In this topic:

• Reviewing migration readiness
• Considerations
• Starting a Chats Migration Task
• Reviewing the migration results
• Troubleshooting

Reviewing Chats Migration Readiness

NOTE: Chat migrations are heavily throttled by Microsoft on source and target tenants. As a result, migration throughput performance is very difficult to predict. Quest recommends migrating the last 15 or 30 days of messages during the last phase of migrations. Use a separate migration task to archive some or all of the remaining messages for users who require the messages for regulatory or business reasons. Quest recommends purchasing Chat addon licenses which are 4x faster because archiving all remaining messages will take a considerable amount of time.

Use the following information in the Chats list view to support your decision.

Property	Value	Description
Workflow	Discovered	On Demand has discovered the chat.
OneDrive Status	Completed	The OneDrive migration service has migrated the files for this user. This must be completed for On Demand to migrate chats for this user. You can migrate OneDrive file sharing permissions before or after the Chats migration.
Mailbox Status	Migrated	User mailbox migration is complete and successful.

In addition to the information that you reviewed, verify the following:

• The temporary Migration Manager accounts for source and target tenants that you will use to migrate Teams Chat should be granted the Teams license. You should not change your temporary Migration Manager accounts before completing the migration project.
• The temporary Migration Manager accounts should be granted the Global Administrator or Teams Administrator role on the tenants for which these account are used.
• [optional] Verify that you have Microsoft Teams Private Chat licenses. Check Settings > Subscriptions.

Considerations

• It is a best practice to migrate Chats after all the content like OneDrive, Mailboxes, SharePoint, Teams, etc., is migrated and the user accounts are matched.
• During migration, the migration task will migrate any new messages added to Chats after completing a Discovery task.
• Chats can be migrated multiple times. During remigration, new messages are added to previously migrated live chats in the target, and new chats that were not migrated before are migrated.
• You can archive chats only once regardless of the time-range that you select. For example, if there is a chat between A and B, then if you archive chats for A, all messages sent by both A and B in the same chat will be archived. If you attempt to archive chats for B, only new messages between A and B will be migrated to the live chat in the target tenant, but any messages between A and B that were previously archived will not be archived again.
• When you select the Archive remaining messages option in the Migration Actions step of the New Chats Migration Task wizard, the chat archive file will be uploaded to an available OneDrive of a chat participant, and shared with other participants. During the process, Microsoft 365 will send a notification email to the owner of the file.
• Due to Microsoft API limitations, the discovery task is automatically run for all users during a remigration to discover new messages and new chats. Which is why we don't recommend remigration for small users sets.

Starting a Chats Migration Task

1. Log in to Quest On Demand and choose an organization if you have set up multiple organizations.
2. From the navigation pane, click Migration to open the My Projects list.
3. Create a new project or open an existing project.
4. Click Teams from the project tiles, or click Open from the Teams tile to open the Teams workspace.
5. Select the Chats tab and select the user accounts whose chats you want to migrate.
6. Select Migrate from the action ribbon. The New Chats Migration Task wizard opens.
7. Step 1: Migration Options

   

   1. Select one or more options as described below:
      • Migrate chats with unmatched and deleted users - select this option to migrate the chats with users that have not been matched with a user the target tenant, or deleted in the source tenant because they have left the organization. The information about the user from the source tenant is used to migrate the chat.

        If this option is not selected, chats that include unmatched or deleted users will not be migrated. For example, if John chats with Dave, and Dave's user account has deactivated because he left the organization, then any chat with user Dave will not be migrated.

      • Skip OneDrive status check - select this option to ignore any verification of OneDrive accounts. Chat messages of users will be migrated regardless of their OneDrive status in the target tenant. Links to OneDrive files attached to chat messages will work when the OneDrive account has been migrated and the files are successfully migrated to the OneDrive account in the target tenant.

        NOTE: OneDrive accounts must be provisioned in the target tenant in advance when using this option.

