Exchange: Don't Fear The Wizard...Re-running the HCW

A lot of my customers are in the process of renewing their Exchange certificates or upgrading to Exchange 2019 in preparation for Exchange SE (coming early 3rd quarter this year). Every one of them I've worked with are scared (terrified, actually) of re-running the Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) thinking that it will overwrite their current settings like connectors and such because that's what they experienced in the past. As a result, some of them haven't updated their hybrid config in years - one of them hasn't touched it since setting up Exchange 2010.

Have no fear, the new HCW is leaps and bounds better than it used to be. You can pick and choose what you want to update, without touching other settings that would affect mail flow or custom setups.

Download the latest HCW from here:

https://aka.ms/hybridwizard

**Note** You can download and run it from any domain member, like a Management Tools server; you don't have to run it on an Exchange server, but it is recommended.

Once you have it installed, run the HCW and select Classic Hybrid and check the "Choose Exchange Hybrid Configuration option":

This will bring up a menu where you can choose what you wanna update.

If you just renewed your hybrid cert (your public SAN cert), or your OAuth cert, just clear all the checkboxes and select "Oauth, Intra Org Connector and Organization Relationship" option and "Update Secure Mail Certificate for connectors" option:

Now next, next, next through the steps and that's it! No other config needed, and your custom connectors are still in-tact. Easy-peasy!

**Note** Global Admin (GA) is no longer required to re-run the HCW, you can now run it with an Org Management account in Exchange and Exchange Online...makes things easier and you don't have call and wake up your Global Admin in the middle of the night.

Also...

When renewing the Exchange Auth Certificate (the self-signed one that lasts for 5 years), you only need to re-reun the HCW if you still have on-premises mailboxes that require free/busy or on-going migrations. Lots of articles, even from Microsoft, say it's required...it is not required. That being said, you can run it as many times as you like, since it won't break anything now.