1. Onwards to
Exchange Online
Town Hall presentations
• Marc DeBonis – Director, Collaborative Computing Solutions (CCS)/Division
of IT (DoIT)
• Chris Shively – IT Manager, CCS
• Steve Cox – Exchange lead systems administrator, CCS
v.2.1 – End user
2. Tl;dr
Starting May 2017 we’ll be migrating all our on
premise Exchange mailboxes to in-cloud Exchange
Online. #greatsuccess
3. Why do this?
From on premise Exchange 2013 -> in-cloud Exchange 2016
Bigger storage quotas (10 GB -> 50 GB)
Maybe even 100 GB soon?
Data duplicated x4 (3 DAGs and 1 LAG)
Support for FERPA, PII and ITAR
Data stays in US datacenters
Much improved web access
Supports Federated Hokies SSO and Duo 2-factor
Improved SPAM and AV scanning
Meets high availability and disaster recovery needs
More options with DLP, e-Discovery, Information Protection
Integration with other Office 365 (O365) services
4. O365 “App waffle”(as of March 17th)
Looking for your own app waffle? Try going to http://my.office365.vt.edu
5. O365 Exchange Online specific apps
What you don’t see (and isn’t in the app waffle)
Is a “core service” called Microsoft Groups!
Microsoft Groups provides groups of users:
Unique email account
with threaded conversation
Calendar
OneDrive for Business
OneNote Notebook
Planner
SharePoint Online Site
* The caveat is to fully participate in a Microsoft
Group you NEED an Exchange Online mailbox
(even if you don’t use it).
6. Implementation specifics – Phase one
All existing Exchange On-Prem mailboxes will be migrated to
Exchange Online
The Exchange Hybrid Bridge will remain in place for one year
Hybrid bridge: on premise in-cloud
New Faculty and Staff will have the option to create their in-
cloud mailboxes using ADadmin
Sponsored accounts will automatically have in-cloud
mailboxes created for them
7. Implementation specifics – Phase one
Resource Accounts
Existing accounts will be migrated
New room and equipment account requests will be
approved by IMCS and submitted to CCS for creation in
Exchange Online
Resource mailboxes (non-PACE) may be replaced by user
provisioned Office 365 Groups
Pending ITC / community feedback being positive
PACE accounts will be handed by IMCS in the tradition
method. CCS will move the local mailbox to Exchange
Online.
8. Migration steps
OU’s will be migrated by identified preference of OU admin(s)
Users in NotOU will be migrated last!
More information about this later in the presentation…
Steps:
1. OU Admin, ITEE and users are informed that the OU move will start
on X date
2. CCS begins a 95% behind-the-scenes move (account stays local)
3. OU Admin and ITEE are informed when the 95% is complete and the
final migration (remaining 5%) starts
4. CCS runs a script to provision EO licenses and complete the
migration
5. OU Admin, ITEE and users are informed when complete
9. Demo ADadmin
How can I find out if my Hokies account is in a organizational
unit (OU)?
How can I find out who my OU admin is?
How can I tell what type of Exchange mailbox I have?
How can I tell what O365 licenses I have?
http://adadmin.w2k.vt.edu
10. How can we be ready? 1 of 7
Most important! Upgrade your Windows and Mac desktop
client to latest supported Microsoft Office platform - Office
2016
For individual users, use the ProPlus version they can
download from Office 365 portal (aka
http://my.office365.vt.edu)
For managed users (or labs) use the Volume Licensed (VL)
version from http://network.software.vt.edu
Have your mobile devices upgrades to latest version of the
mobile OS version
11. How can we be ready? 2 of 7
Install, configure and use the Outlook mobile app instead of
native email and calendaring apps
The app can also simultaneously support other email
solutions (like Gmail) and can integrate multiple calendars
together!
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-com/mobile/
12. How can we be ready? 3 of 7
Verify caching mode is turned on in desktop Outlook client
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Turn-on-Cached-Exchange-
Mode-7885AF08-9A60-4EC3-850A-E221C1ED0C1C
http://tinyurl.com/lx7xzs5
Ensure that you and your resources (such as Exchange PACE accounts) are
identified and moved to the correct Hokies OU
Avoid issues of users and resource being separated between on
premise and in-cloud to avoid delegation issues!
