Exchange 2019 is available!

Microsoft has released Exchange Server 2019. Microsoft customers with a volume license contract can now download and use the new Exchange version.

Source: Exchange Team Blog – Exchange Server 2019 Now Available

As already announced, Exchange 2019 is only available in VL ProgramCustomers without volume licensing must continue to use Exchange 2016 or migrate to Office 365. Exchange 2019 is only intended for large environments. Microsoft would therefore like to see small Exchange organizations with just a few mailboxes in the cloud in the future.

There is an overview of the new Exchange features on the Exchange Team Blog:

• Exchange Server 2019 Now Available

I will publish more information and HowTos about Exchange 2019 in the near future, because fortunately Exchange 2019 is also included in the Visual Studio subscription, so I can use Exchange 2019 in the Lab:

Here is a summary of the most important Exchange innovations:

• Exchange 2019 requires Windows Server 2019, installation on Server 2019 Core is recommended
• Support only for TLS 1.2, older TLS versions are not supported
• Support for up to 48 CPU cores and 256 GB RAM
• New Serach Engine (Bing)
• Search index is now part of the mailbox database
• MCDB (MetaCache Database, cache on SSDs)
• More control for administrators over calendar entries
• UM role no longer included in Exchange 2019

Further products in the Office Server family were also released today. The new versions of Skype for Business, SharePoint and Project Server can also be used from today:

• Office 2019 servers available for commercial customers

Office 2019 is already available, so the product family is complete again. As far as we know, the migration from Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2016 to Exchange 2019 is also already supported. Articles on this topic will follow, even if the readership will probably be smaller due to the new licensing.

Another little tipWith Exchange 2016, the Hybrid Configuration Wizard provided a "free" license for Exchange 2016 Server if you operated Exchange in hybrid mode. This will also be discontinued with Exchange 2019. The HCW no longer licenses Exchange 2019 servers for Hybrid Mode.