Is Azure Subscription required to manage Exchange 365? and is it included with Business Standard?

Question

Is an Azure subscription required to run Powershell commands on Exchange 365?

I am attempting to setup a Hybrid Exchange between 2013 On Premise and 365 and not having much luck.
When trying to follow Microsoft’s instructions for testing the OAuthConnectivity between cloud & On-premise, it tells me the following: To verify that your Exchange Online organization can successfully connect to your on-premises Exchange organization, connect to Exchange Online PowerShell and run the following command:

Test-OAuthConnectivity -Service EWS -TargetUri <external hostname authority of your Exchange On-Premises deployment>/metadata/json/1 -Mailbox <Exchange Online Mailbox> -Verbose | Format-List

 But if I attempt to open an online powershell I get this:

When attempting to run the command, I get an error showing “No Valid Subscription for Azure” 

So am I going to have to pay to create an Azure subscription, or is it included with 365?  Apparently I cannot run the commands to test without it.  I really don’t see how we can run an Exchange server without it.

Some people tell me I do not need Azure, but How do I access the online Exchange server without Azure?
I'm a complete newbe to cloud stuff.

Answer 1

No, it is not required. Azure and Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online is part of which) are two separate products. The error you are referring to above is specific to Azure Cloud Shell, which as the name suggests is an Azure resource, thus requires an Azure subscription. Exchange Online does not.

The PowerShell error itself seems to indicate that you are using an older version of the module/older connectivity method. Make sure you have the latest module installed and run Connect-ExchangeOnline without any parameters to connect.