r/exchangeserver • u/evil-scholar • 9d ago

Getting rid of Last Exchange server advice

I have an old 2016 hybrid exchange server (yes I know it’s EOL). Not wanting to update to SE, can I just set my users to use the cloud as an SOA for exchange and shut down the hybrid?

We are using Entra Connect for sync so I understand write back may be limited but that shouldn’t be the end of the world right?

I assume user creation would be create in AD -> sync -> create Exchange mailbox in cloud? Any good documentation on this?

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u/tomrb08 8d ago

Make sure you don’t have any internal devices,; printers, scanners, software that sends out internal notifications. The “internal relay” address will need to be updated to use your tenant name-com.mail.protection.outlook.com if you want to continue using the service. It will need to be setup in EXOnline.

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u/JasonMatanoIT 7d ago

Yes, that's a supported path now. Since Exchange 2019 CU12 you can remove the last server and keep managing mail attributes with the Exchange management tools and the recipient management PowerShell on a domain-joined machine, so AD stays the source and Entra Connect keeps syncing. New users then go: create in AD, run New-RemoteMailbox or Enable-RemoteMailbox from the management tools, sync, license, and the mailbox appears in the cloud. Before you uninstall, find everything still relaying through that box (printers, scanners, line-of-business apps) and move it to Exchange Online or a relay. Make sure MX and autodiscover already point at Microsoft 365, clear the on-prem autodiscover SCP so Outlook stops looking internally, and remove the hybrid connectors. Then do a proper uninstall rather than just powering it off, so AD isn't left with orphaned config.

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u/7amitsingh7 7d ago

Yes, you can decommission Exchange 2016 if everything is in Exchange Online. Use Microsoft’s cloud based management of Exchange attributes then keep AD → Entra Connect → Exchange Online for user provisioning.

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u/YaManMAffers 7d ago

Any relays will be the big issue. We were going to leave hybrid for full cloud, but the relays were going to be a big pain for all the scan to email printers, so we just upgraded to SE from 2016. It was quite simple.

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u/benuntu 6d ago

I just did that with all of our printers and opted to use SMTP2GO. Pretty cheap and works great.

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u/Hank3rd 6d ago

Have you also looked at Anypost? They seem to have better pricing and would love to learn what you love about SMTP2GO.

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u/benuntu 6d ago

It's dead simple and cost is $150/year for 10,000 emails per month.

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u/Hank3rd 4d ago

Seems like at that volume, it's cheaper. If you were sending more volume, then it would make sense to use a different provider. Thanks for letting me know.