How to Migrate from POP/IMAP System to Exchange Server 2007 using

Microsoft Transport Suite (Part 1)

http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/exchange-server-2007/migration-deployment/migrating-pop/imap-exchange-server-2007-microsoft-

transport-suite-part1.html

How to install and move data from a server running POP3 to Exchange Server 2007.

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 <User Name> /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 <CAS Server Distingued Name> -User <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. at the end of this document)

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

Conclusion

In this article we have seen how to copy content from a generic POP3 Server to Exchange Server 2007. The

ability to copy content from POP3/IMAP4 servers was introduced with Microsoft Transporter version

8.02.0012; before that all that was possible was copying data on the client side or using Exchange Server

2003 Migration Wizard.

In the next article we are going to move content from an IMAP4 server and we are also going to see how to

copy contents using the Exchange Management Shell.

How to Migrate from POP/IMAP System to Exchange Server 2007 using

Microsoft Transport Suite (Part 2)

http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/exchange-server-2007/migration-deployment/migrating-pop/imap-exchange-server-2007-microsoft-transport-

suite-part2.html

In the first article we saw how to install Microsoft Transporter and the required steps that must be done

before starting the copy process from a POP/IMAP server to Exchange Server 2007. These steps are: install

Microsoft Transporter, set the Exchange Impersonation permission on a CAS Server and create the CSV file

that will be used by the Microsoft Transporter.

In this article I assume that those steps have been completed (permissions and CSV file) and we are now

going to go through the steps required to move from an IMAP Server and play with some features that are

found only when the IMAP protocol is used.

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.

<Folder path = “Projects”>

<Property ExcludeFolder = “true”>

</Folder>

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.

How to manage mailboxes in Exchange Server 2007.

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Managing-mailboxes-Exchange-Server-2007-Part1.html

How to create users in Exchange Server 2007.

Overview

In this article, we are going to approach a simple but important subject: the mailbox user management for

Exchange Server 2007.

It may seem a simple issue to discuss, but we will see some advanced points related to user management

tasks in order to assist beginners and advanced administrators. This article will be split into two parts; in this

first part we will review mailbox management and user level functionalities.

Creating a mailbox using the Exchange Management Console

This procedure is the starting point of this article. Exchange Server 2007 allows administrators to create

objects such as Mailboxes, Contacts, Mail Users, and Distribution Groups. In the following steps we will

see how to create a mailbox object:

1. Open Exchange Management Console

2. Expand Recipient Configuration

3. Click on Mailbox

4. In the Mailbox pane, click on New Mailbox... (Figure 01)

Figure 01: Creating a new user in the Exchange Management Console

5. Introduction. We have to choose what kind of object we are creating, in Exchange Server 2007 we

have four different mailbox types:

- User mailbox: This is a traditional mailbox.

- Resource mailbox: This is a mailbox specifically assigned to Meeting Rooms. Its associated user

account will be disabled in Active Directory.

- Equipment mailbox: This is a mailbox specific to resources, (i.e. TV, Projector and so on). As

with a Resource mailbox, this kind of mailbox will disable a user in Active Directory.

- Linked Mailbox: This kind of mailbox will be used in environments with multiple forests. This

specific feature will be explained in a later article on MSExchange.org.

In the Introduction window, select the appropriate mailbox type and then click Next to continue.

(Figure 02).

Figure 02: Choosing what kind of mailbox will be created

6. User Type. In the User Type window, we can choose either to create a new user or to assign an

existing user to the new mailbox. If we choose to assign it to an existing user, we will have to check

if the account does not already have a mailbox associated with it. Click Next to continue (Figure 03).

Figure 03: Creating a new user for a new mailbox

7. User Information. In the User Information window, we should fill out the personal information of

the user and select the Organization Unit where it will be created. After that click on Next (Figure

04).

Figure 04: Filling out the personal user data and OU localization

8. Mailbox Settings. On the Mailbox Settings page, we can define the mailbox information such as

Alias, Mailbox Server, and Mailbox Store where the new mailbox will be located. The policies for

Mailbox and ActiveSync can also be defined in this step. We can choose which fields we are going to

fill out and then click Next to continue. (Figure 05).

Figure 05: Choosing Server, Storage Group, Mailbox database and policies during the mailbox creation

process

9. New Mailbox. In the New Mailbox window, we will get a summary of all the information that we

selected in the previous steps. These parameters will be used by the PowerShell engine for the

creation of this mailbox object. To create the mailbox, click on New (Figure 06).

Figure 06: The parameters that will be used in the creation of the new mailbox

10. Completion. In the Completion window, we will see the cmdlet New-mailbox and the parameters

that we used in the creation process of this new mailbox.

Figure 07: The final screen of the New Mailbox Wizard, showing us the cmdlet used in the creation of the

mailbox

Creating a mailbox through Exchange Management Shell

Another way to create users is by using the Exchange Management Shell. To do this, we can use a cmdlet

called New-Mailbox. There are many parameters associated with this commandlet, and the required

parameters for the cmdlet are the following:

Alias

Name

Database

OrganizationalUnit

UserPrincipalName

To create a user using Exchange Management Shell, we can run the following cmdlet:

New-Mailbox –alias <alias> -name <name> -Database <Database name> -OrganizationUnit Users –

UserPrincipalName <UPN value, example: Anderson@contoso.local>

If we do not type all the required parameters, we will get a prompt asking for the parameters that are

missing. In Figure 08, we can see that we have received the password prompt to fill out the password. After

the password was entered, the user was created.

