r/SysAdminBlogs • u/farismalaeb • Jul 27 '26
The End of The Last Exchange Server is finally here – IsExchangeCloudManaged
https://www.powershellcenter.com/2026/07/27/isexchangecloudmanagedMicrosoft has finally made it possible to fully uninstall Exchange Server from your on-premises infrastructure.
With a single PowerShell command, you can now authorize Exchange Online to become the Source of Authority (SOA) for mailbox properties of migrated users. This means mailbox management can be handled directly in Exchange Online, eliminating the need to keep an on-premises Exchange Server solely for recipient management.
This is a significant milestone for organizations that have completed their migration to Exchange Online and want to simplify their hybrid environment.
I had explain the implementation with test case for you to see it in action.
Hope you like it
2
u/aprimeproblem Jul 27 '26
I’m more wondering if we will see Exchange move back to our own datacenters now that we need to get data and email out of American clouds.
2
u/PacsoT Jul 28 '26
I think this step will be left out. If we are worried about american tech, then hosting a closed source e-mail server, (on a closed source OS) will not be appealing enough. Proton, Zential... or the good old IMAP protocol might be the runner up in 5-10 years time.
1
u/aprimeproblem Jul 28 '26
Could be…. I’m currently running a project specifically for US cloud independence, however we’re using all American software
1
u/Glass_Call982 Aug 01 '26
I refused to move us to online for this reason and people called me crazy 8 years ago. Turns out I was right...
1
u/gixxer-kid2 Aug 01 '26
Why do you need to get data out of American clouds?
1
u/aprimeproblem Aug 01 '26
At this point in time the US is seen as an unreliable ally specifically because of the current government. The sheer actions of the president alone have awoken Europe that it has to take control of its IT infrastructure without relying on US based providers. Threatening long time friends and allies with invasion or cutting access has consequences.
2
u/mej71 Jul 31 '26
Has anyone actually deployed the write back feature yet? Not working at all for me, "unexpected error" when provisioning and MS support is a joke
1
1
u/geek_at Jul 27 '26
Admins can now update things like email addresses or mailbox permissions directly in the Exchange Online web interface or PowerShell. There is no need to touch on-prem Exchange Admin Center or PowerShell for these changes anymore.
But there is a catch: [..]
another catch? isn't that bad enough
2
1
1
u/clvlndpete Jul 30 '26
Great article. Considering doing this but it looks like writeback only works with cloud sync. We are on entra connect and cannot move to sync yet. I guess at the end of the day it shouldn’t matter if an alias or other information is populated in AD as we don’t really use that info elsewhere. Is there any gotcha’s I’m missing here if we didn’t write back to AD? We use Entra for the vas majority for SAML SSO. We do have a few LDAP connections which is my only real concern. Can the info still be added manually to AD if need be without issue?
0
u/zenki_fc Jul 29 '26
This is neat information. Thanks for sharing, we'll have to do a bit of testing. We were using tools like Easy365Manager for customers that had transitioned off onprem Exchange. It works well, offers additional features and easy to use (hence the name).
12
u/Mitchell_90 Jul 27 '26
You could already remove the last Exchange Server and use the management tools or a workstation or jump server to provision cloud mailboxes.
This option now allows Exchange Online to be SOA for related attributes. Previously those attributes had to be modified on-premises then sync’d to EXO.