Exchange 2013 HCW Auto Discover (Optional)

Hi PriiT,

In Exchange 2013 based hybrid, we can use the AutoD feature which we don’t need to have Autodiscover services published for all the SMTP domains when running the HCW (hybrid configuration wizard).

If you have multiple SMTP domains during the hybrid setup, we can use the Autodiscover domain feature to eliminate the needs for DNS records or certificates. With the Autodiscover domain feature, you have the option of setting one of your SMTP domains as the Autodiscover domain. When doing so, you remove the following requirements:

• The need to create an Autodiscover record for all SMTP domains in DNS, except for the domain you set as the Autodiscover domain
• The need to include the Autodiscover FQDN for all SMTP domains used in the SAN certificate

To set the Autodiscover domain, use the following command:

Set-HybridConfiguration –Domains " fabrikamA.com, fabrikamB.com", "autod:contoso.com"

After that, we can use the contoso.com to deploy hybrid when running the hybrid configuration wizard. Once the hybrid is deployed, since the clients still need DNS records to find the services, we will still need to create Autodiscover DNS records and add the SMTP domains into the certificate. If you don’t want to do that, as a workaround,  we can either deploy a HTTP redirection (will require to set up IIS server) or SRV redirection to redirect the Autodiscover requests to the main SMTP domain. If you’re looking for the details about how to set it up, since the settings are related to the on-premises part, it’s recommended that you post the issue with details in our Exchange Server Forum, your understanding is appreciated.