Forum Discussion
Azure AD before Exchange migration?
You can do cutover migration first which will create the Cloud only identities, than you can enable Azure AD Connect to Sync the user. Azure AD Connect will use smtp attribute to match the accounts.
Since cutover migration will create the users, the attributes are on the cloud and on-premise accounts should match so Azure AD connect will do the softmatch of the existing users and only create users that are not present. Having said that, it is always better to use Hybrid setup based on Exchange 2010 or 2013.
Yes, you can do Cutover and than sync has has said in this thread and then soft match.
Here you have the process https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2641663/how-to-use-smtp-matching-to-match-on-premises-user-accounts-to-office-365-user-accounts-for-directory-synchronization