How to maintain exchange attributes onsite in a hybrid environment when removing an out of support Exchange server?

Jim Lowe 20 Reputation points
2023-01-20T10:23:01.7133333+00:00

I have a customer with an Exchange 2010 Server onsite, this has had all of the mailboxes migrated correctly to office 365, which has been working for some time.

They use exclaimer to generate signatures from fields within the users ad object, which as i understand it are only present because of the onsite Exchange. I have been told that once the last exchange server in the environment is removed, these will be removed from the AD aswell, and then the removal synced to office365. I believe this would break the signatures for all users, and i would like to maintain the attributes moving forward.

Now that we want to decommission the last exchange server in the environment, what is the recommendation from Microsoft regarding what to do, i am happy to maintain an onsite Exchange still, but my customer will not want to pay Exchange licensing when we don't have any mailboxes on premises any longer(and don't plan to have any in the future).

I understand with Exchange 2016 there was a free Hybrid license, but i don't believe that has continued with Exchange 2019?

Kind regards,

Jim

Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365
Formerly Office 365, is a line of subscription services offered by Microsoft which adds to and includes the Microsoft Office product line.
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Microsoft Exchange Hybrid Management
Microsoft Exchange Hybrid Management
Microsoft Exchange: Microsoft messaging and collaboration software.Hybrid Management: Organizing, handling, directing or controlling hybrid deployments.
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Accepted answer
  1. Andy David - MVP 152.1K Reputation points MVP
    2023-01-20T12:55:59.45+00:00

    Hi, In your scenario, I would upgrade on-prem to Exchange 2019 and just leave one server for management.

    Alternatively, You could also upgrade to 2019 and remove Exchange and still manage from on-prem. That should allow things to continue to work.

    More details on that:

    [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/Exchange/manage-hybrid-exchange-recipients-with-management-tools

    Exchange 2019 now has a free hybrid key:

    [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/released-2022-h1-cumulative-updates-for-exchange-server/bc-p/3291151

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