How to move from management only Exchange 2016 to management only 2019

Question

Hello,

I need help with the step-by-step procedure on how to migrate from management-only Exchange 2016 to management-only Exchange 2019.

Status: We migrated all mailboxes to Exchange Online and we are using the old Exchange 2016 server to manage some attributes within 365. AD Connect is active. Exchange 2016 hosts old mailboxes, and a lot of public folders, but we don't need to keep anything. MX points directly to Exchange Online.

Goal: We want to move to Exchange 2019, use a free Exchange license, and use Exchange 2019 to manage Exchange Online mailboxes.

What is the step order in this migration flow?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Hi @Vladimir Topalovic

Goal: We want to move to Exchange 2019, use a free Exchange license, and use Exchange 2019 to manage Exchange Online mailboxes.

You can simply install the latest Exchange 2019 management tools on any domain-joined computer (client or server) for management purpose, rather than installing a new Exchange 2019 server.

For more details please refer to these two documentation:

Manage recipients in Exchange Hybrid environments using Management tools

Install the Exchange management tools

One thing to note is that you can shutdown the Exchange 2016 server, but do not uninstall it.

---

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.