Question about migration from O365 tenant to On-prem EX2016

Question

When setting up the migration plan in ODME using source O365 and target on-prem Ex2016, I'm unable to apply any forwarding on the source O365 mailbox. The options for forwarding (optional) are completely greyed out. I understnad that ODME can't apply forwarding on on-prem exch servers, but since my source is O365 why wouldn't ODME let me apply forwarding on the source?

Trevor Taegder · Answer

Hello Michael, 
 
 Thanks for posting to the On Demand Migration for Email (ODME) forum. I understand you are experiencing issues setting forwarding with ODME. When migrating from Office 365 to an on-premise Exchange 2016 server, you should be able to set forwarding with ODME in both directions, albeit not at the same time, as this would cause a mail routing loop. 
 
 I will need some additional information to better assist you. If you would rather create a Service Request to keep your information private, you can do so at the link below: 
 
 https://support.quest.com/create-service-request 
 
 Otherwise, you can provide generic domain information. 
 
 1.) In the ODME Source Connection settings, are you using Autodiscover? 
 
 2.) In the ODME Target Connection settings, are you using Autodiscover? 
 
 3.) On page 2, the Mailboxes list, what is being used for the source and target mailbox addresses? (is there a source domain for the source, a target domain for the target, or the same domain for both?) 
 
 Trevor Taegder 
 Senior Technical Support Engineer 
 Quest | Support

Trevor Taegder · Answer

Hi Michael, no that should not make a difference. Have you created ODME templates? How about creating a brand new Migration Plan without using any templates.

Trevor Taegder · Answer

Hi Michael, 
 I thought the source was Office 365 and the target was on-premise Exchange 2016. Is that not the case? I think we may need to join a WebEx to investigate this issue further. I would suggest creating a Service Request: 
 https://support.quest.com/create-service-request

Trevor Taegder · Answer

Hi Michael, 
 You should be able to check the box for "Forward new items as they arrive", then "Set forwarding address on: Source (Microsoft Office 365). You should then be able to type in the SMTP domain to forward mail to, such as "targetdomain.com". 
 It does appear that ODME is currently does not support setting forwarding on the on-premise Exchange 2016 server, however, that does not appear to be what you are tying to do based on your description. 
 From my understanding you are trying to set forwarding from the source Office 365 tenant to the target on-premise Exchange 2016 server, correct? 
 If so, then you should be able to perform this operation within ODME. If you are unable to, then yes, you may need to create a Service Request so that we can investigate further.