Reference Materials for Migration 8.15 - Public Folder Synchronization (MAgE)

About This Document

This document help you perform public folders synchronization by enhanced Migration Agent for Exchange (MAgE) combined with extended MMEx PowerShell module instead of legacy agents in migration scenarios from Microsoft Exchange 2010/2013/2016/2019 to Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft Exchange 2013/2016/2019.

How It Works

To synchronize public folders you can use enhanced Migration Agent for Exchange (MAgE) combined with enhanced MMEx PowerShell module instead of legacy agents in migration scenarios from Microsoft Exchange 2010/2013/2016/2019 to Microsoft Office 365 or to Microsoft Exchange 2013/ 2016/2019. This approach has lots of benefits including significantly increased performance, migration statistics right from the MMEx PowerShell module, more transparent set of required permissions, configuration, update and troubleshooting processes are simplified, etc.

Enhanced MMEx PowerShell module complements Quest Migration Manager by synchronizing the mail-enabled state and public folders directory properties.

Public folder synchronization process is collection-based. All public folders are included in one public folder collection Public Folder Collection (AgentHostName). Public folder collection properties are used as synchronization process properties.

You can specify the direction that will be applied to all public folders:

• One-way, public folders are migrated from the source to the target, and then all source changes are periodically transferred to the target.
• Two-way, public folders are synchronized from the source to the target, and then source and target changes are synchronized.

Conflict resolution

Consider the following specifics on how conflicts will be resolved for migrated public folders after migration:

• In case both source and target messages / permissions are changed, source change will be used, target change will be discarded.
• In case there are no conflicts, any source change will be added to target, and then any target change will be added to source

Hierarchy changes handling

The following hierarchy changes can be handled automatically using folder ID:

• Public folder moved to another location
• Public folder renamed
• Public folder deleted. This change might need additional settings. Refer to The public folder deleted for details.
• New subfolder added to the public folder that are already included in the synchronization scope. All new subfolders of public folders that are already included in synchronization scope will be detected and automatically added to the project.
• New top-level public folders can be detected and added to migration automatically by MAgE using DetectNewTopLevelFolders parameter for Set-MMExProjectOptions cmdlet or you can add them manually. Refer to New top-level public folders added for details.

Migration Agent for Exchange at the beginning of the session detects a change of the full path of the source or the target public folder.

In case of change, Agent changes data in the project database to restart synchronization in next session and the following record is reported The folder path is changed. The folder will be processed in the next session.

In the next session, the new path will be reported in the Migration Agent log and in the statistics (GetMMExPublicFolderStatistics cmdlet). Synchronization will be restarted using new data.

Migration Agent for Exchange at the beginning of the session detects a change of the name of the source or the target public folder. If the target public folder renamed after the migration has been started, the Get-MMExPublicFolderStatistics returns the System.Exception: Not Found error in Last error field.

In the next session, the new name will be reported in the MigrationAgent log and in the statistics (GetMMExPublicFolderStatistics cmdlet). Synchronization will be restarted using new data.

Refer to specific case workarounds for instructions on how to handle the rest of hierarchy changes.

Before You Begin

Before you begin migration to Microsoft Office 365, you need to provision user accounts in it. For that, use the Migration Manager for Active Directory (Office 365) console for migration to Office 365 or Migration Manager for Active Directory console for migration to Exchange 2019. The information about user matching is stored in the corresponding migration project database. It is important that you use the same migration project in the Migration Manager for Exchange console when you configure public folder synchronization.

This document introduces a toolkit of Windows PowerShell cmdlets to support public folder synchronization for supported configurations.

Supported Configurations

This document is intended for the following migration scenarios supported by MAgE:

	To Exchange 2013	To Exchange 2016	Exchange 2019	To Office 365
From Exchange 2010
From Exchange 2013
From Exchange 2016
From Exchange 2019