I'm in a situation where I have a local Active Directory connected to Office 365, with most of my PCs already moved to using Entra for management. As I'm migrating local file shares to the cloud, I'm thinking about whether I need to retain my Exchange Hybrid server. Currently, it's helping me manage user attributes like proxy addresses through the Exchange admin center, but I feel like I could manage everything I need directly from the AD portal without needing it. If I decide to uninstall the Exchange Hybrid, I assume it would remove the Exchange-related attributes from my AD schema, but I could still manage everything through Office 365. Is it worth keeping the server, or is there a significant downside to uninstalling it?
5 Answers
We moved to Easy365Manager when we got rid of our Exchange server. It's been smooth sailing since, and everyone seems to love it.
Once you extend the AD schema with Exchange, there's no going back, but that shouldn’t be a problem. You can still manage proxy addresses directly from Active Directory, even after removing the Exchange server. So, if you're not relying on other Exchange functionalities, you could proceed without it!
If you're going to uninstall, just make sure you follow the correct decommissioning process. There's some good info on Microsoft's site that outlines exactly what to do.
Honestly, having a whole server just for managing a couple of attributes feels excessive. You can script most of the management tasks that the Exchange server handles. It might be time to let go of the server!
I'm a bit of a fan of keeping at least one on-prem Exchange server for backup SMTP relay purposes. It can be useful, especially if you have DNS records set up for it. Just my two cents!
Totally! And managing those attributes in AD is pretty straightforward too, far better than having an unnecessary Exchange server taking up space and resources.