One of the comments I received about my Blog series on Office 365 Hybrid Deployment with Exchange 201 SP2 was to detail the improvements with the SP2 Hybrid wizard and what steps from a Hybrid deployment prior to SP2. So here it goes!
Previous to Exchange 2010 SP2, the process for creating a full Hybrid deployment was best detailed from the Exchange Server Deployment Assistant Site, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exdeploy2010/default.aspx#Index. This site was created by Microsoft to assist with several different Exchange Server deployment options. Choosing Hybrid Deployment you will be prompted for several options. Below I will detail the changes from the checklist that is done automatically with the SP2 Wizard.
Select the Hybrid Deployment option from the above screen
For my environment I choose the Exchange 2010 existing on-premises server option, if you have 2007 or 2003 much of the steps are the same, but they will have a requirement to deploy a Hybrid Exchange 2010 SP1 server
Above I have choose that I want a full Hybrid deployment, except for having email routed through the Hybrid server first
Above, on the left, you can see the high level steps to implement the solution. Also you can download the Checklist as a PDF document. So now I will detail the steps from this deployment scenario that are still required, and the steps that are covered with the Exchange 2010 SP2 Hybrid wizard.
Above are the high level steps for a pre-SP2 Hybrid deployment. I will detail each step below.
All the steps in the Prepare for Deployment Step still need to be completed. These steps ensure you are prepared for the Hybrid deployment.
Again all the steps in the Configure Hybrid Deployment Prerequisites are needed. These steps setup the ADFS environment for Single Sign-On (SSO) and the Directory Synchronization for the on-premises users, group, and contacts to the Office 365 environment.
So here, in the Configure Hybrid Server Services, is where the Exchange 2010 SP2 Hybrid wizard comes into play. The SP2 wizard handles some of these steps. I will now show how the SP2 wizard configures the services for on-premises and Office 365. Adding your Office 365 environment is rather easy to do from the Exchange 2010 SP2 EMC, the steps are provided in the deployment assistant.
So above I have added my Office 365 environment to my EMC. Now I can manage both the on-premises and cloud based mailboxes from the console. Enabling the Mailbox Repication Service Proxy is automated with the SP2 Hybrid wizard. This saves manual steps previously needed to edit the Web.Config file. Configuring the Virtual Directories can be done in several ways. You can have them set when the Exchange 2010 SP2 server is installed by providing the CAS external name, or you can change as the instructions indicate in the Deployment Assistant.
Above shows the Accept domains that were configured by the SP2 Hybrid Wizard. Notice that Service.domain.com is no longer used. Now domain.mail.onmicrosoft.com is used as the relay domain for mail to be sent to the cloud mailboxes. Also the Exchange Delegation.domain.com is not needed for SP2 Hybrid deployment.
You do still need to obtain an SSL Certificate from a public CA. I went with GoDaddy.com as I was able to get a Subject Alternate Name (SAN) certificate with 5 names for $90.
The SP2 Hybrid Wizard modified the default Email Address Policy to add the @domain.mail.onmicrosoft.com address as a secondary address to all mailboxes. As previously mentioned you do need to enable Outlook Anywhere in the on-premises CAS server.
So the next major step is Configure Federation. The Autodiscover DNS requirements have also changed with SP2. You just need to have Autodiscover.domain.com pointing to the Hybrid Servers CAS IP (both internally and externally). You no longer need to enter DNS records for Autodiscover for the relay domain of domain.mail.onmicrosoft.com, this is done automatically.
The next two steps are virtually completely removed when setting up a Hybrid deployment using the SP2 Hybrid Wizard. This is the beauty of the wizard, it configures the delegation and the Organization relationships between the on-premises and cloud based organizations. The only manual step that is needed, which I documented in Part 3, is to add a DNS TXT record for the Domain Proof of Ownership record. The SP2 Hybrid wizard also sets up the OWA redirection for using a single OWA URL to redirect for cloud based users.
The next major step is Configuring Transport. This is also handled completely by the SP2 Hybrid Wizard.
Above are the Send and Receive Connectors configured by the SP2 Hybrid Wizard. These setup TLS for secure mailflow between my on-premises and cloud based mailboxes.
And the SP2 Hybrid Wizard also sets up the FOPE inbound and outbound connectors to utilize TLS.
So this covers what the SP2 Hybrid Wizard handles and the SP1 steps that are still needed for completing a Hybrid Deployment with Office 365. Microsoft has stated it will be updating the Exchange Server Deployment Assistant tool to include the changes to the process with an Exchange 2010 SP2 server. I hope this post was helpful, and shows that Microsoft is really made great strides with Exchange 2010 SP2 to configure a Hybrid Deployment!