Exchange 2010: Support ends on 14.01.2020

Just a little reminder: Support for Exchange Server 2010 ends on January 14, 2020. Exchange 2010 has been in the Extended Support phase for some time, so it only receives security updates.

From January 14, 2020, there will no longer be any technical support from Microsoft. This means that no more support requests can be opened and there will be no more updates. Most Exchange 2010 servers run on Windows Server 2008 (or 2008 R2), where support for the operating system will also end on January 14, 2020.

So if you are still running Exchange 2010 Server on Windows Server 2008 (R2), you should start thinking about replacing it, as there will be no support for Exchange 2010 or Server 2008 in January 2020.

There are the following options for replacing Exchange 2010:

• Migration to Exchange Server 2016 (on Windows Server 2016)
• Migration to Exchange Server 2013 (on Windows Server 2012 R2)
• Migration to Office 365

Of course, migrating from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013 makes no sense in most cases. If Exchange is operated locally, then in most cases it is also migrated to Exchange 2016 or Office 365. Incidentally, you should also pay attention to the Office / Outlook version here, sometimes there is still an Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 around.

Direct migration from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2019 is not possible, so an intermediate step to Exchange 2013/2016 must be taken.

If you decide to migrate all local Exchange 2010 mailboxes to Office 365, you will find another article worth reading here:

• Decommissioning your Exchange 2010 servers in a Hybrid Deployment

It may therefore be necessary to retain a local Exchange server:

However, the linked article is a bit older, so the following actually applies: Anyone who uses a local Exchange Server as a relay or for managing Office 365 mailboxes must migrate the local Exchange Server (let's call it Management Exchange Server) to a supported Exchange version.

Although the migration of a "Management Exchange Server" is much simpler, as no more mailboxes or public folders need to be migrated, there are definitely problematic points:

• Old software that is only supported up to Exchange 2010 (Identity Manager, fax software, archive software, backup software...)
• Software that relies on the MapiCDO
• countless scripts / processes that send mails and use Exchange as SMTP server

All these dependencies (and possibly others) must of course also be taken into account when migrating from on-prem to on-prem. In the hybrid scenario in particular, however, you must bear in mind that the local management Exchange server must also be migrated to a supported version (even if there are no longer any databases/mailboxes on the local environment).

The migration from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013/2016 is described here:

• HowTo: Migration from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013
• Howto: Migration from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016

Update 16.09.2019Microsoft has extended support for Exchange 2010. Support now ends on 13.10.2020:

https://www.frankysweb.de/exchange-2010-support-bis-13-10-2020-verlaengert/