      • Avoid adding external users to target chats - select this option to avoid adding external users to the chats that are migrated to the target tenant. If this option is not selected, external users will be added to the migrated chat and they will receive unwanted notifications.
   2. Click Next.
8. Step 2: Migration Actions

   

   1. Select one or more action options as described below:
      1. Migrate to live chat - select this option to migrate all or a subset of the chat messages from the source tenant to the live chat in the target tenant. You choose a subset or all messages based the date range option as defined below:
         • Messages within last 15 days - the most recent chats within 15 days discovered after the last migration will be migrated.
         • Messages within last 30 days - the most recent chats within 15 days discovered after the last migration will be migrated.
         • Messages within last 60 days - the most recent chats within 15 days discovered after the last migration will be migrated.

         Messages are merged into manageable sets and then migrated. The effect of merging messages is described in the example below:

         Consider a set of original messages in the source tenant as shown below:

         

         When the message set is merged and migrated, they appear in the target tenant as shown below. The migration service determines the merge set. Messages retain their chronological order and the time stamp is converted to GMT.

         

      2. Archive remaining messages - select this option to archive the rest of the chat messages. These messages are archived as an HTML file and are uploaded to an available OneDrive selected from chat participants. Permission to view the HTML file is granted to other chat participants.

         NOTE: Chat migrations are heavily throttled on source and target tenants. Migration throughput performance is very difficult to predict. Quest recommends migrating the last 15 or 30 days of messages during the last phase of migrations. Use a separate migration task to archive some or all of the remaining messages for users who require the messages for regulatory or business reasons.

         You can exercise greater granular control over the remaining messages using the time-range options described below:

         • Last 30 days of remaining messages - the most recent 30 days of messages that remain to be migrated will be archived.
         • Last 60 days of remaining messages - the most recent 60 days of messages that remain to be migrated will be archived.
         • Last 90 days of remaining messages - the most recent 90 days of messages that remain to be migrated will be archived.
         • All remaining messages - all messages that remain to be migrated will be archived.

         Additional options:

         • Create private chat with link to archived messages file - selecting this option creates a private chat message in the target tenant with the members of the original chat. The chat message contains a link to the archived messages (HTML) file that is uploaded to an available OneDrive selected from chat participants. Clearing this option creates the archived messages (HTML) file with appropriate permissions without a private chat message.

           The archived messages file appears in the OneDrive with the naming convention: <chat name> + <first 3 member names> + current date + <-archivedchat>

           The link is named Conversation History.

         • Use additional Team Chats licenses for faster archiving - select this option to increase the throughput for archiving remaining chat messages.

           NOTE: This option has been temporarily deactivated because the message order in the archived file cannot be guaranteed due to a limitation of the Microsoft API. If you want to use this option regardless of the limitation, contact Quest Technical Support.

           • This option is displayed when
             • additional chat licenses are detected, and
             • Migrate to live chat option is not selected.

             TIP: If you want to migrate live chats and use additional chat licenses to faster archiving, then start two separate chat migration tasks: one task for migrating live chats, and the other task for fast archiving with additional licenses.

         Example 1: Assume that you are migrating chats on June 30.

         If you select Migrate to live chat and Messages within 15 days, then all chat messages from June 16 to June 30 will be migrated to the live chat in the target tenant.

         If you also select Archive remaining messages and Last 30 days of remaining messages, any remaining chats from May 17 to June 15 will be archived as an HTML file in the target tenant. Chats before May 17 will not be migrated.

         If you also select Create private chat with link to archived messages file, a chat message with a link named Conversation History is created in the chat that links to the archived HTML file.

         Example 2: Assume that you are migrating chats on June 30.

         If you select Migrate to live chat and Messages within 15 days but there are no chats within the last 15 days, then no chats will be migrated to the live chat in the target tenant.

         If you also select Archive remaining messages and Last 30 days of remaining messages, any remaining chats from May 17 to June 15 will be archived as an HTML file in the target tenant.

         If you also select Create private chat with link to archived messages file, a chat message with a link named Conversation History is created in the chat that links to the archived HTML file.

         Example 3: Assume that you migrated all chats previously on June 20 and are migrating chats again on June 30.

         If you select Migrate to live chat and Messages within 15 days, only new chats discovered after June 20 will be migrated to the live chat in the target tenant. The migration service remembers the previous migration.

         If you also select Archive remaining messages and All remaining messagesbut no chats remain, then none will be migrated or archived.

   2. Click Next.
9. Step 3: Notification
   1. Send notification email once the task is completed - select this option to send a notification email when a migration task completes.
      • Only in a case of failure - select this option to send the email if the migration task fails to complete successfully.
   2. Recipients - enter the email address of the recipients of this email. You can specify multiple recipient email addresses separated by semicolon.
   3. Click Next.
10. Step 4: Reporting

    Select the check box Generate detailed report of migration errors to generate a migration error report when you run the migration task.

    You can download the report from the Reports tab of the Teams workspace by clicking the Download link in the Error Log column. If there are no migration errors, a download link is not available. Error reports are retained for 30 days. After 30 days the download link is replaced with the label Expired and you can no longer download the report. For more information about error reports, see Reports.

11. Step 5: Schedule
    1. Choose from one of three options to schedule the task. The scheduler will be activated only after you complete the task wizard.
       • Run now - task runs immediately.
       • Run later - task must be started manually.
       • Schedule - task will be started at a future date and time entered in the corresponding calendar field.
       • Priority - select a priority from the dropdown for the objects scheduled for migration with this task . Values are: Highest, High, Medium, Low and Lowest. The default priority is Medium. If the system is busy, the objects are queued (Migration state = Queued). When the system accepts new migration work, objects are taken from the queue based on the assigned priority and age in the queue.
    2. Click Next.
12. Step 6: Summary
    1. Verify the task specifications as described below:
       1. Name - name of the task. You can specify a custom name. The default name is Migrate chats.
       2. Source tenant - name of the source tenant for the chats.
       3. Target tenant - name of the target tenant where the chats will be migrated.
       4. Scheduled start - date and time when the task will start. For example, Now indicates that the task will start immediately after you complete the wizard.
    2. Click Finish to complete the task wizard. The task will start as scheduled.

The migration task is created. You can track its progress from the Tasks tab, view the summary on the Dashboard or monitor alerts and notifications from the Events tab.

Reviewing the Migration Results

Once the migration task is complete, use the information on the Chats tab to verify the success of the migration. The column in the chats migration list view are as follows:

• User Name - name of the user from the source tenant.
• Migration State - status of the task in the migration process. Values are as listed below:
  • Discovered
  • Migrating
  • Partially migrated
  • Partially migrated with issues
  • Migrated
  • Migrated with issues
  • Migration failed
• Workflow - the most recent operation performed on the group. Valid values are
  • migrated - when all discovered chats have migrated.
  • partially migrated - when some chats failed to migrate. The number of migrated chats is fewer than the total number of chats.
• Migrated Chats - number of chats migrated for the user. This may be fewer than the total number of chats. If a participant is not matched or OneDrive not migrated then migration of the chat is intentionally skipped and the event documented on the Events tab.
• Archived Chats - indicates whether or not chats have been archived. When chats are migrated and archived, the value changes to Yes for the selected user. Since chats can be archived only once, if you attempt to re-archive migrated chats, a warning message appears in the migration task events.
• Source UPN - UserPrincipalName (UPN) of the source account.
• Target UPN - UserPrincipalName (UPN) of the target account.

 

Troubleshooting

Chats may not be successfully migrated due to a variety of reasons. Two example are described below.

Example 1: Members of a chat have not been matched or migrated to the target tenant.

This is a common case where one or more members are not available in the target tenant. In such a case, the chat will not be migrated. In this example, the chat migration for Joni Sherman indicates a failure. The Status column indicates Migration failed. Joni has been chatting with the Administrator. However the Administrator account has not been matched or migrated to the target tenant.

When you inspect the migration task details, it will indicate a failure. You can click the event icons to get more information about the failure.

Resolution: When accounts are missing from the target tenant, you must map or migrate the account and rerun the chat migration task.

Example 2: An error in a chat message prevents all subsequent chat messages from being migrated.

In this example, chats for Joni Sherman indicate a migration problem. The Status column indicates Migration partially failed. There are 36 chat messages but only 3 messages could be migrated. The migration task completes successfully but no more messages are migrated. The service account that is used to migrate the chat remains as a member of the chat in the target tenant.

When you inspect the migration task, you will notice that the task has completed successfully, but there are error events in the task detail.

The Events list will indicate the error event, but more importantly you will notice that no more messages are migrated after the error event.

Resolution: Inspect the chat messages of the user and resolve the issue. Then rerun the migration task for the same user. If you are unable to address the issues with chat messages, contact Quest Technical Support.