Circular logging safe on Exchange Server SE used only for recipient management?

Hey all,

Curious what others are doing here.

We're moving from a DAG Exchange 2016 environment to a single Exchange Server SE box that will be used only for hybrid/recipient management, no user mailboxes, no message transport functionality.

All user mailboxes are in Exchange Online. On-prem, the only mailboxes that will live on the SE database are:

• Arbitration/system mailboxes (Discovery, AdminAuditLog, etc.)
• Health/monitoring mailboxes
• Whatever Exchange insists on creating for itself

Given that:

• I’m considering enabling circular logging on the SE database to keep log growth minimal and treat this box as mostly “config + glue” for hybrid.
• Backups would be more about being able to restore the VM/config in a disaster, not point-in-time recovery for user data (since that’s all in EXO).
• Worst case, I could rebuild the SE server, recreate the DB, re-run HCW, etc., if it really went sideways.

Questions for the hive mind:

1. In a recipient-management-only Exchange SE scenario, are you enabling circular logging on the mailbox database?
2. Any real-world gotchas or regrets from doing this (health mailboxes, arbitration data, audit logs, backup software quirks, etc.)?
3. Is there any hidden reason not to treat this as almost disposable and just rely on VM/config backups and the ability to rebuild?

Would love to hear how others are handling logging/backup strategy for their “last on-prem Exchange box” that’s basically just there for recipient management.