How to Migrate Users and Mailboxes from an Internet Messaging System to Exchange 2003

Article
07/25/2014

This topic describes how to migrate users and mailboxes from an Internet messaging system to Exchange 2003.

Before You Begin

To successfully complete the procedure in this topic, ensure that the server on which you run the Exchange Migration Wizard meets the following requirements:

The server is running Exchange Server 2003.
You have network connectivity to the Internet messaging system.
You have administrative permissions in Exchange 2003.
Using the Exchange Migration Wizard, you have exported recipient information from the Internet messaging system through LDAP.

Procedure

To migrate users and mailboxes from an Internet messaging system to Exchange 2003

On the previously configured server running Exchange 2003, start the Exchange Migration Wizard from the Deployment program group that you can find in the Microsoft Exchange program group.
On the Exchange Server Migration Wizard Welcome page, click Next.
On the Migration page, select Migrate from Internet Mail (IMAP4), and then click Next.

Specifying the migration type
On the IMAP4 Migration page, click Next.
On the Migration Procedure page:
1. Under Select the migration method, select One step migration (recommended).
2. On the Migration Procedure page, in the Path to migration files text box, type a valid folder path to which the migration files are temporarily copied. Ensure that the hard disk drive has sufficient space to copy the mailboxes for all the users you migrate. Click Next.
Selecting the migration procedure
On the Migration Destination page, select Migrate to a computer running Exchange Server. The Server list box should contain the name of the server running Exchange 2003. In the Information store list box, select the information store to migrate the mailbox data to, and then click Next.

Selecting the migration destination
On the File Location page, in the User list file text box, type the UNC path to the imapusr.csv file that you edited earlier (for example, D:\ADSI.001\imapusr.csv). You can use the Browse button to select the file. Click Next.

Specifying the imapusr.csv file
On the Migration Information page, click Next. You can accept the defaults or change the following options:
1. The Information to create mailboxes check box. When selected, this creates a new mailbox for users migrated from the Internet messaging system to Exchange 2003.
2. The Personal e-mail messages section. You can either select All to migrate all the user's data, or Dated from to specify a date range of messages to migrate.
Specifying the migration information
On the Account Migration page, select the users you want to migrate to Exchange 2003. You can click Select All to select all users, or hold down the CTRL key and select multiple users. Click Next.

Selecting the users to migrate to Exchange 2003
On the Container for New Windows Accounts page, select the Active Directory container or organizational unit to which users will be migrated. The Exchange Migration Wizard creates a new Active Directory account in the specified container for each user who does not yet have an account in Active Directory. Click Options.

Selecting the container to which to migrate accounts
On the Account Options page, select Generate random password. By default, the the User must change password at next logon check box is selected. This generates a random strong password for each user, which is stored in the Accounts.Password file in the \Program Files\Exchsrvr\Bin directory on the server running Exchange 2003. You can select other advanced options on this page, such as whether to create disabled user accounts that point to actual accounts in a different domain. For the purposes of this procedure, it is assumed that you are not selecting these other options. Click OK, and then click Next.

Setting the account password options for the new user accounts
On the Windows Account Creation and Association page, there is a list of all the user accounts that will be created. In some instances, these are new accounts, but they can also be updates to existing accounts. For example, when you performed semi-automated directory synchronization, you might have created a mail-enabled Windows account or contact for each user. These accounts appear for each corresponding user migrating from the Internet messaging system. Internet mail users are matched with Exchange accounts based on their e-mail addresses.

Verify that the accounts are matched correctly. If they are not, you can find the correct account using the Find Existing Account option. You can also choose to create a new account, using the Create New Account option, if the Exchange Migration Wizard matched an account incorrectly. After you finalize the account list, click Next.

Matching Internet mail accounts to new or existing Windows accounts

Note

This figure shows an example of Internet mail users who had existing disabled mail-enabled Windows accounts resulting from semi-automated directory synchronization. When these users are migrated, the accounts are matched to the e-mail addresses for these users, and then the users' Internet messaging data is imported to the users' mailboxes. The user accounts in Active Directory Users and Computers must be enabled after migration occurs so that the users can log on to the Windows domain.
Migration Wizard extracts the data from the Internet messaging server and then imports it into Exchange and Active Directory. Migration can take some time, depending on the number of users and messages that are migrated, the speed of the server, network latency, and other such factors. On the Migration Process page, verify that the migration process proceeds normally, and when the process completes, click Finish.

Finishing the Internet mail migration
In the Exchange Server Migration Wizard dialog box informing you that the migration is complete, click OK.