Last week Microsoft announced a few major changes to the Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 versions.
This post is meant as a small overview of the changes announced.
- Change to Exchange Hybrid and about keeping the last Exchange Server on-prem
- More about this in my post below
- Change to the Servicing Model of Exchange Server 2019
- Instead of the quarterly CUs, Exchange moves to a cadence to two CUs per year
- Support for Windows Server 2022
- Exchange Server 2019 can now be installed on Windows Server 2019 and 2022
- New CU updates for Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019
- New CUs out for Exchange 2016 and 2019
- We now get a FREE Exchange Hybrid license for Exchange Server 2019
- New Microsoft Bounty Program for Exchange Server
- The launch of a new Security Program to help keep Exchange Server secure
I will mainly go through the news about the new ability to remove the last Exchange Server from on-prem, in this blog post. Since this is properly one of the biggest and most awaited changes to Exchange Hybrid running on-prem.
Just be careful in the removal and read the fine print. It is very important not to uninstall the last Exchange Server, since this will clear up your Active Directory for Exchange attributes still needed by Exchange Online, as long as your main source is still Active Directory.
With the Exchange Server 2019 CU12 we now get a new and updated Exchange Management Tools, which is designed to address the customer scenarios, where we had kept one Exchange Server left on-prem as a Hybrid to be used for recipient management.
Basically, we can now have the new Exchange Management Tools installed on a domain-joined PC or server and then “remove” the last Exchange server, that was used for recipient management.
Read all about it in the Microsoft article: Manage recipients in Exchange Hybrid environments using Management tools
Don’t Uninstall the Last Exchange Server
But don’t just run out and uninstall the server. There are several steps that you need to confirm, before continuing
- You have migrated all mailboxes and public folders to Exchange Online
- Use AD for recipient management and Azure AD Connect for synchronization
- You don’t use/require the on-premises Exchange admin center or Exchange Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Are comfortable with using only Windows PowerShell for recipient management
- You don’t require auditing or logging of recipient management activity
- You are running only one Exchange server and only for recipient management purposes
- Want to manage recipients without running any Exchange servers
Also if you are using your Exchange Hybrid setup today as a mail relay from on-prem systems, it will properly not make sense to remove the Last Exchange Server.
I have also linked to the articles from Microsoft, that walk you through the steps needed:
- Prepare the Exchange Environment
- Permanently shutting down your last Exchange Server
- Active Directory clean up
Steve Goodman also wrote a great article on what to expect when “removing” the last Exchange Server, read his article at Practical365: Don’t Remove the Last Hybrid Exchange 2019 Server Just Yet
Read the full blog post on the news from the Exchange Team: Released: 2022 H1 Cumulative Updates for Exchange Server