Creating User mailboxes on Office365 / Exchange online hybrids

This post would help to create User mailboxes in Hybrid environment. The best way to do is creating a user account/mailbox On-Prem AD and then enabling remote mailbox or migrating it to Exchange online.We will discuss on the below scenarios.

1) Create a Office365 mailbox from EAC.
2) Create a AD object and then enable remote mailbox from On-Prem.
3) Enable remote mailbox for a existing AD user.

 The following two methods will not populate the Exchange attributes on the On-Prem and will impact Exchange functionality and feature (like autodiscover) while using a Hybrid setup. How to remedy it will be discussed in another thread.

4) Creating AD object and licensing it to directly provision mailbox on Exchange online.
5) Soft match existing Exchange online mailbox to AD user.

Note: Please use appropriate naming convention as per your organisation email address policy like lastname.firstname or firstname.lastname. I have used useralias in the examples below.

Create a Office365 mailbox from EAC

This will create AD user and enable mailbox on Exchange online.
  • Log into the Hybrid EAC.
  • Navigate to Recipients > mailbox.
  • Select the Plus icon above the display name and click on Office365. 
  • Complete the details on the new mailbox form and click save.
  • Wait for the AD object to Sync
  • We would be able to search for the user in Office365 Admin console once the sync is completed 
  • Assign appropriate license to the user.

Create a AD object and then enable remote mailbox from On-Prem

  • Open Active Directory users and computers console. 
  • Navigate to the desired OU (remember that the OU should be Synced to Office365)
  • Right Click on the OU to create a New user.
  • Complete the user details in the New Object dialog box and click on finish.
  • Open exchange management powershell on the Hybrid servers and run the below command to enable a remote mailbox for the user.
Enable-RemoteMailbox -Identity "useralias@domain.com" -primarysmtpaddress "useralias@domain.com" -RemoteRoutingAddress "useralias@tenant.mail.onmicrosoft.com"

If you need Archive to be enabled, run the below command as well.

Enable-RemoteMailbox -Identity "useralias@domain.com" -Archive

  • Please add "smpt:useralias@tenant.mail.onmicrosoft.com" to proxyaddress list to avoid mail flow issues.
  • Wait for the object to Sync
  • We would be able to search for the user in Office365 Admin console once the sync is completed 
  • Assign appropriate license to the user.

Enable remote mailbox for a existing AD user

Same as the above but we don't create a new AD user, it already exists.
  • Note the alias of the user for whom the we are supposed to enable the mailbox.
  • Open exchange management powershell on the Hybrid servers and run the below command to enable a remote mailbox for the user.
Enable-RemoteMailbox -Identity "useralias@domain.com" -primarysmtpaddress "useralias@domain.com" -RemoteRoutingAddress "useralias@tenant.mail.onmicrosoft.com"

If you need Archive to be enabled, run the below command as well.

Enable-RemoteMailbox -Identity "useralias@domain.com" -Archive

  • Please add "smpt:useralias@tenant.mail.onmicrosoft.com" to proxyaddress list to avoid mail flow issues.
  • Wait for the object to Sync
  • We would be able to search for the user in Office365 Admin console once the sync is completed 
  • Assign appropriate license to the user.
The following two methods will not populate the Exchange attributes on the On-Prem and will impact Exchange functionality and feature (like autodiscover) while using a Hybrid setup. How to remedy it will be discussed in another thread.

Creating AD object and licensing it to directly provision mailbox on Exchange online

  • Open Active Directory users and computers console. 
  • Navigate to the desired OU (remember that the OU should be Synced to Office365)
  • Right Click on the OU to create a New user.
  • Complete the user details in the New Object dialog box and click on finish.




  • Wait for the AD object to Sync.
  • We would be able to search for the user in Office365 Admin console once the sync is completed 
  • Assign appropriate license to the user.

Soft match existing Exchange online mailbox to new AD user

Here we have an Office365 account (type in cloud) and mailbox also exists. To move the authority to On-Prem AD i.e to sync the In cloud object to the On-Prem AD object, please follow the steps. Do check the license of the Cloud object.
  • find and note the primary address of the In cloud mailbox.
  • Open Active Directory users and computers console. 
  • Navigate to the desired OU (remember that the OU should be Synced to Office365)
  • Right Click on the OU to create a New user.
  • Fill and match the user details in the New Object dialog box with those of the cloud object.
  • Set the primary SMTP address of the new user account to match the primary SMTP address of the In cloud user, by using Exchange Management tools or ADSI/attribute editor.
  • Add the "SMTP:useralias@domain.com" and "smpt:useralias@tenant.mail.onmicrosoft.com" to proxyaddress list.
If Exchange isn't installed on-premises, you can manage the SMTP address value by using Active Directory Users and Computers or ADSI/attribute editor.
  • Right-click the user object and then click Properties.
  • On the general tab, update the E-mail field, and then click OK.
  • Add the "SMTP:useralias@domain.com"  and "smpt:useralias@tenant.mail.onmicrosoft.com" to proxyaddress list.






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