Enable the MRS Proxy endpoint for

remote moves in Exchange Server

The Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) has a proxy endpoint that's required

for cross-forest mailbox moves and remote move migrations between your

on-premises Exchange organization and Microsoft 365 or Office 365. You

need to enable the MRS proxy endpoint in the Exchange Web Services (EWS)

virtual directory settings on Exchange 2016 or Exchange 2019 Mailbox servers.

Where you enable the MRS Proxy endpoint depends on the type and direction

of the mailbox move:

 Cross-forest enterprise moves: For cross-forest moves that are

initiated from the target forest (known as a pull move type), you

need to enable the MRS Proxy endpoint on Mailbox servers in the

source forest. For cross-forest moves that are initiated from the

source forest (known as a push move type), you need to enable

the MRS Proxy endpoint on Mailbox servers in the target forest.

 Remote move migrations between an on-premises Exchange

organization and Microsoft 365 or Office 365. For both

 onboarding and offboarding remote move migrations, you need

to enable the MRS Proxy endpoint on Mailbox servers in your on-

premises Exchange organization.

Note: If you use the Exchange admin center (EAC) to move mailboxes, cross-

forest moves and onboarding remote move migrations are pull move types,

because you initiate the request from the target environment. Offboarding

remote move migrations are push move types because you initiate the

request from the source environment.

What do you need to know before you begin?

 Estimated time to complete: 2 minutes per server.

 You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this

procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see

the "Exchange Web Services permissions" section in the Clients

and mobile devices permissions topic.

 If you've deployed multiple Mailbox servers in your Exchange

organization, you should enable the MRS Proxy endpoint on each

Mailbox server. If you add additional Mailbox servers, be sure to

enable the MRS Proxy endpoint on the new servers. Cross-forest

moves and remote move migrations can fail if the MRS Proxy

endpoint isn't enabled on all Mailbox servers.

  If you don't perform cross-forest moves or remote move

migrations, keep MRS Proxy endpoints disabled on Mailbox

servers to reduce the attack surface of your organization.

 Exchange Online requires Windows authentication for the MRS

proxy endpoint in the Exchange Web Services (EWS) virtual

directories.

 For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the

procedures in this topic, see Keyboard shortcuts in the Exchange

admin center.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums

at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection.

Use the EAC to enable the MRS Proxy endpoint

1. In the EAC, go to Servers > Virtual Directories.

2. Select the EWS virtual directory that you want to configure.

 You can use the Select server drop-down list to filter

the Exchange servers by name.

 To only display EWS virtual directories, select EWS in

the Select type drop-down list.

 After you've selected the EWS virtual directory that you want to

configure, click Edit .

3. On the properties page that opens, on the General tab, select

the Enable MRS Proxy endpoint check box, and then click Save.
Use the Exchange Management Shell to enable
the MRS Proxy endpoint

To enable the MRS Proxy endpoint, use this syntax:

PowerShellCopy
Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity "[<Server>\]EWS
(Default Web Site)" -MRSProxyEnabled $true

This example enables the MRS Proxy endpoint of the EWS virtual directories

on the Mailbox server named EXCH-SRV-01.

PowerShellCopy
Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity "EXCH-SRV-01\EWS
(Default Web Site)" -MRSProxyEnabled $true

This example enables the MRS Proxy endpoint of the EWS virtual directories

on all Mailbox servers in your Exchange organization.

PowerShellCopy
Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory | Set-
WebServicesVirtualDirectory -MRSProxyEnabled $true

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-

WebServicesVirtualDirectory.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you've successfully enabled the MRS Proxy endpoint, do any of

these steps:

 In the EAC, go to Servers > Virtual Directories > select the EWS

virtual directory, and verify in the details pane that the MRS Proxy

endpoint is enabled.

 Run this command in the Exchange Management Shell, and verify

that the MRSProxyEnabled property for the EWS virtual directory

has the value True:

PowerShellCopy
Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory | Format-Table -Auto
Identity,MRSProxyEnabled

 Use the Test-MigrationServerAvailability cmdlet in the

Exchange Management Shell to test communication with the

remote servers that hosts the mailboxes that you want to move
(or the servers in your on-premises Exchange organization for

offboarding remote move migrations from Microsoft 365 or Office

365).

Replace <EmailAddress> with the email address of one of the

mailboxes that you want to move, and run this command in the

Exchange Management Shell:

PowerShellCopy
Test-MigrationServerAvailability -ExchangeRemoteMove
-Autodiscover -EmailAddress <EmailAddress> -
Credentials (Get-Credential)

To run this command successfully, the MRS Proxy endpoint must

be enabled.

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Test-

MigrationServerAvailability.