Decommission Exchange 2013 in Hybrid 365 environment since we now run Exchange 2019 as on-prem? Has anyone done this?

Denes, Laszlo

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Feb 12, 2024, 8:22:12 AM2/12/24

to ntexc...@googlegroups.com, Denes, Laszlo

Hello Everyone,

We have moved (everything as far as I can tell) to Exchange online about 6 months ago and run a hybrid 2019 Exchange server ( no DB) as an on-prem and connecting back to Exchange Microsoft 365 online.

When we finished the transition we shutdown (temporarily) our two 2013 Exchange servers (a cluster with file server witness folder for heartbeat and a DAG) to make sure everything works, but we kept them in existence just in case.

Now (more than 6 months later and they were powered off all this time) the time has come to decommission the 2 x 2013 servers and from some basic reading it is obvious that the task is MUCH MORE than merely disjoining them from AD.

Just curious if anyone has ever done this and if they wouldn’t mind sharing some of their experiences and insights.

Many thanks in advance for your time.

Regards,

Laszlo

Laszlo Denes

Technical Analyst Servers

Information Systems

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Gabriel

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Feb 12, 2024, 8:36:42 AM2/12/24

to ntexc...@googlegroups.com, Denes, Laszlo

Hi,

- In exchange 2019 you need at least one DB to hold the system mailboxes (Arbitration mailbox). to make the exchange working correctly.

- make sure your hybrid infrastructure use exchange 2019.

- for your old Exchange 2013, you need to delete DAG

- delete the exchange in the first server and then exclude the server from the domain after reboot.

- do the same thing with the second server

- try to monitor the event log on the domain controller in case some old records in reestor about your old servers.

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Miller Bonnie L.

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Feb 12, 2024, 3:53:48 PM2/12/24

to ntexc...@googlegroups.com, Denes, Laszlo

Just make sure your steps include uninstalling Exchange 2013 or things can get leftover in AD and could cause you trouble later. I was able to use this checklist during our migration to 2019—

Decommissioning Exchange Server 2013 - Microsoft Community Hub

-Bonnie

From: 'Gabriel' via ntexchange <ntexc...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2024 5:36 AM
To: ntexc...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Denes, Laszlo <lde...@torontograce.org>
Subject: Re: [ntexchange] Decommission Exchange 2013 in Hybrid 365 environment since we now run Exchange 2019 as on-prem? Has anyone done this?