The Hybrid Configuration Wizard is the preferred way for configuring Exchange Hybrid.
Ensure you know the prerequisites for an Exchange hybrid deployment before running the Hybrid Configuration Wizard.
The Hybrid Configuration Wizard is straightforward and configures your Exchange on-premises organization and your Exchange Online tenant for proper operation. This is not necessarily the case when your on-premises Exchange organization and IT infrastructure are more complex.
In such a case, you might perform some of the following follow-up tasks after you complete the initial run of the Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW).
Receive Connectors
The Hybrid Configuration Wizard configures only receive connectors for servers in the local Exchange organization. It has a dedicated selection order for identifying the receive connector for hybrid mail flow.
When the Default Frontend Receive Connector of the selected Exchange Server for hybrid mail flow deviates from the RemoteIpAddresses default configuration, you are in trouble. Most likely, HCW chose the wrong receive connector. See this blog post explaining the issue.
In such a case, you must transfer the chosen receive connector’s configured hybrid mail flow configuration to the one Exchange Server should use for secure hybrid SMTP connections.
OWA Redirect URL
When your hybrid configurations use multiple SMTP domains, HCW selects one of those randomly for the target OWA URL. HCW adds one of the verified domains to ensure that the user accesses the branded Microsoft 365 login screen. The users see this URL in a browser redirect notification when accessing on-premises Outlook on the Web.
Example
The primary company domain is setebos-ag.com, but HCW selected another verified domain, e.g., varunagroup.de, for the OWA redirect. This results in the following redirect URL visible to the end user:
http://outlook.com/owa/varunagroup.de/[EMAILADDRESS]
To ensure that the redirect follows the CI requirements, you have to change the TargetOwaURL attribute of the Exchange Online organization relationship object in your on-premises Exchange organization.
# Query the current organization relationships Get-OrganizationRelationship | ft Name,TargetOwaURL -AutoSize # Identity the object for the Exchange Online relationship # Most likely the name starts with 'On-premises'# Ensure that you select the correct object Get-OrganizationRelationship 'On-Premises*' | ft Name,TargetOwaURL -AutoSize # Now set the TargetOwaURL to a new value # Ensure that you use one of the verified domains in your tenant Get-OrganizationRelationship 'On-Premises*' | Set-OrganizationRelationship ` -TargetOwaURL http://outlook.com/owa/setebos-ag.com
Changing this setting after you run HCW does not have a technical impact. It is for CI reasons only.
Note
This overview of follow-up tasks is far from being a complete list. Each Exchange hybrid configuration is different as Exchange Server is a pretty tolerant product allowing various configurations.
If you miss an essential follow-up, let me know: thomas@mcsmemail.de.
Links
- Download Hybrid Configuration Wizard (Click-2-Run)
Enjoy Exchange Server and Exchange Online!
