Migrating from POP/IMAP to Exchange Server 2007 using Microsoft Transport Suite

Introduction

Microsoft released a new version of the Microsoft Transport tool and this new release has new capabilities such as migrating from POP3 and IMAP4 servers to Exchange Server 2007. The process can be summarized in a few steps: create a CSV list with all the mailbox information and import this file into Microsoft Transporter, from there we can choose which accounts will be migrated, time range of the data to be migrated, etc.

In this article series we are going to go through the entire process. We will start with the installation process, how to define permissions to use Microsoft Transporter; and finally migrate some mailboxes from either POP3 (Part 1) or IMAP4 (Part 2) to Exchange Server 2007.

Installing Microsoft Transporter Suite for Internet Mail

The installation process is straightforward, download Microsoft Transporter, the version should be the newest one.

The tool can be installed in either 32bit or 64bit versions of Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista or Windows XP. The software requirements are .Net Framework 2.0, MMC 3.0, PowerShell 1.0 and Exchange Server 2007 SP1.

To install the Microsoft Transporter tool:

On the first screen click on Next.

End-User License Agreement. Click I accept the terms in the License Agreement and click Next.

Select Components and Install Location. In our case we are not going to play with Lotus Domino, then let us install only Transporter for Internet Mail, and then click on Next, as shown in Figure 01.

Figure 01

Ready to install. Just click on Install button to start the Microsoft Transporter installation.

Final screen of the wizard, just click on Finish.

The process is totally straightforward and the Microsoft Transporter Suite can be installed in a workstation or on the Exchange Server 2007 box as well.

Configuring Exchange Server 2007 permissions

In order to migrate from POP3/IMAP4 the user must have the Exchange Recipient Admin and Exchange Impersonation rights in at least a single CAS Server.

To validate if the current user belongs to the Exchange Recipient Admin we can run the following command:

Net user /domain

The user must be part of the Exchange Recipient Admin.

To configure Exchange Impersonation we need to figure out first what the Distinguished Name of the CAS Server is. Run the following Get-ClientAccessServer cmdlet (Figure 02):

Get-ClientAccessServer | select name,distinguishedname | fl

Figure 02

The Exchange Impersonate permission can be assigned to a single CAS Server or all of them, if we are going to specify the CAS during the mailbox migration wizard. To add the permission use the Add-ADPermission cmdlet (Figure 03), using the following syntax:

Add-ADPermission –Identity -User -ExtendedRights ms-Exch-EPI-Impersonation

In Figure 03 we will use the cmdlet syntax above with an extra parameter, that is –Whatif, which will simulate the action that would be performed by the cmdlet. If everything goes well, we can remove the –WhatIf and run the cmdlet again. In our example, we added it to a single CAS Server.

Figure 03

Generating the .CSV file to be used by Microsoft Transporter

We will now move data from a generic POP3 Server to Exchange Server 2007, in order to accomplish this task we have to create a .CSV file with the following columns:

• SourceIdentity: The e-mail account that the user has in the POP3 Server
• SourceServer: The name or IP of the POP3 Server
• SourceLoginID: the account user name used to connect on the POP3 server
• SourcePassword: the user’s password
• TargetIdentity: the Exchange Server 2007 identity will receive the data from the previous POP3 Server settings

We can create a .csv file directly in notepad or we can use Microsoft Excel to do this. Our list with some users can be seen in Figure 04.

Figure 04

The TargetIdentity must exist before using the Microsoft Transporter tool, the value of TargetIdentity can be any e-mail address (Primary or secondary). We can use the same CSV file to create the users or mailboxes in case of a new environment. To create objects using a CSV file please see this article on how to manage mailboxes in Exchange Server 2007.

Migrating from POP3 Server to Exchange Server 2007

Next, we are going to copy content from a generic POP3 Server to Exchange Server 2007. The user list was created in the previous section and now we are going to import them into the tool and use the migration wizard later on in order to copy the content. Before starting the copy we will see the current information that a user has in the generic server which supports POP3 (Figure 05).

Figure 05

Okay, now we know the content that we are going to move, let us use the Microsoft Transport to copy the content:

1. Open Microsoft Transporter Suite for Internet Mailboxes.
2. In the main screen click on Add Mailboxes... button. (Figure 06)

Figure 06

3. Add Mailboxes. Select the CSV file created in the Excel and click on Import. (Figure 07)

Figure 07

4. Security Warning. A message informing us that the password information contained in the CSV will be stored in a file called InternetMailbox.tbin. Just click OK.
5. On the main screen we have three different views to work with: All Mailboxes, Mailboxes Ready for Migration and Mailboxes Already Migrated. Let us click on All Mailboxes to see all the mailboxes imported from the CSV file and let us start the migration of a single user, click on a single user and click on Migrated Selected Mailboxes. (Figure 08)

Figure 08

6. Select Mailbox Type. Select POP and we are not going to use a secure connection to the POP3 Server (995 SSL), we also going to specify which CAS (Client Access Server) and in our case that CAS was the only one that we gave Exchange Impersonate permissions. Click on Next. (Figure 09)

Figure 09

7. Select Data Range. We can specify a time range to migrate from the POP3 server to Exchange Server 2007. We will get all the content, click on All e-mail and click on Next. (Figure 10)

Figure 10

8. Review Selected Mailboxes. A summary is shown. Just click on Migrate.
9. Migration Complete. The final page displaying the migrated data, just click on Finish.

Now, it is time to test if our migration went well. Log in using the user Anderson Patricio (the same user whose mailbox was on the generic POP3 server) and we can validate that the current content in OWA is the same as the POP3 server (Figure 11). Microsoft Transporter preserves the following characteristics: attachments, rich content, status information (read or unread).

Figure 11

Migrating from an IMAP4 server

The wizard used by Microsoft Transporter Suite for Internal Mail to copy data from an IMAP4 server to Exchange Server 2007 is a little bit different from the process performed in the first article. Using an IMAP4 Server as source we are able to configure two new items: Folder Mapping and IMAP4 authentication.

Let’s start the process:

1. Open Microsoft Transpoter.
2. All the mailboxes imported from the .CSV file will be listed in All Mailboxes item. We can click on the Mailboxes Ready for Migration item which will show all mailboxes ready to be migrated from the CSV file(s). Select a couple of mailboxes and click on the Migrated Selected Mailboxes item located on Toolbox Actions
3. Select Mailbox Type. Let’s migrate our users using the IMAP protocol, and tick the two check boxes: the first to not use SSL to copy data (If you have a server that supports SSL tick this one) and we are going to specify the CAS Server. Click on Next.
   Note:
   The account that is running the wizard must have Exchange Impersonation rights on the CAS server as we have seen in the first article.

Figure 01

4. IMAP Folder Mapping. This is the first new feature when we use the IMAP protocol. For now we are going to leave the default setting which is use the default folder mapping and click on Next. In the next section we will validate how to change some settings to manage folders from the source server during the migration using an XML file called FolderMap.xml. (Figure 02)

Figure 02

5. IMAP Authentication. This is the second new feature using IMAP. Microsoft Transporter is able to use a single account to authenticate against the IMAP server and copy data to Exchange Server. This account must have administrator credentials to log in to all accounts selected for migration on Microsoft Transporter. We are going to explain this new feature in the next section, for now let’s leave the default settings and click on Next. (Figure 03)

Figure 03

6. Select Data Range. We can define either a range or All e-mail to copy messages from the source IMAP Server. (Figure 04)

Figure 04

7. Review Selected Mailboxes. An overview will be shown, just click on Migrate to start the copy from the source IMAP server.

After this process we will be able to see all the messages, calendar, notes, Tasks in the Exchange server 2007 mailboxes.

Using the Administration Credential feature

When the IMAP protocol is used and the source server has the ability to allow an account to access another user’s mailboxes, then we can use that specific account to log in to the source server to migrate the data, as shown in Figure 05.

Figure 05

If we are going to use this resource we do not need to add the column SourcePassword into the CSV file because that password will not be used.

Using Mapping folders

Microsoft Transporter can use an XML file to match the IMAP source folders with the Exchange Server 2007 default folders. During the Microsoft Transporter installation a file called Foldermap.xml that can be found at c:\program files\Microsoft Transporter tools\Config is installed. We can use this file to create our own definitions. For example: if the source mailbox receives all new messages in a folder called New Items we are able to associate this folder to match with the default folder Inbox.

The default mapping table has these definitions:

Folder on IMAP Server	Folder on Exchange Server 2007
Inbox, New Mail, [Root]	Inbox
Outbox	Outbox
Sent Items, Sent Mail, Sent	Sent Items
Drafts, Draft	Drafts
Deleted Items, Trash	Deleted Items
Junk E-mail, Spam	Junk E-mail
Contacts	Migration Items\Contacts
Journal	Journal
Tasks	Migration Items\Tasks
Notes	Notes
Calendar	Calendar

Table 01: This table can be found in the Microsoft Transport help file

If a different folder exists in the source server it will be created in the Exchange Server 2007 mailbox, if the folder already exists in the Exchange Server 2007 mailbox the content will be merged. Let’s use a couple of scenarios to demonstrate how to use the mapping folder feature.

To configure a custom folder mapping file click on Use a custom folder mapping in the wizard section named IMAP Folder Mapping, as shown in Figure 06.

Figure 06

Scenario 01: The user below (Figure 07) has a folder named Projects on the IMAP4 server. If we run the Microsoft Transporter Wizard that folder will be created automatically in the user’s mailbox.

Figure 07

Let’s create a copy of the file Foldermap.xml and save it as CustomFolderMap.xml and add the following parameters to that file (see Figure 08). That parameter will redirect all the information located in the Project folder of the source mailbox to the Exchange Server 2007 mailboxes in subfolder Projects folder under the Inbox folder.

Figure 08

Scenario 02: In this second scenario we do not want to move the contents of the source folder Projects. For this scenario we can add the following parameters into our XML file.

Using the example above the folder Project will not be created in the destination mailboxes.

Conclusion

In this final article we have seen how to use the Microsoft Transporter Suite for Internet Mail to copy data from POP/IMAP servers to Exchange Server 2007. We also saw how to configure extra options that can be used with IMAP protocols, such as: using an administrator account to move all users without knowing the user’s password and how to use a file to map folders from the source server to Exchange Server 2007.