Forum Discussion
What can I remove from Exchage 2016 server keeping only smtp relay service and object management?
I would remove the DAG (how many servers are you retaining on-prem?). In theory you can remove the last mailbox DB, but you'll have to remove all the system mailboxes prior to that, which can be problematic, so I'd generally recommend keeping one mailbox DB. You can remove the hybrid configuration as well (some steps are in this blog from Microsoft). Just retain the connectors that route messages to/from EXO (they won't be automatically removed if you remove the hybrid). The hybrid license won't be removed, and you should be fine with any audit as long as you aren't hosting mailboxes on the server with the hybrid license.
I would remove the DAG (how many servers are you retaining on-prem?). In theory you can remove the last mailbox DB, but you'll have to remove all the system mailboxes prior to that, which can be problematic, so I'd generally recommend keeping one mailbox DB. You can remove the hybrid configuration as well (some steps are in this blog from Microsoft). Just retain the connectors that route messages to/from EXO (they won't be automatically removed if you remove the hybrid). The hybrid license won't be removed, and you should be fine with any audit as long as you aren't hosting mailboxes on the server with the hybrid license.
Hi Dan,
Thank you for your response! Much appreciated!
I have 2 servers and while those currently are both in DAG and have 1active + 1inacive database, both servers also have the native DB which has been created during the exchange server installation and those are not part of the DAG so is it enough to leave those be and just get rid of the databases in the DAG and the DAG itself? - That's how I thought it should go...
I will look into the hybrid removal steps again.
And I plan on keeping 2 servers for HA reasons - I have separate load balancer guiding the needed app smtp traffic to both equally.
Em.
EmMabel Yes you can remove native DB, keep the DAG, both server will be functional
- I generally don't like keeping the default DB's as they aren't located where I want them to be and they have names that are a bit cumbersome to use. If the DB's in the DAG are quite large, you might want to delete those and create new one's (or use the default one's if you like).