Figure 08: Creating a mailbox through the cmdlet New-Mailbox in the Exchange Management Console

Using *.csv files to create mailboxes

Another interesting feature is the one that lets an administrator create several users from a *.csv file. In the

following section, we will review a step by step procedure to create mailboxes:

1. First of all, we will have to create a *.csv file called recipients.csv on the root drive (C:\) and we

will type the column names for the file in the first line. Those columns will be the Alias, the Name

and UPN. in the following lines we will complete the user information (Figure 09).

Figure 09: Creating a csv file to be used in the creation of users through Exchange Management Shell

2. Once the user information is complete, we will have to create a variable in the Exchange

Management Shell that will keep the initial password for all of the accounts on the recipients.csv file.

To do so, we will type the following:

$Password = Read-Host “Type the default password for the new accounts:” -AsSecureString

Figure 10: Creating a variable to keep the initial password on the new accounts

3. In the following step, we will run two cmdlets using a pipe to create the new users using the *.csv

file. This is the syntax of our cmdlet:

Import-Csv recipients.csv | foreach { New-Mailbox –alias $_.Alias –name $_.Name –

UserPrincipalName $_.UPN –Database “mailbox database” –OrganizationalUnit Users –Password

$Password –ResetPasswordOnNextLogon:$true

The options are explained here:

$_.<Name>: This is the name of each column of the recipients.csv file.

Foreach: For each line of the file; Note: the first line is the header.

$Password: variable that we just typed in the previous step.

-ResetPasswordOnNextLogon:$true: If we set this parameter to true, all the users will have to change

their password on the first logon.

Figure 11: Creating users through a *.csv file

4. To check if the users were created, we will go to the Exchange Management Console (Figure 12).

Figure 12: The new users created through the csv file

Managing Mailbox Features

We can manage functionalities at the user level, enabling or disabling the following features:

OWA

Exchange ActiveSync

Unified Messaging

MAPI access.

This task can be completed in two different ways, both will be detailed in the following sections:

Using the Exchange Management Console

1. Open Exchange Management Console

2. Expand Recipient Configuration

3. Click on Mailbox

4. Click on the user and in Toolbox Actions, click on Properties

5. Click on Mailbox Features tab

6. Now we can see all the mailbox features of the user and we can disable or enable each functionality

Figure 13: Managing Mailbox Features at user level

Listing all the users and their features…

In some cases, we have to verify the functionalities that users have, and there is no way to do this user by

user. In Exchange Server 2007, this task is very easy, and can be done with a cmdlet called get-casmailbox

(figure 14).

Using this cmdlet, we can export the results to a *.csv file and analyze it in Microsoft Excel and generate

reports or analyze it any way we want.

Figure 14: All the users with their functionalities through Exchange Management Shell

Using Exchange Management Shell to change user features

To manage features using the Exchange Management Shell, we can use the cmdlet called set-casmailbox, as

follows:

Set-casmailbox <User> -OWAEnabled:<Value>

Where: <user> is the user name; <Value> can be $true or $false

To show you the real impact of the use of the Exchange Management Shell, here is an example.

Scenario: We have a company with fifty (50) branch offices and we have to disable MAPI access for all

users in Toronto.

How can we do this with the least administrative work?

First of all, we must insure that all the Active Directory information is consistent. In our scenario, all of the

users have the attributes City and StateorProvince filled out correctly. One example of this is shown in the

Figure 15 through cmdlets get-user | select name, recipientType, City, StateorProvince

Figure 15: Verifying the attributes City, StateorProvince of all the users

If all of the Active Directory information is consistent, we can use the pipe resource on the Windows

PowerShell where an output from one command is used as input for another cmdlet.

We will need some specific user attributes that we cannot get through get-mailbox because this cmdlet only

returns mailbox information. We will have to use the get-user cmdlet to filter the city attribute from users

and combine these results with the set-casmailbox cmdlet.

To resolve this, we can use this subset of cmdlets, as is shown in figure 16.

Get-User | Where-Object { $_.City –eq “Toronto”} | Set-CasMailbox –OWAEnabled:$false

Figure 16: Disabling OWA access of all of the users located in Toronto city and Ontario State, and after that

a list of the new user features

Now, let’s check if everything worked as expected. None of the users who had the OWA feature set as

disabled will be able to access their mailboxes through Outlook Web Access. We can test it, trying to see if

the user Anderson.Patricio can access his mailbox with Outlook Web Access. We can see that everything

worked as shown in the next figure (Figure 17).

Figure 17: After authentication, the user receives the message that OWA is disabled

Conclusion We have reviewed the steps required to create users (in the traditional way) by using the Exchange Management Console. Then, we reviewed similar tasks using the flexibility of the Exchange Management Shell to help us to create one or more users through commandlets. At the end of this article, we discussed how to manage some mailbox features at user level.