Hybrid Free/Busy is one of those things that many people do not fully understand. If everything works well, the complexity is hidden from view and people working in various parts of organization can ...
Updated May 16, 2020
Version 3.0
Blog Post
Some things I find to be left unclear are:
- Does Intra-Org Connector depend on or use Organization Relationship? Or, does only Federation Trust depend on Organization Relationship? The earlier 1/2 or 3/4 of this post leads me to believe Intra-Org Connectors do not rely on Org Relationships. The last portion of the post leaves it completely up to the imagination. We keep using the term "Federated" when referring to domains, which I assume refers to a Federation Trust being present, but that seems like an optional thing, based on if you had Exchange 2010 when you first ran the HCW.
- After no Exchange 2010 servers exist, does it make sense to remove Federation Trust (and/or Organization Relationship) and solely go with the Intra-Org Connectors?
I've notice in pure 2016+ environments, if you add a new authoritative accepted domain in Exchange on-premises, the next time you run HCW, it doesn't make you do Federated Proof DNS records. This leads me to want to say pure 2016+ environments have no need for Federation Trusts. But then I'm not sure about Organization Relationships. Org Relationships have settings to dictate what works (i.e., Free/Busy, mailbox moves, etc.). Intra-Org Connectors do not seem to have those same toggles, so this makes me wonder - do Intra-Org Connectors actually rely on Organization Relationships?
I wish this stuff was documented more clearly, and sometime long after Exchange 2010 was gone. All the effort spent was during the times when Exchange 2010 and 2007 were still in the conversation.