Protip: Use ADadmin to verify where you reside
Verifying mailbox type for users
Full Exchange mailbox -> Exchange Online mailbox
Calendar-only mailbox -> Exchange Online mailbox w/ forward
Protip: Use ADadmin verify what type of mailboxes you have
13. How can we be ready? 4 of 7
Provide feedback to departmental OU admins before they
submit survey input as to when they want your mailbox (and
resource mailboxes) to move
We will be sending out a survey link to all OU admins so
they can state preference. Choose one for each OU (May
1-8, May 16-31, June 1-30)
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31 1 2 3
May - June 2017
14. How can we be ready? 5 of 7
For users using managed firewall, group policy, IPSEC, RLAN or
office network security appliances, verify with your local IT that
systems will be able to connect to the Office 365 cloud
environment
Use https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/ to test from
restricted systems
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-365-URLs-and-
IP-address-ranges-8548a211-3fe7-47cb-abb1-355ea5aa88a2
http://tinyurl.com/pruu2fx
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/NAT-support-with-
Office-365-170e96ea-d65d-4e51-acac-1de56abe39b9
http://tinyurl.com/mu23ezm
15. How can we be ready? 6 of 7
Verify that you have been licensed for the Office 365 core
services (and ProPlus)
http://adadmin.w2k.vt.edu
Protip: Use ADadmin to verify what licenses you have have
16. How can we be ready? 7 of 7
Stop using POP/IMAP with on premise Exchange and change access
methods
VT Exchange Online WILL NOT support these access methods
Insecure communications (TLS 1.0)
Cannot be 2 factored
Missing out on all the additional features of newer protocols
Easier for spammers to use as a spamming vector
Discontinue logging into Outlook and mobile apps with the old
@w2k.vt.edu UPN, instead use pid@vt.edu
Understand that data in Exchange Online is NOT backed up.
It is replicated 4x across datacenters
Deleted data will be available for 30 days (client restorable)
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/dn440734(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://tinyurl.com/pvpg2c7
17. Migration Experiences so far
Users can see the Mail App (and others) in O365 before they are
fully migrated. If clicked, it will report something happened with
their account.
This issue resolves as soon as the migration completes for the
user.
This can also happen if they were logged into OWA and their
mailbox was finalized to in-cloud in the mean time.
Clear the web browser cache completely
18. Migration Experiences
After migration, Windows users WILL see a warning popup
message in Outlook that the Exchange Admin has made a
change to their account.
The popup goes away after restarting Outlook
(eventually…)
19. Migration Experiences
After migration, Mac users may see a warning popup message
in Outlook indicating that their account has been redirected.
The issue resolves when users check “Always use” and click
“Allow”.
20. Migration Experiences
Users sharing calendars with migrated accounts may see a popup
indicating that the calendar needs the log in for the user you are sharing
with..
This can be very confusing for users!
User must enter in their _own_ credentials as pid@vt.edu/hokies
password
“Send on behalf” and “access to shared resource accounts” will not work
across the hybrid bridge. All accounts must move to EO to continue to
function. This is why we’re moving by OU!
Two testers reported corrupted Outlook profiles after migration. They had
to remove and recreate their profiles.
Users may receive a bounced mail message if they email a person who is
migrating during the 5%.
It is a-ok to re-import .psts into your mailbox _before_ the migration
Just make sure you don’t go past you on premise 10 GB mailbox
quota!
21. Project Schedule
January
Dev Testing with Internal Participants
February:
Small External Test Group to production: 2/1
Division of IT Migration to production: 2/20
~600 mailboxes
March
Campus Town Halls starting around 3/20
April
CCS and ITEE building out additional documentation, scripts and workflow
Departmental IT working to ready users
May
University Migration Start Date: 5/1
Completes within 2-3 months
We are here!
23. Onwards to
Exchange Online
Town Hall presentations
• Marc DeBonis – Director, Collaborative Computing Solutions (CCS)/Division
of IT (DoIT)
• Chris Shively – IT Manager, CCS
• Steve Cox – Exchange lead systems administrator, CCS
v.2 .1– End user