MS-102 Deploy and manage a Microsoft 365 tenant Practice Question
A company needs to migrate several shared mailboxes from on-premises Exchange 2016 to Exchange Online. The company plans to keep some user mailboxes on-premises for now. Which migration strategy should they use for the shared mailboxes?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates choose cutover migration because it is simpler, but they overlook the requirement to keep some mailboxes on-premises, which cutover migration cannot accommodate.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Hybrid migration
A hybrid migration is the correct choice because it allows the coexistence of on-premises Exchange 2016 and Exchange Online mailboxes, enabling the selective migration of shared mailboxes while keeping some user mailboxes on-premises. This approach uses the Hybrid Configuration Wizard to establish a secure connection and synchronize directory objects via Microsoft Entra Connect, supporting mailbox moves with the New-MoveRequest cmdlet.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cutover migration
Why it's wrong here
Cutover migration migrates every user mailbox in the on-premises organization to Exchange Online in one batch, and it can only move mailboxes that are associated with a user account that has logon credentials. Shared mailboxes are not user logon accounts, so cutover migration does not create them as shared mailbox objects in Exchange Online; any on-premises shared mailbox data would not be transferred, and its underlying user object is not a proper candidate for cutover. Thus, while cutover works for small all-at-once migrations of user mailboxes, it is not a valid path for migrating shared mailboxes.
- ✗
Staged migration
Why it's wrong here
Staged migration uses directory synchronization to segment on-premises mailboxes into batches and migrate them incrementally to Exchange Online, but it only handles mailboxes that belong to synchronized user objects with credentials. Shared mailboxes lack their own credentials and are typically hidden from address lists, so the staged migration process will ignore them or treat them as ordinary users, which breaks the shared-mailbox semantics. This makes staged migration unsuitable for a scenario that explicitly requires moving existing shared mailboxes with their permissions intact.
- ✗
IMAP migration
Why it's wrong here
IMAP migration uses the IMAP4 protocol to copy only the email content from on-premises mailboxes into existing cloud mailboxes, without ever provisioning new mailbox types or moving mailbox-level settings such as permissions, aliases, or shared mailbox policies. Since shared mailboxes do not have an interactive login and are not intended for IMAP access, an IMAP migration connection cannot authenticate to a shared mailbox in the first place. Even if mail data were copied, the destination would be a plain user mailbox, not a shared mailbox, so this method cannot satisfy the requirement.
- ✓
Hybrid migration
Why this is correct
Hybrid migration leverages the Mailbox Replication Service (MRSproxy) in an Exchange hybrid deployment to move mailbox objects, including shared mailboxes, between on-premises and Exchange Online with full coexistence. Because the hybrid configuration establishes synchronization and trusts between the two environments, the shared mailbox's attributes, permissions, and user object are migrated atomically, preserving its type as a shared mailbox in the cloud. This is the only method listed that natively supports moving shared mailboxes, making it the correct answer for the migration scenario.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Exchange Online Administration
Key term
Exchange Online
Exchange Online is Microsoft's cloud-based email, calendar, and contact hosting service that is part of the Microsoft 365 suite, allowing organizations to manage corporate messaging without maintaining their own mail servers.
Key term
Microsoft Entra Connect
Microsoft Entra Connect is a tool that synchronizes on-premises Active Directory identities with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) to enable single sign-on and centralized identity management.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This MS-102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the MS-102 exam.