Office 365 Public Folder Migrations
Rules of the Road:
• Public folders can only exist in one location, on-premises or in Exchange Online. You
cannot have two different public folder infrastructures being utilized at once.
• Only on-premises Exchange Server 2013 users accessing Exchange Online public folders.
• Exchange Online users can access on-premises public folders on Exchange 2007,
2010 and 2013 (see supported minimum)*.
• Public Folder migrations to Exchange Online should not be performed unless all of your
users are located in Exchange Online, and/or all of your on-premises users are on
Exchange Server 2013.
• Public folder migrations are a cutover migration. You cannot have some public folders
on-premises and some public folders in Exchange Online. There will be a window of
public folder access downtime required when the migration is completed and all public
folder connections are moved from on-premises to Exchange Online.
• Public folder migrations are entirely PowerShell based.
• Accessing Public folders via Outlook Web App is supported, but with limitations. ***
Exchange Online Public Folder Limits
• Each tenant provides 50 public folder mailboxes with a 50 GB quota.
• Each tenant is provided approximately 2.5 terabytes of public folder data in the cloud.
See Exchange Online Limits. (http://technet.microsoft.com/library/exchange-online-limits(EXCHG.150).aspx)
When to Use SharePoint Online
Public folders aren’t designed for the following purposes:
• Document sharing and collaboration. Public folders don't provide versioning or other
document management features, such as controlled check-in and check-out functionality
and automatic notifications of content changes. Instead, CloudBearing recommends that
you use SharePoint Online as your documentation sharing solution.
(http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-online-collaboration-softwareFX103789366.aspx)
Supported Exchange Minimum Requirements
HYBRID
EXCHANGE
CUTOVER
• Exchange 2010 SP3*
• Exchange 2010 SP3*
• Exchange 2007 SP3 RU10 or later**
• Exchange 2007 SP3 RU10 or later**
• Exchange 2013 CU1
OUTLOOK
• Outlook 2007, 12.0.6665.5000 or later
• Outlook 2007, 12.0.6665.5000 or later
• Outlook 2010, 14.0.6126.5000 or later
• Outlook 2010, 14.0.6126.5000 or later
• Outlook 2013, 15.0.4420.1017 or later
• Outlook 2013, 15.0.4420.1017 or later
Supported Hybrid Exchange Versions
ON-PREMISES EXCHANGE
2007 OR EXCHANGE 2010
USER MAILBOX
ON-PREMISES EXCHANGE
2013 USER MAILBOX
EXCHANGE ONLINE
USER MAILBOX
ON-PREMISES
EXCHANGE 2007
OR EXCHANGE
2010 PUBLIC
FOLDERS
Hybrid Not Applicable
Hybrid Not Applicable
Supported
ON-PREMISES
EXCHANGE 2013
PUBLIC FOLDERS
Hybrid Not Applicable
Hybrid Not Applicable
Supported
EXCHANGE
ONLINE PUBLIC
FOLDERS
Not Supported
Supported
Hybrid Not Applicable
• A hybrid configuration with Exchange 2003 public folders is not supported. If you’re running Exchange 2003
in your organization, you must move all public folder databases and replicas to Exchange 2007 SP3 RU10,
Exchange 2010 SP3, or Exchange 2013 CU1. No public folder replicas can remain on Exchange 2003.
• Free Microsoft Hybrid license now supports moving public folder replicas to Exchange 2010 SP3 or
Exchange 2013 CU1.
Supported Locations for Public Folders
2007 ON-PREMISES
2010 ON-PREMISES
2013 ON-PREMISES
EXCHANGE ONLINE
MAILBOX VERSION:
EXCHANGE 2007
YES
YES
NO
NO
EXCHANGE 2010
YES
YES
NO
NO
EXCHANGE 2013
YES
YES
YES
YES
NEW EXCHANGE ONLINE
YES
YES
YES
YES
Exchange Security Requirements
• In Exchange Online, you must be a member of the Organization Management role group.
• In Exchange 2010, you must be a member of the Organization Management or Server Management
RBAC role groups.
• In Exchange 2007, you need to be assigned the Exchange Organization Administrator role or the
Exchange Server Administrator role. In addition, you must be assigned the Public Folder Administrator
role and local Administrators group for the target server.
More information regarding Public Folders:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/05/02/public-folders-and-exchange-online.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/09/04/making-modern-public-folder-migration-easier.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj983799(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200758(v=exchg.150).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj150538(v=exchg.150).aspx
*Requires Outlook Anywhere be enabled on CAS using SSL from public CA
**Exchange Server 2007 running on Windows Server 2008 x64, then you must upgrade to Windows PowerShell 2.0 and WinRM
2.0 for Windows Server 2008
x64 Edition (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=968930). If you have Exchange Server 2007 running on Windows Server 2003 x64,
then you must upgrade to
Windows PowerShell 2.0. For more information, see Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10512).
*** You can add and remove favorite public folders and perform item-level operations such as creating, editing, deleting posts, and replying to posts. However,
you can’t create or delete public folders from Outlook Web App.