Today we are announcing several new features and capabilities to help Exchange admins become more efficient and achieve more in their everyday Exchange-related tasks.
Modern Exchange admin center
The modern Exchange admin center (EAC) has been in Public Preview since July 2020. We built the new modern experience to fit right in with the other Microsoft 365 admin portals. We’ve recently reached parity with the legacy admin interface and are now adding new features such as personalized dashboards, cross tenant migration and providing actionable insights. We have also invested in a better mobile experience for admins on the go.
Opt-in to the New Experience
Exchange admins can now opt-in to the new and modern Exchange admin center simply by using a new toggle switch control in the top right corner of the legacy Exchange admin center. The new admin center will then appear within the same browser tab!
Personalized Dashboard
The first place an admin visits in the new admin center is the dashboard. Admins can personalize their dashboard experience by selecting and adding cards. Cards provide an easy and convenient way to make sure the information most important to the admin is always visible and of course cards can be clicked on to drill down to additional data if available.
Cross Tenant Mailbox Migration
On the Migration page, Exchange admins can use new tools for managing cross tenant mailbox migration. More details on this feature are available at https://aka.ms/ctmm.
Mail Flow Experience
Mail flow management (Message Trace, Accepted & Remote Domain, Connectors, Alerts, Insights, Mail flow reports) has moved back to its new home in the modern EAC.
You can read more of our Transport related news from Ignite here.
Mobile Browser Experience
The modern Exchange Admin Center works on your mobile browser as well! The dashboard and recipient experiences have been enabled so far and we are continually adding more features to mobile.
If you are an admin who uses mobile, don’t forget to check out and install the free Microsoft 365 Admin mobile app, a one-stop destination for all your mobile admin needs. The mobile app will soon be adding links to the modern Exchange Admin Center.
We built the modern admin center to help admins achieve efficiency in their day-to-day management tasks, but we also invested into making the portal significantly faster. Try it and see for yourself.
The new modern Exchange admin center is in preview now, with general availability expected during the first quarter of 2021.
Try out the modern EAC now by visiting https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com or by opting-into it from the legacy portal.
Certificate-based Authentication for Exchange Online PowerShell V2
Today we are also announcing the general availability of certificate-based authentication for the Exchange online PowerShell V2 module. This feature enables running unattended scripts without using resorting to Basic Authentication. Certificate based authentication provides admins the ability to run scripts without the need to create service-accounts or store credentials locally.
More details on the feature are available here.
Support for PowerShell Core & Linux in EXO V2 module (Preview)
We are also delighted to be able to announce a preview of support for PowerShell Core and Linux with the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module. This change adds support for PowerShell Core (PS version 7+), allowing Exchange admins to manage Exchange Online using Linux devices. We’re also enabling browser-based authentication for PowerShell scripting, reducing the need to enter a username and password if you are already logged into a browser.
More details on the feature are available here
The Hybrid Configuration Wizard and Multiple Tenants
We are announcing that starting today the Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) will support the configuration of multiple hybrid relationships from one on-premises Exchange organization to multiple cloud tenants.
You can download the HCW version supporting this feature from aka.ms/hybridwizard. You can read more about this feature, what the prerequisites are and how to configure it here.
The Exchange Online Admin Team