How to migrate from Signature Manager Outlook Edition to Exclaimer for Microsoft 365

Resolution

Please go through the steps listed below to migrate from Signature Manager Outlook Edition to Exclaimer for Microsoft 365.

Click on the required options to go through the detailed description:

Step 1: Create a group to which users migrated to Exclaimer will belong (Cloud users group)

Create a mail-enabled security group containing the users who have been migrated from Signature Manager Outlook Edition to Exclaimer.

You can use any of the two options listed below for creating a mail-enabled security group:

1. Use Microsoft Exchange Admin Center (on-premises) to create the mail-enabled security group.
   
2. Use Microsoft Exchange Online Admin Center (Microsoft 365) to create the mail-enabled security group and enable Group Writeback to synchronize the group back to your on-premises Active Directory.

NOTE: After you create the group, please make sure that it is synchronized in both your on-premises and Microsoft 365 environments.

Step 2: Configure Exclaimer

Complete the Exclaimer configuration.

To configure Server-Side signatures, enter the users group when setting up Users and Groups and Email Routing.



To configure Client-Side signatures, deploy the Exclaimer Outlook Add-in to the Cloud users group.

When you add the Outlook Add-in, specify the Cloud users group in the Add users window.

Example:

Step 3: Create your signatures in Exclaimer

Please see how you can create signatures for more information.

It is not possible to import signatures which were created in the Signature Manager Outlook Edition into Exclaimer. You can manually re-create your Signature Manager Outlook Edition signatures in Exclaimer's user-friendly drag-and-drop editor. See how to create signatures for more information.

When specifying Signature Senders, you can select any senders - you need not restrict this to the Cloud users group, as this is managed by the Server-Side and Client-Side configurations in the sections above.

Step 4: Stop Exsync.exe from running for migrated users

If you used Group Policy to configure ExSync.exe to run at startup:

3. Open Group Policy Management.
   
4. Select your group policy for running ExSync.exe
   
5. Navigate to the Delegation tab.
   
6. Click Advanced...
   
7. Click Add...
   
8. Add the Cloud users group.
   
9. In the Permissions section, select Deny for Full control (all permissions should now show as Deny).
   
10. Click OK to save your changes.
    
    Example:
    

If you are using a logon script via the Active Directory user's profile page (NETLogon)

- As you migrate users from Signature Manager Outlook Edition to Exclaimer, you need to manually change the logon script to a new logon script which does not run ExSync.exe
For more information about NETLogon scripts, please see How to assign a logon script to a profile for a local user.

Step 5: Add the Cloud users group as an exception to Signature Manager Outlook Edition policies

NOTE: The steps described below are (technically) optional as stopping ExSync.exe from running on the user's machines will stop their Signature Manager Outlook Edition signatures from applying; however, these steps will help you keep things tidy in the overall decommissioning of the Signature Manager Outlook Edition.

On the machine where Signature Manager Outlook Edition is installed:

11. Open Signature Manager Outlook Edition.
    
12. For each Signature Policy, Campaign Policy, Disclaimer Policy and Mail Format Policy:
    - Select the policy.
    - Navigate to the Exceptions tab.
    - Check the option Outlook user is a member of an Active Directory group.
    - In the pane below, specify the Exclaimer users group.
    
13. Once you have changed all policies, click Save to save the changes.
    
    Example:
    

Step 6: Add users to the Cloud users group when they are being migrated from Signature Manager Outlook Edition to Exclaimer

This process will finalize the migration for added users from Signature Manager Outlook Edition to Exclaimer. You can repeat this process as many times as required whilst migrating users, or you can do this all at once - it depends on your specific requirements for the migration.

14. Add the required users as members of the group in Active Directory Users and Computers within the group's properties.
    
    Example:
    
    
15. After making any changes, please ensure they are synchronized in both your on-premises and Microsoft 365 environments.
    
16. If you have used the Cloud users group in any signature policies, Start a manual data synchronization in Exclaimer to synchronize the group membership changes to Exclaimer.

(Optional) Once you have finished migrating all users, re-configure the mail flow rule to apply to all users

NOTE: These steps only apply if you are using Server-Side signatures.

Removing the group condition will make future management of users in Exclaimer easier, as you will only need to manage this from Exclaimer and not have to add new users to the Cloud users group going forward.

After making this change, the only condition is that the sender of the email is inside the organization. All users emails will flow to Exclaimer; however, you can still manage which (if any) signatures apply to the users within Exclaimer.

17. Log into the Exchange Online admin center.
    
18. Navigate to Mail Flow > Rules.
    
    
    
19. Select the rule named Identify messages to send to Exclaimer Cloud.
    
20. Click Edit rule conditions.
    
21. Delete the condition The Sender is a member of this group.
    
22. Click Save to commit your changes.
    
    Example: