Onboarding | Project Phases | Best Practices | Glossary of Key Terms

Tenant-to-Tenant Migrations

Migrating between two tenants hosted by the same provider (i.e. Google Workspace to Google Workspace or Microsoft/GoDaddy 365 to Microsoft 365) includes tasks related to DNS namespaces that are not present in cross-provider migrations.

A DNS domain cannot be added to two tenants (hosted by the same provider) at the same time. As a result, moving a DNS domain from one Microsoft 365 tenant to another, or one Google Workspace tenant to another, first requires removing the DNS domain entirely from the source tenant before it can be added it to the target. But before removing a DNS domain from the source tenant, objects must be renamed with a different domain to remain active.

Cutover process

To facilitate a tenant-to-tenant Cutover with minimal user disruption, Transend employs a process that takes advantage of temporary domains during the Cutover process. By leveraging Microsoft 365’s included domain.onmicrosoft.com domain, or setting up a temporary domain in Google Workspace, we’re able to ensure all objects are provisioned in the target in advance of Production, allowing for a more seamless transition at Cutover time.

Transend will facilitate the following process to ensure accounts are properly named after the Cutover:

Setup phase

  • Customer to add a temporary domain to the source tenant, if necessary
  • Provision objects in the target tenant with temporary domain

Production Phase

  • Perform Stage-1 migration
  • Rename source objects with temporary domain
  • Remove Company domain(s) from the source tenant
  • Add Company domain(s) to the target tenant
  • Perform Cutover – Update DNS records to change mail routing to target tenant
  • Rename accounts and objects in the target tenant with Company domain(s)
  • Perform Stage-2 and Stage-3 migrations

Notes:

  • When migrating between GoDaddy/Microsoft 365 tenants, Transend would leverage the domain.onmicrosoft.com domain that is included with all tenants instead of registering temporary domains.

  • When removing a custom domain from a GoDaddy 365 tenant and renaming objects as described above (so that services aren’t cancelled), user accounts with the custom domain will need their password reset on the GoDaddy 365 tenant. We can reset the password for the admin account so they may reset other users’ passwords. Otherwise, we can reset passwords upon request until the migration project is completed.