Exchange 2010 decomission

Question

Exchange 2010 decomission

Bob Pants 261

I need to decom an old Exchange 2010 server. We still require AD sync so I plan to deactivate rather than uninstall it to retain the AD email attributes.

I am planning to install the Exchange admin tools from the Exchange 2019 iso on anoher member server. My question is, can I do this ahead of time without causing any issues?. There are still a few remaining local mailboxes and DL's that I can't migrate easily. Also, do the Exchange tools require a reboot (2012R2)

Also, if anyone has any clear steps on what needs to be done in this scenario to remove the Exchnage 2010, that would be appreciated, I'm not completely certain what needs to be done to remove the hybrid config. There's many articles about this but the info isn't always consistent.

Fabricio Godoy 2,626 Reputation points

2023-02-12T18:18:20.4+00:00

please don't forget to upvote and accept as answer if the reply is helpful
Fabricio Godoy 2,626 Reputation points

2023-02-17T02:01:20.05+00:00

Hey @Bob Pants , any comments?, this is help u?
please, don't forget to accept and upvote if yes.
Fabricio Godoy 2,626 Reputation points

2023-02-28T02:38:53.06+00:00

Hello @Bob Pants , your question still open, any comments?

2 answers

Your answer

Fabricio Godoy 2,626 Reputation points

2023-02-12T18:18:20.4+00:00

please don't forget to upvote and accept as answer if the reply is helpful
Fabricio Godoy 2,626 Reputation points

2023-02-17T02:01:20.05+00:00

Hey @Bob Pants , any comments?, this is help u?
please, don't forget to accept and upvote if yes.
Fabricio Godoy 2,626 Reputation points

2023-02-28T02:38:53.06+00:00

Hello @Bob Pants , your question still open, any comments?

Answer 1

Fabricio Godoy 2,626

Hello Bob.

I'm assuming you know about exchange administration, so let's go. a small checklist.

check if all mailflow are poiting to Exchange online
Ensure all mailboxes are moved to cloud including the arbitration mailboxes
delete conectors.
Remove all database (do u have DAG? if yes, remove COPY before and after DAG)
turn off the exchange server for a few days.
after that, unistall.

Microsoft have a document about that.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/best-practices-when-decommissioning-exchange-2010/ba-p/1247559

or in this another document>

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/168367-how-and-when-to-decommission-on-premises-exchange-server-in-a-hybrid-deployment

I hope this help you.

good luck

Regards

Bob Pants 261 Reputation points

2023-02-12T23:08:48.8866667+00:00

Thanks, I need to keep the local AD exchange attributes as we still have on prem users. Everything I've read on this says if you are still syncing users, then you should "remove" the Exchange2010/2013 boxes by just shutting them down rather than "uninstalling" them. As I understand it, if you uninstall Exchange completely then it will strip out of the AD schema all Exchange related attributes. We are still creating users on-prem and then invoking 'Enable-Remotemailbox' from a PS remote session to the exising on-prem box, hence the need for the Exhange admin tools to be installed elsewhere.

My question was more around the sequence of events. I can't remove the remaining on-prem mailbox and DL just yet bc reasons, and I'm also waiting for a new SMTP relay appliance to be set up properly, so I wanted to install the management tools now and get the user create scripts updated in the meantime. So can I do this without affecting the existing EX2010 box? as the 2019 tools update the Schema.
Fabricio Godoy 2,626 Reputation points

2023-02-14T00:11:25.0333333+00:00

schema extensions will be a part of your schema AD as forever, you can unistall the last exchange without affect schema AD.

And about you last question>

"If you wish to use Exchange Management Tools for Recipient Management without keeping an Exchange Server, see Manage on-premises recipients in a Hybrid Environment using Exchange Management tools"

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

I hope this is help you, and please, upvote if this help

Regards
Fabricio Godoy 2,626 Reputation points

2023-02-15T04:02:31.5033333+00:00

Hey @Bob Pants ..any concerts? this is what you are looking?

please don't forget to upvote and accept as answer if the reply is helpful

Regards

Answer 2

Aholic Liang-MSFT 13,886 Microsoft External Staff

Hi @Bob Pants ,

As far as I know, it is not feasible for Exchange 2010 and 2019 deployments to coexist.. Therefore, for your current situation, we recommend that you upgrade to Exchange 2016 Hybrid before upgrading to Exchange 2019.

Hybrid deployment prerequisites | Microsoft Learn

2023-2-13-1

Here are some general steps for a hybrid upgrade that we hope will help you improve your upgrade process：

Add and Install Exchange 2016 in your environment.
Export the hybriddomain.com certificate from Exchange 2010 and binding to Exchange 2016 IIS with SMTP services.
Update the ExchangeVirtualDirectory URLs and points to Exchange 2016. If you use the same FQDN as the old one, you don't need to update the DNS records otherwise you need to update your DNS.
Migrate mailboxes in Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016
Remove the old Exchange 2010.
Re-run HCW with Exchange 2016 and make sure the mail flow in Microsoft 365 and Exchange 2016 working fine.
(Optional) add Exchange 2019 into your environment, and then deploy Exchange2019-based Hybrid then.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread

Bob Pants 261 Reputation points

2023-02-13T23:52:10.5066667+00:00

Thanks, but again, my goal is to decom the Exchange 2010 server. I am not going to upgrade it to 2016.
I am not deploying Exchange 2019, I am installing the admin tools, nothing else. My question was, will this affect the existing installation, I think no as I have done similar in a lab environment and installing the mangement tools did not appear to affect the existing 2013 installation, although that box has no existing local mailboxes where the production one does.
Aholic Liang-MSFT 13,886 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-02-17T10:16:59.9566667+00:00

Hi @Bob Pants ,

Yes, it doesn't matter if you install Exchange 2019 management tools directly with Exchange2013 and higher, but as Fabricio Godoy says, that doesn't mean that Exchange 2010 works too.Since Microsoft has stopped supporting Exchange 2010, documentation about Exchange 2010 is rarely found.

If you are still not sure, if you can, we recommend that you test again in the test environment of the Exchange2010.
Aholic Liang-MSFT 13,886 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-02-28T02:57:28.09+00:00

Hi,

Just checking in to see how things are going on with this thread.

If the reply was helpful, You can mark helpful posts as the best answers so that other's with similar question can benefit from this thread as well.

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Exchange 2010 decomission

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