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Exchange Online in Exchange 2010 On Premise Software

Today the new Exchange 2010 beta was released. After implementation we noticed the possibilities to integrate Exchange Online with an on Premise Deployment.

See the below screenshot:

BPOS Languages

Currently BPOS (Sharepoint, Exchange, Office Live Meeting and Office Communications Online) is available in several languages. Of course Dutch isn't one of them. As fa as I know now Dutch will not be supported in the near future. However, Exchange Webmail (OWA) is available in Dutch. Next to this there is always a possibility to create a Dutch SharePoint site (at least the content).

Most presumably Microsoft decided on this because the Dutch market isn't large enough and most Dutch people speak English.

Hotelketen Scandic gaat BPOS gebruiken

Scandic, een grote europese hotelketen met ondermeer een hotel in Nijmegen, gaat gebruik maken van Microsoft Online Services. De organisatie onderzoekt momenteel de mogelijkheden van BPOS (met name Sharepoint Online en Exchange Online). Op basis daarvan wil ze haar standaard server kosten naar beneden brengen.

Exchange Online – Migrate Exchange mail from hosted environment

Migrating Exchange mailboxes to Exchange online is a relatively straightforward process. After trying this in the testlab several times everybody should be able to migrate mailboxes.

A whole different issue however arises when migration mailboxes from an (externally) hosted environment to an Exchange online environment. Most hosters will not allow you to install software on their servers which is needed to migrate mailboxes. Next to this the current Active Directory connector synchronizes all users in the Active Directory to the Exchange Online environment in order to use GAL synchronization.

Although hosters hate to see you leave to another hoster (which Microsoft is with the BPOS offering), they are normally helpful with exporting your data. However, since this is not always the case, you should check into this when signing up with a hosting provider for Exchange.

At one of our clients this is currently the case. They currently have 70 mailboxes at a hosting environment which need to be migrated to Exchange Online.

In order to do this we examined the following scenarios:

1. Use AD and Exchange synchronization tools
2. Use hoster exported mailboxes and import them automatically
3. Use hoster exported mailboxes and import them manually
4. User operated import / export

Use AD synchronization tools

Using the actual synchronization tools (which are found under the Migration tab) is by far the best option. This scenario will only take an hour or so (apart from the actual copying process). The biggest pitfall is however that most hosters will not allow you to install software on their hosting environment. Therefore this is not really an option.

Use hoster exported mailboxes and import them automatically

In this scenario we will set up an temporary Exchange 2007 environment and import the exported data into this Exchange 2007 environment. After that we will use the automated import tools to import the mailboxes.

Exporting mailboxes from an Exchange 2007 environment is actually very simple. This article on technet explains which steps need to be taken to export Exchange mailboxes: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266964.aspx.

Although the article describes the steps, normally a hoster should supply all Exchange mailboxes so you wouldn't have to worry about these steps.

After all mailboxes are present an Exchange environment should be set up in which all new mailboxes can be imported. In order to do this you would need an Active Directory Server and an Exchange Server. The software is available via the following links:

• Windows Server 2008: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx
• Exchange 2007 SP1: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/bb736128.aspx
• However it might be easier to use an already configured Exchange virtual machine: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e99f2a96-ffbc-4323-9676-9657607c4a52&displaylang=en

After the Exchange 2007 environment has been set up an import could be done of the earlier exported mailboxes. The following powershell command should be used in order to do this:

Import-Mailbox –Identity hew –PSTFolderPath: c:\PSTs\hew.pst

Please note that the users have to available on the environment and a mailbox must already be present.

Because this process can also take a long time there is also a way to import mailboxes in bulk. In order to do this you could have a look at the following tutorial: http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/management-administration/exchange-2007-sp1-mailbox-management-part1.html

After this process has been completed the normal Exchange synchronization tasks can be performed.

The time needed to perform this scenario:

• 4 hours to set up the VHD
• 2 hour to prepare the environment and import mailboxes (because the import task can take a long time the actual time will be a lot longer but you don't have to spend it behind the server)
• 1 hours to synchronize mailboxes with BPOS (again, this process will take a lot longer but you don't have to sit behind the compute to do this)

Note: You can only perform this scenario if the hoster supplies you with the actually exported Exchange mailboxes.

Use hoster exported mailboxes and import them manually

If you don't have the experience or knowledge to set up an Exchange environment, importing all PST files manually is also an option. However in order to do this you would need all usernames and passwords for the users you will be importing. Next to that all users will have to be logged on at least once and their automatically created passwords will have to be changed.

Next to that you will need to sign into the environment and need to perform multiple actions by hand.

In order to import PST files by hand perform the following actions:

1. Sign into the BPOS SSO tool with a specific user name
2. Choose to configure the applications
3. Start Outlook 2007
4. Choose File -> Import and Export
5. Select Import from another program or file
6. Select Personal Folder File (.pst)
7. Select the just created backup file
8. Choose one of the Options
9. Select Finish

These steps must be repeated for all users.

The time needed to perform this scenario:

• Changing passwords for all users; 2 minutes per user
• Approx 30 minutes for import (Actual time is depended on the mailbox size) per user

User operated import / export

In this scenario the user performs the actual task of exporting and importing mailbox data. This scenario will be the quickest scenario for an administrator but will take by far the most time for users. However this scenario could be used not only for scenario's in which e-mail is hosted by a Hoster but also in scenario's where e-mail is stored in Outlook 2007 and another mailserver is used.

Because BPOS will use a different profile for Outlook 2007 it is not possible to just copy all mail from the old Outlook 2007 profile to the BPOS Outlook 2007 profile. Therefore the user will need to export data to a pst file, after which this pst file can be imported into the new BPOS Outlook 2007 profile.

Exporting e-mail to PST

First the user will have to export all mail to a PST file. In Outlook 2007 this task can be performed as following:

1. Choose File -> Import and Export
2. Choose Export to a File
3. Choose Personal Folder File (.pst)
4. Select Mailbox – Name and select Include subfolders
5. Select the location where the PST file should be created.
6. Choose Finish
7. Choose a name for the PST file
8. Start the export process

Importing e-mail to PST

Start up Outlook 2007 with the BPOS profile

1. Choose File -> Import and Export
2. Select Import from another program or file
3. Select Personal Folder File (.pst)
4. Select the just created backup file
5. Choose one of the Options
6. Select Finish

The time needed to perform this scenario:

• Approx 30 minutes for export (Actual time is depended on the mailbox size)
• Approx 30 minutes for import (Actual time is depended on the mailbox size)

Note: Some users will probably need help using this option.

As you see importing mailboxes can give you quite some headaches. I personally think using the temp Exchange environment is by far the best option.