Why a GoDaddy Office 365 Migration Is Really a Domain Swap, Not a Mail Move

Most Office 365 migrations end with an MX record change. A GoDaddy Office 365 migration does not, and that is the detail that trips people up. GoDaddy resells the same Office 365 platform Microsoft sells directly, so the MX records on a GoDaddy tenant are identical to the ones you would point at in a regular tenant. There is nothing to cut over. The real obstacle is the domain registration itself: you have to remove the primary domain from GoDaddy and recreate it in the destination tenant. Sequenced correctly, downtime stays in the 5 to 15 minute range.

Before you commit to a migration at all, know there is a shortcut. Defederating the GoDaddy tenant converts it to a standard tenant with no migration and no downtime. That solution is here. Migrate only when the customer needs a net-new tenant or defederation is not an option.

This is a high-level overview of the migration steps using BitTitan. For the complete step-by-step guide with screenshots, follow this playbook PDF (opens in new tab). The guide is specific to BitTitan, but the same concepts apply with any tool.

Stand up the destination tenant#

• Provision a net-new tenant in Office 365. It is provisioned with the .onmicrosoft.com domain. Purchase it directly or under the CSP model through a distributor.
• Pre-stage the domain entry. In the 365 Admin Center, go to Setup > Domains > Add Domains. This is where you will later add and verify the domain with a TXT record once it has been removed from GoDaddy. For now, users keep .onmicrosoft.com as their primary SMTP address.
• Add users and apply licenses one at a time, by bulk upload via PowerShell, or by bulk upload via CSV.

To bulk import users with passwords:

Import-Csv -Path 'FilePath' | foreach {New-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName $_.UserPrincipalName -FirstName $_.FirstName -LastName $_.LastName -DisplayName $_.DisplayName -Password $_.Password -ForceChangePassword $False}

Set impersonation rights for the admin user. Connect to Exchange Online with PowerShell (opens in new tab) and run:

New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role ApplicationImpersonation -User <admin_user_name>

Prepare the GoDaddy source environment#

• Set impersonation rights for the admin user on the source side too. Connect to GoDaddy's Exchange Online with PowerShell (opens in new tab) and run the same cmdlet:

New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role ApplicationImpersonation -User <admin_user_name>

• Plan the downtime window. Decide when you will remove the domain from GoDaddy and notify users accordingly (opens in new tab).
• Notify GoDaddy of the planned domain removal. Tell GoDaddy about the planned removal 24 hours prior to avoid delays.
• Upgrade software on workstations. If applicable, install the latest Office 365 software on all user workstations.

Set up a BitTitan account#

• Create a login (opens in new tab) for a BitTitan username and password.
• Create a customer by entering the primary domain name and customer name.

Push the Outlook reconfiguration agent#

BitTitan includes a tool called Deployment Pro that reconfigures Outlook profiles after the migration. You can push it out through GPO or by email.

• Decide on GPO or email delivery. GPO instructions (opens in new tab) or email instructions (opens in new tab).
• Track users with the agent installed. Devices register and match a user's email address to a computer in a one-to-one relationship. Each computer reports a "heartbeat."

Prepare the migration endpoints#

• Set up source and destination endpoints in the BitTitan portal. The source endpoint is found under Office 365. The destination is Office 365. Provide admin credentials for each endpoint.
• Autodiscover users. Clean up the user list as needed, and remediate UPN issues by clicking the pencil icon next to a user. The source should contain the .com address and the destination should contain the .onmicrosoft.com address.
• Verify credentials. This tells you whether there are errors. The most typical errors are insufficient impersonation rights or wrong admin credentials. A successful check shows "Completed Verification."
• Subscribe users. Select all users, click the last icon on the top toolbar (three lines), and choose "Apply User Migration Bundle." It takes 3 to 5 minutes to propagate.

Run the migration passes#

• Run a prestage pass bringing mail from GoDaddy to Office 365. This brings over the bulk of the data before you remove the domain. Set it prior to 60 days. Any user whose status changes to "Failed" is almost 100% due to a server timeout. Simply re-run those users.

• Run a full pass to bring over the remaining mail, calendars, contacts, notes, and rules. Start once the prestage pass has completed. You can run up to 10 delta passes. Make sure everyone goes into a "Completed" status.

The domain swap: remove from GoDaddy#

This is the part that is unique to GoDaddy. To remove the domain, it must be detached from every record in the portal first.

Bulk update all user UPNs to the .onmicrosoft.com domain in GoDaddy:

$UserCredential = Get-Credential

Connect-MsolService -Credential $UserCredential

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $Session -AllowClobber
$testpath = test-path c:\temp; If ($testpath -eq $false) {new-item -type directory c:\temp}; $dataout = @();
Get-MsolUser -All | ? {$_.UserPrincipalName -match "domain.com"} | % {Set-MsolUserPrincipalName -ObjectId $_.objectId -NewUserPrincipalName ($_.UserPrincipalName.Split("@")[0] + "@domain.onmicrosoft.com"); $dataout += "$($_.UserPrincipalName)" ; $_.UserPrincipalName };$dataout | out-file c:\temp\UPNChangeOutput.txt

Remove all aliases carrying the domain:

$Records = Get-mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited| where {$_.emailaddresses -like "smtp:*@domain.com"} | Select-Object DisplayName,@{Name="EmailAddresses";Expression={$_.EmailAddresses |Where-Object {$_ -like "smtp:*domain.com"}}}

foreach ($record in $Records)
{
write-host "Removing Alias" $record.EmailAddresses "for" $record.DisplayName
Set-Mailbox $record.DisplayName -EmailAddresses @{Remove=$record.EmailAddresses}
}

Remove all groups carrying the domain:

Get-MsolGroup -all | ?{$_.emailaddress -match "domain.com"} | Remove-MsolGroup -force

Remove the domain. The portal notifies you if any users or groups still have the domain attached to their profile. Work with GoDaddy if you need additional assistance.

The domain swap: recreate in the destination tenant#

These steps are essentially the reverse of what you just did in GoDaddy.

Add the domain to 365. In the 365 Admin Center, go to Setup > Domains > Add Domains. Add the domain and verify with a TXT record. It can take about 5 minutes before you can recreate it.

Bulk update all user UPNs back to the .com domain:

$UserCredential = Get-Credential

Connect-MsolService -Credential $UserCredential

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $Session -AllowClobber
$testpath = test-path c:\temp; If ($testpath -eq $false) {new-item -type directory c:\temp}; $dataout = @();
Get-MsolUser -All | ? {$_.UserPrincipalName -match "domain.onmicrosoft.com"} | % {Set-MsolUserPrincipalName -ObjectId $_.objectId -NewUserPrincipalName ($_.UserPrincipalName.Split("@")[0] + "@domain.com"); $dataout += "$($_.UserPrincipalName)" ; $_.UserPrincipalName };$dataout | out-file c:\temp\UPNChangeOutput.txt

Bulk upload distribution lists. Create two CSVs: one with the distribution group name and primary SMTP address, and one with the group name and the members of that group.

Import-Csv -Path 'File Path' | foreach {New-Distributiongroup -Name $_.Name -PrimarySmtpAddress $_.Address }

Import-Csv 'File Path' | foreach {Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity $_.DL -Member $_.Alias}

Post-migration cleanup#

• Confirm the DMA agent ran successfully. DMA status goes into "Completed" after successful authentication by the end user. Any user who fails authentication three times goes into an "error" status. Reschedule those users and make sure they have the correct 365 password.

• Hand out mobile reconfiguration guides. Mobile users can set up their mailbox on their phone with these guides: iPhone (opens in new tab) and Android (opens in new tab).