Connect to Exchange Servers and Microsoft 365 with Remote PowerShell

In this article we will show how to remotely connect to an on-premises Exchange Server or Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online) from the PowerShell console.

How to Connect to Exchange Servers via Remote PowerShell (without EMS)?

You can use the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) cmdlets to manage your on-premises Exchange organization (Exchange Server 2010, 2013, 2016, or 2019). EMS is installed as a part of the Exchange Management Tools. If the Exchange Management Shell is not installed on your computer, you can connect to your Exchange server remotely and import the cmdlets from the Exchange host to your local PowerShell session.

Remote connections in the Exchange Server are established through a separate virtual IIS (Internet Information Services) directory called PowerShell. By default, Kerberos authentication is used, and WinRM is used for the communication.

Before you start, make sure that your local PowerShell Execution policy allows you to run local PS scripts. The command below allows running local scripts for the current user.

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Open the PowerShell console on your computer and run the following command:

$UserCredential = Get-Credential

Enter the login and password of the account you are going to use to connect to Exchange.

Create a remote PowerShell session with your Exchange server:

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri http://mun-mbex1.woshub.com/PowerShell/ -Authentication Kerberos -Credential $UserCredential

Make sure that the session has been created and now is in an Opened state:

Get-PSSession

Import the remote PowerShell session into your local one:

Import-PSSession $Session

Then you can use all Exchange management cmdlets in your local PowerShell session.

Remember to properly end the remote PowerShell sessions. If you just close the Windows PowerShell console without disconnecting your session, you may exceed the limit of remote PowerShell sessions.

To end up your session, run the command below:

Remove-PSSession $Session

Make sure that no running remote PowerShell sessions are left:

Get-PSSession

You can use a PowerShell profile to automatically import PowerShell cmdlets from remote Exchange into your session.

Create a profile file:

New-Item -Path $profile -ItemType file -force

Open Microsoft.PowerShell_Profile.ps1 with Notepad:

notepad $profile

Add commands to the file to connect to Exchange and import cmdlets from a remote session to a local PowerShell session:

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri http://mun-mbex1.woshub.com/PowerShell/ -Authentication Kerberos -Credential (Get-Credential)
Import-PSSession $Session

Connect to Exchange Online (Microsoft 365) Using Remote PowerShell

In the same way, you can connect to your Exchange Online (Microsoft 365) tenant to manage mailboxes, conference rooms, distribution lists and other Microsoft 365 settings.

Let’s learn how to connect to Exchange Online remotely from the PowerShell console using Basic Authentication without installing Microsoft Exchange Online PowerShell module (EXO/ EXOv2) .

Allow local PS scripts to run:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Get your Exchange Online administrator credentials:

$UserCredential = Get-Credential

Then you can establish a remote PowerShell session with Microsoft 365:

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic –AllowRedirection

New-PSSession : [outlook.office365.com] Connecting to remote server outlook.office365.com failed with the following error message : Access is denied.
+ CategoryInfo : OpenError: (System.Manageme....RemoteRunspace:RemoteRunspace) [New-PSSession], PSRemotingTransportException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : AccessDenied,PSSessionOpenFailed

Then import the remote session to your console:

Import-PSSession $Session

Fail to create a runspace because you have exceeded the maximum number of connections allowed.

To end all remote PowerShell sessions, run this command:

Get-PSSession | Remove-PSSession