How to Migrate from Rackspace to PolarisMail
Whether you’re a reseller preparing a client’s Rackspace domain for migration, or you’re moving your own mailbox, the steps are largely the same. What differs is which Rackspace product you’re on: standard Rackspace Email migrates like most IMAP-based providers, while Hosted Exchange needs a different approach.
This applies whether you’re a reseller preparing a client’s migration or migrating your own mailbox. Once you know which path applies to you, the migration guide covers how to actually submit and run the migration.
Which tier matches your Rackspace plan?
Rackspace’s product lineup maps fairly directly onto our tiers, which makes this part quick to work out:
| If you currently use… | Move to… | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rackspace Email (webmail + IMAP/POP) | Basic | Full-featured webmail, aliases, forwards, distribution lists, and spam filtering cover the same ground as standard Rackspace Email. |
| Rackspace Email Plus (mobile sync add-on) | Enhanced | ActiveSync, CalDAV, and CardDAV device sync, plus shared calendars and files, match what the Email Plus add-on covers. |
| Rackspace Hosted Exchange | OEX | Native Outlook connectivity for email, calendar, and contacts, matching how Hosted Exchange connects to Outlook. |
As with any migration, mailbox sizes aren’t fixed to a single tier’s default. You can mix Basic, Enhanced, and OEX mailboxes under the same domain, so different users can land on different tiers depending on what they actually used on Rackspace.
What you need before migrating
What you need depends on which Rackspace product the mailbox is on.
Rackspace Email or Email Plus
These are standard IMAP mailboxes, so migration works the same way it does for most providers: we need the IMAP server address and working credentials for each account. Get the IMAP server details from the Rackspace Control Panel, and set a temporary password for each mailbox ahead of the migration (see below).
Rackspace Hosted Exchange
Hosted Exchange is Exchange-based rather than plain IMAP, so it doesn’t migrate the same way. Instead, we migrate Hosted Exchange mailboxes from a PST file, the same approach used for Microsoft 365/Exchange migrations. Export each mailbox to a PST file before requesting the migration.
Set temporary passwords before you start
For IMAP-based migrations (Rackspace Email and Email Plus), we need working credentials for each mailbox. Reset each account’s password with Rackspace ahead of time and use that as the temporary password for the migration window, rather than asking customers for their real password.
Since you’ll be the one setting these, let your customers know what temporary password to use during the migration window, so they’re not locked out of their own mailbox while it’s in progress.
Watch for password changes mid-migration. If a user changes their password after you’ve set the temporary one, that account’s migration will fail. We retry failed accounts whenever you confirm it’s safe to do so. Keeping your migration batches small makes those retries faster, since a lean batch finishes and can be retried sooner than one bundled with hundreds of other mailboxes.
What happens next
Once you know which tier fits, and IMAP access or your PST export is ready, you’re set to start the migration itself. The full process, whether you’re moving one mailbox or a hundred, is covered in the migration guide: