New Exchange Online PowerShell v2

When using PowerShell with Exchange Online you can use the ‘good old traditional’ way to connect to Exchange Online:

$ExCred = Get-Credential 
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $ExCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
Import-PSSession $Session

This is not a recommended way to connect to Exchange Online using your tenant admin account, it uses basic authentication (will be decommissioned in 2021) and MFA (number one prerequisite for tenant admin security!) is not possible.

The second option is the Exchange Online Remote PowerShell Module which you can download from the Exchange Online Admin Center (use Internet Explorer for this download!) as shown in the following screenshot:

Exchange Online PowerShell Module

This is a separate PowerShell module you can start and use the Connect-EXOPSSession command to connect to Exchange Online. This PowerShell module users Modern Authentication and supports Multi-Factor Authentication.

The latest (and newest) option is the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module. This module works far more efficient with large datasets than the previous PowerShell modules for Exchange Online. It also supports Modern Authentication and Multi-Factor Authentication.

To install the Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module you first have to install the PowerShellGet module using the Install-Module PowershellGet command:

Install-Module PowershellGet

Followed by the Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement command:

Install-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

When installed you can use the Connect-ExchangeOnline command to connect to Exchange Online. When MFA for your admin account is configured it will automatically use it:

Connect-ExchangeOnline

The differences between V1 and V2 are clearly visible in the commands. All V2 commands contain EXO, like:

Get-Mailbox vs Get-EXOMailbox
Get-Recipient vs Get-EXORecipient
Get-MailboxStatistics vs Get-EXOMailboxStatistics
Get-CASMailbox vs Get-EXOCASMailbox

This means that all scripts you have written for use with Exchange Online need to be changed to reflect the V2 commands.

For a complete overview you can use the Get-Command *EXO* to retrieve all PowerShell commands that contain EXO (still very limited 🙂 ):

Get-Command EXO

The Exchange Online PowerShell V2 module is still in preview, the current version is 0.3582.0 which you can check using the Get-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement command:

Get-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

The Exchange Online PowerShell v2 module is a work in progress, but it the future of PowerShell in Exchange Online, so you should keep an eye on this development.