If you are in the planning stages for migration from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016, then you have probably seen this TechNet article.
At first, it may seem daunting.
So many scripts. So many PowerShell commands.
If you are not comfortable with PowerShell it may seem a bit overwhelming.
Plus, it is vastly different than any previous migration process.
Why the change?
Architecture
Beginning with Exchange 2013–and continued with 2016–public folders underwent a major architectural change.
This new architecture is referred to as Modern Public Folders. The old architecture is now known as Legacy Public Folders. But its much more than a name change. Gone is the Public Folder database. And hello are the new Public Folder Mailboxes.
The benefit?
No more Public Folder Replication. Boy, did that used to be a pain!
With Public Folders stored as a mailbox, that mailbox can now be part of a Database Availability Group (DAG). And with that, all the benefits of Windows Failover Clustering.
This makes the migration process vastly different.
On a high level, it is the process of moving all data out of a database and into a special mailbox. That is where the scripts come in. I’ll explain along the way.
Let’s get started!
Works with 2013: This process also works with migrations to Exchange 2013 (from 2007 SP3 RU15 or 2010 SP3 RU8). It requires Exchange 2013 be on Cumulative Update 7 or later. If not, you will need to perform the older serial migration method documented here.
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