Deploy Exchange Server 2016 into an existing VPC

Question

I would like to deploy two exchange servers in AWS into an existing VPC using the cloud formation template provided in GitHub. I do have an existing active directory instance, but the template in GitHub includes active directory deployment. I want to isolate that part of the template only to include exchange server deployment. Is this possible and do I need to store the required PowerShell scripts and cmdlets in a new S3 bucket?

https://github.com/aws-quickstart/quickstart-microsoft-exchange/blob/main/templates/exchange.template.yaml

Answer

You can certainly just use the parts of the template that are relevant for your environment. That will mainly be removing the AD components from the template and setting the parameters to your existing AD values. Be sure to update any Ref functions that refer to AD resources to what your actual values are as well, if present. You do not need to store the PS scripts in a new bucket, the default used by the Quickstart is public.

Edit: If this is for purposes of testing and experimenting, then no problem with what you are doing. For a production deployment, you may want to deploy an independent AD forest for Exchange, sometimes called a "resource forest". [This article](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/deploy-exchange-2013-in-an-exchange-resource-forest-topology-exchange-2013-help) is for 2013, but the same concepts apply.

Deploy Exchange Server 2016 into an existing VPC

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