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Chris Parker's avatar
Chris Parker
Iron Contributor
Feb 14, 2018

What is required to decommission the last on-prem Exchange server?

We run in a hybrid deployment. The on-prem mailboxes are all former employees. We have an address policy that creates multiple alias addresses for mailboxes. We don't have any public folders.

 

really want to get rid of this VM. It takes up a lot of storage and generally does nothing.

 

I presume the following tasks will be required before I can even really think about turning this VM off:

 

1. Do something with those mailboxes.

I'm not sure what though but surely it involves whether the business needs them to continue to receive mail or not. Past that it's (a) Take one last backup? (b) Migrate them to Office 365? (c) ???

 

2. Build a PowerShell script that will add all the needed aliases to a new mailbox.

Is this true or is there an Exchange Online alternative?

 

What is the current guidance for this?

 

Thank you!

    • Chris Parker's avatar
      Chris Parker
      Iron Contributor

      Yeah, I've seen this before. I was hoping there were new practices out there. :| At Ignite, about three years ago, someone from the Exchange team, in a end-of-day Q&A, answered my question around this and said that they had guidance coming to achieve such a thing but nothing has materialized yet.

      What about orgs that never had Exchange but do have on-prem AD and now use Office 365+Exchange Online?

      And another question I have is, if you'll indulge me, what role does Exchange play if all active mailboxes are online? Why exactly do I still need Exchange?

      • Neil Hobson's avatar
        Neil Hobson
        Iron Contributor

        Microsoft announced plans to change this at Ignite 2017.  Review Jeff Kizner's session - jump to 54:13 where hybrid recipient management is discussed.  I've not heard any further developments yet.  

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