Manage Microsoft Exchange Online when using AAD Connect

Few weeks ago I had to implement Microsoft Exchange Online for a customer who didn’t used Exchange in the past. For a simple user management, I decided to install and configure Azure AD Connect. So the user accounts from local Active Directory will be synchronized to Azure AD.

There are several advantages of this scenario:

  • you have a single point for user management, your local Active Directory
  • if configured, user passwords (or better to say password hash values) are automatically synchronized to Azure AD
  • the user has a Single-Sign-On Experience for Office 365 services
  • Office 365 license assignment based on local AD groups

After setting up Azure AD Connect and enabling all users for Exchange Online, I started to configure some Exchange settings: configure distribution lists, shared mailboxes and second mail addresses. But wait, what’s that? After submitting the change and error message pops-up:

The operation on mailbox "Daniel" failed because it's out of the current user's write scope.
The operation on mailbox “Daniel” failed because it’s out of the current user’s write scope.

What da hack? After some research in the web and reading several blog entries, it was clear: When using AAD Connect and synchronized accounts in Office 365, you have to install an on-premises Exchange Management server for changing some Exchange Online settings. Even you don’t have an on-premises Exchange server installed yet. Very disappointing and frustating. That’s why a customer decides to use cloud service: they wan’t have to install and maintain the system on-premises.

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