Learn to Migrate from Rackspace to Office 365 in Few Simple Steps

Want to perform Rackspace to Office 365 Migration? Get the solution in this article to export Rackspace emails to O365 account manually as well as from a third-party solution also.
Rackspace is the largest managed Cloud Provider offering you expertise across the world’s leading clouds. It makes easier for communicate with a wide choice of industry leading email and products. The cloud company gets access to email, calendars and contacts etc. from the desktop, laptop or mobile phone. It supports number, message, contacts etc.
Office 365 is the label name Microsoft uses for a group of software and services subscriptions, which together provide productivity software and related services to subscribers. The O 365 service consists of a number of products and services. Office 365 components can be managed through an online portal; users can be added manually, imported from a CSV file.

Why to Move Rackspace to Office 365

• Productivity gains-O365 have 3 main features that enable a more productive workforce.
  • cross-platform support
  • any time/anywhere access to work generated with Office 2016 products.
  • sharing and collaboration features built in to Exchange Online.
• Flexible Deployment options present in Office 365- 3 types, depending on an organization’s security needs or migration timeline.

• on-premises deployment
• cloud deployment
• hybrid deployment
• Predictable & Manageable costs, Office 365 offers an easy transition to a more flexible arrangement with a familiar cost structure.
• Subscribers/users always have access to the latest version.

Let us discuss one user query related to this issue:

I have been using Rackspace Mails for the last few years. Last month one of my friends suggested migrating Rackspace to Office 365 for some purposes. Is there any manual or a third party tool for this purpose?

How to Export Rackspace Mailboxes to Office 365

If users want to perform Exchange to O365 then, users can try the manual method or the automated solution for Rackspace to Office 365 migration.

Method 1: Rackspace to Office 365 Using Cutover Migration

This first method to migrate Rackspace mailboxes to Office 365 run against Rackspace Exchange 2010 successfully. One needs to have the basic knowledge of Rackspace and Office 365 Admin Portals.
Follow the given steps to easily export Rackspace to Microsoft Office 365 account:

• Create a Rackspace Admin Account
  Create a new email account. Give Full Access permission to this user as all of your mailboxes.

 

• On the Mailboxes of the new account Grant Full Access Permission
  Open each email account in the Rackspace tenant. Now, go to the Permissions tab and grant the permissions of Full Access to the new account created for migration in the previous step. This will help you to by opening 10 tabs at a time to grant these permissions. Do same for all the mailboxes and all the resources.

 

• Fill the Managers attributes in all the Distribution Groups
  Because of GUI of Rackspace web, you can’t fill in this attribute. To do so, you have to export the Distribution Lists in the CSV format, fill the Managers column, and then reimport the distribution lists.

 

• Make sure that all the objects are visible in the Global Address List
  These objects include the Distribution Lists, Contacts, Resources, and the Mailboxes to be migrated from Rackspace to Office 365.

 

• Find the Rackspace Exchange Server
  Find your server on which your emails are hosted.
  To find this:
  Go to the Control Panel >> Open Mail >> Email Accounts. Now, find your Rackspace account from the given list >> click Change. The server Rackspace hosting your account will be in the box.

 

• Sign up for Microsoft Office 365 E3 Trial
  Complete the complete process of migration without paying to Microsoft until you’re ready for the users to log in. Now, sign up for a Microsoft O 365 E3 trial and you’ll get 4 weeks of free access to MS Office 365 to test the environment.

 

• Create Domains on Office 365
  Before migrating the mailboxes, it is required to create your domains in Microsoft Office 365. For this, click “Domains” in the Office 365 Admin Center. Now, add all your email domains.

• Create a Migration Endpoint
  Create a Migration Endpoint in the Powershell instead of web GUI. Using Web GUI will create a Migration Endpoint that relies on the Autodiscover DNS record to discover your Exchange server. By creating the endpoint manually, you can continue to run the synchronizations between Rackspace & MS Office 365 even after you move the DNS records over to O 365.
  Run the following Powershell Commands:
  After completing the above steps successfully, you can easily see your new Migration Endpoint from:
  Office 365 Admin Center >> Admin >> Exchange >> Exchange Admin Center >> Recipients >> Migration >> Migration Endpoints
• Create Migration Batch
  In the web interface, create a migration batch after creating the Migration Endpoint.
  Go to the Exchange Admin Center >> Recipients >> Migration screen.
  Now, select the + (add) and then Migrate to Exchange Online.

