How to migrate email from hostgator to aws workmail?

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I have my own domain with about 20 email mailboxes hosted on hostgator. I want to start using AWS WorkMail instead of the server provided in hostgator. I have set up WorkMail with the test domain and it's working. How do I define users on WorkMail, as xxx@mydomain? The documentation keeps referring to the active directory, but hostgator has no such thing. What happens to the existing email messages if I just change the MX/TXT/CNAME records?

3 Answers
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Hi,

Thank you for choosing WorkMail. To start using your own domain with WorkMail, you can add it in the WorkMail console and verify ownership by creating the required domain records: Documentation. I suggest to wait with updating the MX record until you have created users in WorkMail to ensure you're not missing new incoming mail. Once the domain is verified you can add users with that domain. If all users are created you can update the MX record to point to WorkMail.

Kind regards, Robin

AWS
EXPERT
answered 2 years ago
  • Robin, you missed an important part of my question: do I define users as xxx@mydomain or xxx@friends.awsapps.com? And what about existing emails on mydomain? Do I delete all the email addresses on mydomain when I have switched over to AWS?

  • HI,

    I recommend to us your own domain. You can already verify you domain in WorkMail before you switch over to WorkMail. To migrate email, it depends what services that mail server supports. If it supports the EWS protocol you can use the WorkMail migration partners to migrate your old data. Another solution is to use IMAP sync or move mails via PST's exported and imported using Windows Outlook.

    You do not need to delete your old email address as the MX domain record will tell where to deliver email. So you can clean up the old stack while already using WorkMail.

    Kind regards, Robin

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I'm still confused. If I add email xxx@mydomain to WorkMail, where does the email data physically reside? On my domain website or Amazon's? I added a dummy email and was not prompted for storage size like I'm normally prompted for. I assume that I manually add all the existing emails to WorkMail and when I switch MX/... records from mydomain to workmail, everything will work magically. If I don't delete the emails from mydomain (using CPanel), aren't they dead and taking up space on mydomain website?

doug9f
answered 2 years ago
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Hi,

If you add your domain to an email address to a user in WorkMail it will allow that user to send email with that domain and that action configures WorkMail systems to deliver mail for that email address to this user.

To actually receive email in that mailbox you need to configure the MX record for that domain to point to WorkMail. As long as that points to your old provider mail will be delivered to that mailbox.

After changing the MX record to point to WorkMail, mail will be delivered to WorkMail. But old data will still reside in the old mailbox and the other provider. Depending on the services available you can move that data manually or use a migration partner.

After the switch to WorkMail you users will need to re-configure their mail client to connect to WorkMail as well.

As for sizes, WorkMail mailboxes have a default mailbox size of 50GB. You can reduce the size of the mailbox in the WorkMail console.

Kind regards, Robin

AWS
EXPERT
answered 2 years ago

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