Best way to do a phased tenant to tenant migration

Cory Calavan 21 Reputation points
2023-01-24T17:30:03.8933333+00:00

Hello All,

My company is more than likely going through an internal acquisition. The CEO/Founder is wanting to retire and the President is going to buy him out. I am looking for the best way to migrate the first phase of systems over a weekend. We are about 25-30 users so not so big. I'm wanting to migrate at first Azure AD, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams. The phone numbers in Teams will not be migrated but will be forwarded to a new number in the new tenant.

I've read that I can just transfer the subscription and all of the resources will essentially follow. I've also read that a tenant to tenant migration is one of the most complex things to do manually with a ton of PowerShell needed. I have the new tenant up already and want to be prepared. I was going to get on and test a single user over the weekend but it seemed too difficult without doing more research.

Fortunately, I have some flexibility on the migration due to the type of acquisition but still want to get this moving.

Look forward to your help.

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  1. Kiran Potluri 15 Reputation points
    2023-01-24T21:58:53.45+00:00

    Hi,

    correct that it is possible to transfer a subscription from one tenant to another, which will transfer all of the resources associated with that subscription to the new tenant. This is known as a subscription transfer, and it can be a simpler option than a tenant-to-tenant migration if you only need to move a single subscription and its associated resources. However, there are some limitations and considerations to keep in mind when using this method:

    • The subscription must be in the same billing account as the destination tenant.
    • All resources in the subscription must be in the same region as the destination tenant.
    • The subscription must not be in a suspended or deleted state.
    • You will lose access to the subscription in the source tenant after the transfer is complete.
    • Any resource locks or policies that are applied to the subscription will be removed.

    To perform a subscription transfer, you will need to use the Azure Portal, Azure PowerShell, or Azure CLI. The process involves specifying the subscription and tenant to transfer from and to, and then confirming the transfer.

    If you want to move multiple subscriptions or resources that are not associated with a subscription, or if you want to move resources across multiple tenants, then a tenant-to-tenant migration is required. This can be a more complex process and requires more planning and effort, but it provides more flexibility and control over the migration process. There are different ways to perform a tenant-to-tenant migration, such as using Azure Backup, Azure Site Recovery, or Azure Migrate, and each method has its own set of requirements and limitations. PowerShell scripting can be used to automate some of the tasks and simplify the process.

    It's important to note that, regardless of the migration method you choose, you should have a solid backup strategy in place before and during the migration to ensure that you can recover your data in case of any issues.

    cheers!.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
  2. Kael Yao-MSFT 37,496 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2023-01-25T02:04:47.2166667+00:00

    Hi @Cory Calavan

    Here is a Microsoft documentation which provides a overview of this process.

    For your reference: Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migrations

    Detailed information can be found in the Tenant-to-tenant migration architecture model pdf.

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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  3. Amit Singh 4,846 Reputation points
    2023-01-27T07:11:12.78+00:00

    The phased migration approach involves migrating selected users and workloads across multiple cutover events.

    If you have a large user base or overall data size, a staged migration may be the better option. It will provide you with the flexibility needed to break the migration into batches, allowing you to migrate selected users or workloads individually. For example, schedule the migration of the Exchange workload for one weekend and the SharePoint or OneDrive workload for the next.

    This approach has the following advantages:

    • Lower overall risk as only specific workloads or groups of users are migrated at a time
    • Provides greater flexibility
    • Batches can be organised so that the amount of data migrated is manageable within the cutover window
    • If any issues are encountered during the migration process, such as transfer throttling, it’s possible to mitigate and plan around these issues for the migration of future workloads
    • This approach has the following disadvantages:
    • Users will often require duplicate licensing across the source and destination environments for extended durations
    • Requires more planning and communication due to added complexity
    • Users will need to sign-in with multiple identities for a period of time if you opt to batch by workload
    • There may be limitations on what can be done in the destination environment until the migration is fully complete