Journaling in Exchange Online

Brass Contributor

Hello,
I have some questions about Journaling on Exchange online.
I currently have an Exchange infrastructure consisting of two Exchange 2016 servers in DAG with the journaling standard enabled at the db level.
Now I want to implement a full hybrid infrastructure and move all the mailboxes in Exchange online, I want to abandon the dag and use an on premises server only for management.
I also want to keep journaling on Exchange online.

Documenting me I found these constraints:

 

You can't designate an Exchange Online mailbox as a journaling mailbox. You can deliver journal reports to an on-premises archiving system or a third-party archiving service. If you're running an Exchange hybrid deployment with your mailboxes split between on-premises servers and Exchange Online, you can designate an on-premises mailbox as the journaling mailbox for your Exchange Online and on-premises mailboxes taken from

https://docs.microsoft.com/it-it/exchange/security-and-compliance/journaling/journaling

 

and


Like the journaling mailbox, the alternate journaling mailbox can't be an Exchange Online mailbox taken from  https://docs.microsoft.com/it-it/exchange/security-and-compliance/journaling/configure-journaling


and


Hybrid server is not a "special" version of Exchange, but one with CAS and Hub roles in the case of Exchange 2010 and CAS and Mailbox role in the case of 2013. You are not allowed to host any mailboxes on this server. Taken from  https://cloudiffic.com/office-365-hybrid-license-key/

 

So mailboxes on Exchange online cannot be used as journaling mailboxes. Correct?
Also can't I possibly use an Exchange hybrid license to put correct mailbox?
Since I don't want to use any on-premises mailbox anymore, what can I do?
Do I have to use a third-party archiving service as the journaling mailbox?

As for alternate journaling mailbox for undeliverable journal reports, since I no longer want to have mailboxes on premises and a mailbox on Exchange online cannot be used, can it be an external email like gmail?

 

Thank you

 

regards

6 Replies

That's correct, you cannot use any mailbox within Exchange Online as target for Journaling, even if from a different tenant. Your options are to use a third-party alternative, an on-premises mailbox/server or switch to using holds instead (and keep data in place, which is Microsoft's preferred solution anyway).

@Vasil Michev 

Thanks for the reply.
For example, can a mailbox on gmail be used for alternate journaling mailbox for undeliverable journal reports?

Thank you

Sure, if you are willing to risk using a free service for something as sensitive as journaling...

@Vasil Michev 

Thanks for the reply.
But isn't alternate journaling mailbox used only when journaling mailbox isn't available?
The argument is that I don't want to use any mailboxes on premises anymore.
I want to use the exchange on presmises only for management

Thank you

Regards

It's still data that you need to store/provide, I personally wouldn't want to rely on a free service for such.

@Vasil Michev 

You are right,
the problem is that my client doesn't want to have any mailboxes on premises and I don't know how ...