate online.
• Use web conferencing and instant messaging.
• Create documents by using Office applications.In these steps above, when I click NEXT, it does ask me if I want to use onmicrosoft.com or my own domain. Is it safe at this point to use my domain?
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You can use your own domain (you'll need access to whomever is hosting your DNS for external access to confirm ownership -MS will have you create a record on the DNS server, that verifies that you have access to make changes, and therefore are considered an owner).
FYI/reminder, doing this does not allow delivery of mail to your O365 account, it only allows the possible sending of email from O365 assuming you don't have SPF records that might prevent it.
Once you create your profile on O365, configure your profile as suggested above (either JaredBucsh or my solution will work) and test test test.
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@Dashrender said:
You can use your own domain (you'll need access to whomever is hosting your DNS for external access to confirm ownership -MS will have you create a record on the DNS server, that verifies that you have access to make changes, and therefore are considered an owner).
FYI/reminder, doing this does not allow delivery of mail to your O365 account, it only allows the possible sending of email from O365 assuming you don't have SPF records that might prevent it.
Once you create your profile on O365, configure your profile as suggested above (either JaredBucsh or my solution will work) and test test test.
Just so I understand you correctly and beg for your patience, on this O365 wizard where it asks me to use my domain:
I can pretty much go steps 1 and 2 safely right now, correct? And then do remaining steps this weekend?
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Yes, you can do steps 1 and 2 without affecting your current users in anyway.
Who is providing DNS to the outside world for your email domain?
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@Dashrender said:
Yes, you can do steps 1 and 2 without affecting your current users in anyway.
Who is providing DNS to the outside world for your email domain?
Our DNS is at Network Solutions. It lists all 4 of our owned domain names (though we just use the one for everything.) All 4 domain names point back to our current POP3/IMAP provider and website host. At the POP3/website provider, it has a ton of entries that cover Name, TTL, Class, Type, Record. When we leave the POP3 email provider, all of that will go away.
Under the name heading, we have things like:
domainname.com
localhost.domainname.com
mail.domainname.com
www.domainname.com
ftp.domainname.com
cpanel.domainname.com
whm.domainname.com
webmail.domainname.com
webdisk.domainname.com
autoconfig.domainname.com
autodiscover.domainname.comMost of these are configured with 14400 TTL, are with the CLASS IN, and TYPE A. The main.domainname and webmail.domainname are CNAME's. Most records are to a specified IP address with the CNAME's going to the domainname.com
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Why will these things go away when you leave the POP3 provider? You should own the DNS solution, not the POP3 provider.
If you're logging into Network Solutions and see this, then you probably have access to change what you need to change.
Who are you buying O365 from? If they are not providing this type of support for you included in the move, I'd seriously consider going with another firm. I'm pretty sure that NTG will help you with all of this as an included service, but perhaps @Minion-Queen will correct me.
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@Dashrender said:
Why will these things go away when you leave the POP3 provider? You should own the DNS solution, not the POP3 provider.
If you're logging into Network Solutions and see this, then you probably have access to change what you need to change.
Who are you buying O365 from? If they are not providing this type of support for you included in the move, I'd seriously consider going with another firm. I'm pretty sure that NTG will help you with all of this as an included service, but perhaps @Minion-Queen will correct me.
Those above domain and DNS settings are in the POP3 providers control panel...I should be able to easily add this to my settings with Network Solutions, correct?
Let me double check with the vendor I purchased this from...I know they quoted $5,000 for help but that may have been physical help here with Outlook profiles and such.
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This is what they provide:
I actually scheduled the hour training for tomorrow, so hopefully, a lot of these DNS/MS issues will get ironed out.
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WoW.. I love the 'value' they put on those services - what a load!
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@garak0410 said:
Very good info guys and as Scott says, good "knowledge base" info.
Let me digress for a second...because I may end up needing help here...
Our domain name is registered with Network Solutions and is currently pointed to our POP3 provider who also hosts our webpage. The webpage actually has a pointer to our WIX page, which we have set in the POP3 providers control panel. So when the POP3 provider shuts down all of our services, do I simply point the domain to the Wix page or will this be a little more complicated with the MX records and such? Thanks...
This old post tells me that your DNS provider is really your POP3 provider, not Network Solutions. Which is it? If Network Solutions is pointing to your POP3, then you should change that to either Network Solutions or another provider that you have greater control of first (Scott suggests CacheCade - which is free for a low end account). This will take upwards of 3 days to propagate throughout the internet (but could be far less).
Once you move your DNS, then you can start on confirming the ownership with MS for O365.
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@Dashrender said:
@garak0410 said:
Very good info guys and as Scott says, good "knowledge base" info.
Let me digress for a second...because I may end up needing help here...
Our domain name is registered with Network Solutions and is currently pointed to our POP3 provider who also hosts our webpage. The webpage actually has a pointer to our WIX page, which we have set in the POP3 providers control panel. So when the POP3 provider shuts down all of our services, do I simply point the domain to the Wix page or will this be a little more complicated with the MX records and such? Thanks...
This old post tells me that your DNS provider is really your POP3 provider, not Network Solutions. Which is it? If Network Solutions is pointing to your POP3, then you should change that to either Network Solutions or another provider that you have greater control of first (Scott suggests CacheCade - which is free for a low end account). This will take upwards of 3 days to propagate throughout the internet (but could be far less).
Once you move your DNS, then you can start on confirming the ownership with MS for O365.
Sorry, I guess things get lose in the thread or I am not explaining it clearly. Here is a repost from above:
Our DNS is at Network Solutions. It lists all 4 of our owned domain names (though we just use the one for everything.) All 4 domain names point back to our current POP3/IMAP provider and website host. At the POP3/website provider, it has a ton of entries that cover Name, TTL, Class, Type, Record. When we leave the POP3 email provider, all of that will go away.
Under the name heading, we have things like:
domainname.com
localhost.domainname.com
mail.domainname.com
www.domainname.com
ftp.domainname.com
cpanel.domainname.com
whm.domainname.com
webmail.domainname.com
webdisk.domainname.com
autoconfig.domainname.com
autodiscover.domainname.comMost of these are configured with 14400 TTL, are with the CLASS IN, and TYPE A. The main.domainname and webmail.domainname are CNAME's. Most records are to a specified IP address with the CNAME's going to the domainname.com
So, network solutions is our registrar...however, with our POP3 provider, in their control panel, we have the options for setting the Name, TTL, Class, Type, Record.
I pray I am explaining what you were asking...LOL.
Basically, I want nothing to do with the POP3 provider come the day I update the MX records and go live with 0365.
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@Dashrender said:
WoW.. I love the 'value' they put on those services - what a load!
Except for this "hour training" I get, yeah, no real value...and they couldn't schedule it until Wednesday either and I wanted to get going on this TODAY...
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garak, can you post a screenshot from Network solutions, you can blackout the exact domain names and IP addresses.
That will give me a good start to see if we are on the same page.
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@Dashrender said:
garak, can you post a screenshot from Network solutions, you can blackout the exact domain names and IP addresses.
That will give me a good start to see if we are on the same page.
Here are my current options on Network Solutions, the domain registrar...
All of the pointers point to our POP3/Website provider.
And these are the advanced DNS options on the POP3 provider site:
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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.
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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.
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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
