Join to Azure AD and decommissioning on-premise AD

Matt887 21 Reputation points
2022-12-09T14:51:53.437+00:00

Hi everyone, I have a question for you.

Our customer has an on-premise AD synchronized with Azure AD via Azure AD Connect.
He also have an hybrid Exchange 2016 environment and he doesn't have other on-premise server.
He has 100 users with M365 business standard license.

Now he wants to join all the 100 users PC from on-premise AD to Azure AD, and then he wants to decommission the on-premise Domain Controller and Exchange Server.
Basically, he wants no more on-premise server and uses only Azure AD.

I have little questions:
1- Does he need to buy an Azure Active Directory Premium P1 plan for all the 100 users? Or does he only need to buy 1 Azure AD Premium P1 license to activate the Azure AD joining function?
2- How can we decommission the DCs and Exchange after all the pcs have been joined to Azure AD? Can we simply poweroff the server or are there some activities to clean the M365 tenant?
3- Will on-premised synchronized users in Azure AD remain after the DCs and Exchange decommissioning?

Thanks in advanced.
Best Regards

Exchange | Hybrid management
Microsoft Security | Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Entra ID
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Accepted answer
  1. Hoekstra Jelle 501 Reputation points
    2022-12-09T15:24:48.333+00:00

    Hi!

    1. For this it really depends on your needs. I'd say check here and compare the features: https://www.agileit.com/news/understanding-azure-active-directory-licensing-free-basic-p1-p2/
    2. You do need to decommision the DC and point any apps utilizing the On-Premise AD to the Azure Active Directory. Also if you have any domain joined instances, you might want to enroll them in AAD or migrate them to Azure VM's (depending on your own requirements). For exchange do consider to migrate to o365 before decomissioning, if everything is migrated to o365, users might need to setup their outlook profile again (More info here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-an-outlook-profile-f544c1ba-3352-4b3b-be0b-8d42a540459d#:~:text=To%20create%20a%20new%20profile,profile%2C%20and%20then%20choose%20OK.) (also you might need to make some changes in the dns's txt (autodiscover) record and/or mx record when you're migrating)
    3. I think this video will provide some insights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dJu_AHVlzk

    Hope this helps!

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    If it does, please Accept the answer and upvote


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