We've been using a hybrid setup after migrating to Office 365 almost a decade ago, with Azure sync and some domain controllers still on-premises. Users are created in Active Directory Users and Computers and synced. However, we know we can't remove the last Exchange server. I just keep it patched but never use it. My question is: do I really need to keep this VM powered on, or have others found a way to handle things differently?
4 Answers
We properly uninstalled Exchange to clear its attributes from Active Directory, and everything went smoothly afterwards.
You don’t actually need that last Exchange server anymore! Microsoft released guidance years ago about this. Check out the official info—it explains how to manage everything without relying on an on-prem Exchange instance.
Also, there are third-party tools that can help you manage users directly from Active Directory Users and Computers.
If you’re comfortable using PowerShell, ditching the local Exchange is totally doable. The server mainly helps with AD attribute changes, especially if all mailboxes are in M365. And remember, licenses for Exchange might still be free for those synced users if you decide to keep a server.
Yeah, same here! I shifted our Exchange setup to a lightweight Linux VM. It barely uses any resources and still manages a couple of services we need.
Thanks for the link! I need to dive deeper into this topic.