Microsoft 365 - Going Live!

This article is part three in a three part series on migrating your email hosting to Microsoft 365. The full series includes:

a) Get Verified
b) Set up your account
c) Go Live (current)

Once your account is set up, you will prepare to go live. There are three parts to the Go Live Process. These steps should be planned out to ensure all of your users do not have any down time. If you have any questions about this process, please contact the Department of Internet Ministries for assistance.

Update DNS Records

The MX records are the DNS entries that control where email for your domain gets routed. Currently, your DNS MX records are pointed to the IMail.goarch.org server. Microsoft has provided you with the new MX and perhaps other DNS records (TXT records for SPF and DKIM, perhaps). You will need to log into your domain registrar account to update your domain's DNS with these new records.

If you are not sure what the correct DNS records should be, visit the Microsoft admin center and go to Setup -> Domains and look under "Required DNS settings" for the correct records.

After making this change, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for mail to start routing to your new accounts.

Migrate Saved Emails

Through the Microsoft admin center, you can migrate any of your saved email from your old accounts on the IMail server into your new accounts. You can make this your first step, though it is recommended that you do so at the same time as updating the DNS records. This is to ensure your two accounts (the old ones on IMail and the new ones with Microsoft) stay completely in sync. 

1) Go to admin.microsoft.com and log in.

2) In the Grey bar on the left side of the screen, go to Setup -> Products 

3) Click "Migrate user mailboxes"

4) Click "Other email sources ..."

5) On the next page, fill in the settings as follows:

IMAP server name: imail.goarch.org
Port: 993
Security: SSL
Email address: (use any email address from the imail server)
Password: (use the corresponding password for this account)

6) Click Save

7) On the next screen, you will see a list of names under the column "Display Name". These names correspond with the email mailboxes in your new Microsoft 365 account. For any of these accounts which correspond with one of your old accounts on the IMail server, you will want to use the checkbox at the start of the row and then enter the username and password of the OLD account in the columns labeled "Source email" and "password". If you have entered the information correctly, a confirmation message will appear in the status column. Once you have selected all of the accounts whose messages need to be migrated, click the "Start Migration" button at the top of the screen. See the screenshot below for a visual of this process:

Microsoft Migration Tool

The time required for the migration will vary based on how large the mailboxes are that you are trying to migrate. Once the migration is completed, you will see the message: 

"Your migration completed successfully! Make sure to close the connection if you're done, or if you want to start another migration."

At this point, please contact the Department of Internet Ministries to communicate that the migration has completed or if you have run into any issues. 

Update Local Software

Once your new accounts are live, you will want to update any local software and apps on mobile devices to start checking mail from these new email accounts. General instructions for various devices are: