Forum Discussion
Groups: Tenant to tenant migration
Groups use special forms of mailboxes that not all migration tools even reveal let alone access... That is my warning.
Just as an example, try using the Get-Mailbox cmdlet to list group mailboxes. They don't exist. You have to use Get-UnifiedGroup. But you can feed a group mailbox id into Get-MailboxStatistics... So it's inconsistent, hence the warning.
"the process of moving a unified group looks easy"...
That's some statement, especially because no OOTB tools are available to do the work.
The components you might have to deal with are as you listed, unless you use Teams, in which case you have chats etc. to move too. Planner and Teams share the same characteristics in that they store "their" data (as opposed to Files and plan comments) in data services outside EXO and SPO. You might be able to extract this data with the Microsoft Graph API.
SharePoint is easy enough because you are moving documents and files around - but be aware that metadata might be lost if you use file-level movement utilities. In other words, the devil is in the detail.
Extracting group conversations is, I think, possible with the Graph API too. Perhaps the AvePoint DocAve backup could help here as it now supports backup and restore of group conversations.
So getting at the data is possible. The issue might be stitching everything back together so that users see the same Groups as they had in the source and that all of the data belonging to those groups is in place and available, conversations are composed of the correct items, files are in the right libraries and have the right permissions (both for the group and any specific sharing), and so on.
Because no OOTB tools are available to do all of this, you are on your own. Good luck, fair sailing, and do let us know when you complete the task.
Well, Teams are a big problem right now, Planner is another biggie. I know that there are ways of using Microsoft Graph API to get all that data, I am unsure if I am also able to put that same information into the new tenant. But that is a bit academic since I'm not a developer. Luckily the use of Teams and planner is not wide spread in our old tenant.
Isn't group conversations really just a mailbox? as opposed to Teams conversation which is I-Don't-Know-What?
And Files is just a sharepoint site/DocLib?
We thought we just needed to recreate the target groups, use a mail migration tool like MigWiz or BitTitan to move the contents of the mailboxes.
Use Sharegate or another tool to migrate the sites/doclibs..
The notebook migration should be relativiely easy too, even if manual. Just move the sections between the notebooks using OneNote.
We are a relatively small company with only about 350 users so even if it wont be done in a day it's not an overly complicated process.. Unless I'm missing something?
Planner and teams are, like I said, a different story.
Im not saying that it is a fast process, but not an overly complicated one. Unless
Groups use special forms of mailboxes that not all migration tools even reveal let alone access... That is my warning.
Just as an example, try using the Get-Mailbox cmdlet to list group mailboxes. They don't exist. You have to use Get-UnifiedGroup. But you can feed a group mailbox id into Get-MailboxStatistics... So it's inconsistent, hence the warning.
I can absolutely confirm this as a problem. Our migration tool of choice cannot get to the mailboxes.
TonyRedmond wrote:Groups use special forms of mailboxes that not all migration tools even reveal let alone access... That is my warning.
Just as an example, try using the Get-Mailbox cmdlet to list group mailboxes. They don't exist. You have to use Get-UnifiedGroup. But you can feed a group mailbox id into Get-MailboxStatistics... So it's inconsistent, hence the warning.
Hi Mats Warnolf if I understood correctly you want to do T2T 365 groups to groups? And of course both the document content and and the mailbox (conversations) content. Correct?
I don't know what's your tool of choice but MigrationWiz can help you with that. I work for Bittitan so let me know if you want more info. I can send you some migration guides.
The fact that you can't get into the mailbox using the Get-Mailbox is not relevant to us and the API MigrationWiz uses.
That is good information. Thank you for that!
