MS Exchange is used to store all mailbox information of multiple users, such as messages, contacts, calendar, etc. With every upgraded version, this email server has been improved a lot and with time older versions becoming outdated. Therefore, it is better to use a later version to get all the features of Exchange. For example, since April 8 2014 Microsoft has stopped official support for Exchange server 2003, which means that they will no longer release any latest update in future for Exchange 2003 server.
Therefore, now it is useless to opt Exchange 2003, as it could be risky due to no security updates. The administrators now should upgrade Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 or 2010 or to Office 365, so that they can move to the upgraded version to get the latest features, security, etc.
In order to move from Exchange 2003, it is better to migrate it to Exchange 2010 or 2007, but if there is a high need of online access from anywhere, then office 365 migration would be the easiest and efficient option. You can easily perform the Exchange 2003 to Office 365 migration process by following below mentioned steps.
Steps to migrate Exchange 2003 to Office 365
Step 1:
It is better if Admin start Exchange migration process with Exchange Server Deployment Assistant. This online guide is provided by Microsoft for all migrations. Go to Exchange server deployment page, and choose ‘Cloud Only’ option, in case you are going to migrate exchange 2003 to office 365.
Now choose Yes option and press Next button, as you must have multiple mailboxes to migrate to Exchange Online.
Now choose your recent Exchange version from the list and select to Next.
Select one option ‘how you will manage user accounts’ in Office 365, and click Next button.
Now it will ask the information about number of mailboxes you currently have on Exchange server 2003, choose one option and click ‘Next’ button.
Now, it will land you to the migration guide that you should follow to successfully migrate from exchange 2003 to office 365. Follow the guide.
Step 2:
Now, verify that, whether Exchange 2003 infrastructure support RPC over HTTP and also check the Outlook Connectivity by Remote Connectivity analyzer. Click & open the link https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/ and in Microsoft Exchange Server tab, choose Outlook Connectivity under Microsoft Office Outlook Connectivity Tests. As Exchange 2003 doesn’t support Autodiscover, therefore, do not choose Outlook Autodiscover instead of Outlook Connectivity.
Now select Next button, and type the required information manually on the relevant field.
After the above process, select Perform Test. Once the testing process is finished, you can go to the next step.
If the testing process is not successful, then use the report generated feature and follow the steps to fix the issue.
Step 3:
In the next step, go to the link https://login.microsoftonline.com/ and login to the account. Select a Migration tab after opening Exchange server admin.
Click + and select Migrate to Exchange Online.
Choose Cutover migration and click Next button.
Now, give on-premise credentials and click Next.
Type on-premise Exchange Server and RPC Proxy Server, and click Next.
Now, provide the name to New Migration Batch in the next step.
After providing the name, select Next button. Now, you will see two options to initiate the batch, choose Automatically start the batch option and click Next.
Now you will be able to see the created batch and the Syncing STATUS.
The syncing process will take time to get finished; this processing time depends upon the number of accounts and size of mailboxes. Meanwhile, you are allowed to check the migration details by selecting Mailbox Status and then View Details.
Step 4 (Final Migration Process)
Once the syncing process of Exchange accounts from Exchange Server 2003 to Office 365 is finished successfully, you will get a report email along with all the details, automatically. Once you got the report, you can do the following migrations:
- Migrate Public Folders to Office 365
- Verify DNS Record
- Assign Office 365 licenses
- Desktop configuration for Office 365
Once you are successfully done with all the migration of all mailboxes to Office 365 and also finished with MX record DNS replication, stop the migration batch and the services of Exchange 2003.
Alternatively, it is highly recommended to try Exchange mailbox export tool to export Exchange server mailboxes to Office 365 account or a live Exchange Server.