 

• Finalize the Batch Creation
  Select the option of Cutover Migration >> Click on Next
  Now, confirm Migration Endpoint >> Next
  Name the Migration Batch >> Next
  Start The Batch >> Now, Select the option of Automatically Start the Batch >> Click on New.
  The migration batch will start running immediately. This could some time as several hours or even some days, it depends on the number of mailboxes you want to migrate. After the completion of batch migration process, Review the details to and check if there are any failures, and fix them if there is any.

 

• Now, run another sync
  The initial migration batch will take some time to run, so you will have to wait. You can also try to re-run the migration batch created in the above steps (but it won’t run if a mailbox already existed). Ii has been checked that deleting a migration batch (not the migration endpoint) and then re-creating it Office 365 will do an incremental sync. Now, delete the original batch and then create a new batch.
  Note: You can Configure DirSync also, as it is an optional part.
  In order to synchronize Distribution Groups, Security Groups, Users, and Password Changes to the cloud, set up DirSync between the on-premise AD and Office 365.

 

• License your users
  After synchronizing Rackspace and Office 365 data, it is required to license the users before they can access services of Microsoft 365.

 

• If you haven’t run the DirSync, which was an optional part, you have to Reset the user passwords in MS Office 365 and provide passwords to the users to access the Office 365 resources.

 

• Plan a time for DNS cutover
  When the mailboxes are in synced between Rackspace & Office 365, then you can plan the cutover date and time. When you are ready to perform DNS cutover, you can refer the DNS settings required for all the domains by referencing Domains in the Microsoft Office 365 Admin Center.

 

• Wait for the DNS propogation
  Check that whether the DNS records had propogated worldwide click: https://www.whatsmydns.net/ . If all the servers displays the correct record, you can proceeded further.

 

• Do the final sync
  Sync the complete user data of Rackspace and Office 365 one final time.

 

• Now, Disable Users
  After migrating all the users to O 365 account, it is recommend to disable their user accounts in Rackspace. It will prevent from accidentally sending emails.

 

• Reconfigure Microsoft Outlook
  To wipes out the settings of Rackspace Exchange and to create a new Office 365 profile, it is suggested to run a script or you can configure MS Outlook account as per your convenience.

 

• Request Forced MX Routing
  To check if the emails from the Rackspace customers are delivered to O365 mailboxes or to the Rackspace tenant, you will have to contact the Rackspace Support to request Forced MX Routing. After doing this task, verify that if the mailboxes are complete.

 

• Re-enable DirSync
  If the DirSync (optional one) setup gets completed, you can re-enable it after the completion of final sync. You can’t run any additional cutover syncs if the DirSync is enabled.

Method 2: Self-Service Migration Tool

You can also go for the Rackspace’s Self-Service Migration Tool, which is a private-label version of MigrationWiz. This can be run any time without paying any charges.

Method 3: Two Step-Method to Export Rackspace Emails to Office 365 Account

Step 1: Backup Rackspace Emails to PST

1. Click on Settings.
2. Under the options >> Connected Accounts.
3. Add a connected account and click on the other email account.
4. Enter the email id and password of Rackspace account >> OK.
5. Select an IMAP connection.
6. Click OK to Export Rackspace Emails to Outlook PST.

If you want, you can also sync the Rackspace account with MS Outlook.

Step 2: There are two methods i.e. Network Upload & Drive Shipping to Import the resultant Outlook Data file in Microsoft Office 365 mailbox.

To know about these methods in detail, follow the steps given in the following article:
https://www.office365tips.org/import-outlook-pst-to-exchange-online/

Conclusion

There are multiple methods available to migrate from Rackspace to Office 365. There is a direct method to migrate Rackspace mailboxes to Office 365 account via cutover migration. The other method is a two-step process i.e. exporting Rackspace emails to PST format and then, importing that resultant file in Office 365 mailbox. One can go for any solution accordingly which can efficiently perform the process by maintaining the email data integrity.