Exchange 2007 – Creating Dynamic Distribution Groups

Creating Dynamic Distribution Groups

Scenario:

Dynamic Distribution Groups for the purpose of Maintenance Notifications to users. Unlike regular distribution groups that contain a defined set of members, the membership list for dynamic distribution groups is calculated each time a message is sent to them, based on the filters and conditions that you define. When an e-mail message is sent to a dynamic distribution group, it is delivered to all recipients in the organization that match the criteria defined for that dynamic distribution group.

How to create Dynamic Distribution Groups in Exchange 2007

Method 1: Exchange 2007 Management Console

1. Start the Exchange Management Console.

2. In the console tree, click Recipient Configuration node.

3. In the action pane, click New Dynamic Distribution Group. The New Dynamic Distribution Group wizard appears.

4. On the Introduction page, complete the following fields. All fields on this page are required:

· Organizational Unit   By default, this box will show the organizational unit (OU) that is set as the recipient scope. Click Browse to open the Select Organizational Unit dialog box. Use this dialog box to select a different OU, and then click OK.

· Name Use this text box to type the name for the dynamic distribution group. The name cannot exceed 64 characters.

· Alias   Use this text box to type the alias of the dynamic distribution group. The alias cannot exceed 64 characters and must be unique in the forest.

5. Click Next.

6. On the Filter Settings page, define the recipient filter for the new dynamic distribution group:

· Click Browse to select the OU to select the recipients from. A dynamic distribution group contains all recipients that are in the specified OU and any other OUs under it.

· Select the recipient types you want to include in the dynamic distribution group. You can select All recipient types or The following specific types. If you select The following specific types, you must select at least one recipient type.

7. Click Next.

8. On the Conditions page, define any additional conditions to further restrict the recipients included in this dynamic distribution group. You can set the conditions to have only the recipients that are in a specific state or province, work in a specific department, work for a specific company, or have specific values for custom attributes. Conditions are optional.

a. In the Step 1: Select condition(s) list box, select the check boxes that correspond to the conditions you want to set. As you select check boxes in this list box, the selected conditions will appear in the Step 2: Edit the condition(s) list box. A pencil icon will appear next to each condition indicating that a valid value needs to be provided.

b. In the Step 2: Edit the condition(s) list box, click the underlined value that reads specified for each condition and provide the value. After you provide a valid value for a condition, the corresponding pencil icon will disappear.

c. Click Preview to view the recipients that will be contained in the dynamic distribution group, based on the conditions that you specified.

Click Next.

On the New Dynamic Distribution Group page, review the Configuration Summary. To make any configuration changes, click Back. To create the new dynamic distribution group, click New.

On the Completion page, the Summary displays whether the dynamic distribution group was successfully created. The summary also displays the Exchange Management Shell command that was used to create the dynamic distribution group.

Click Finish

Method 2: Exchange Management Shell

· Run the following command to create a dynamic distribution group called Mailbox Users DDG that contains only mailbox users:

New-DynamicDistributionGroup -IncludedRecipients MailboxUsers -Name "Mailbox Users DDG" -OrganizationalUnit Users

· Run the following command to create a dynamic distribution group with a custom recipient filter. The dynamic distribution group contains all mailbox users on a server called Server1

New-DynamicDistributionGroup -Name "Mailbox Users on Server1" -OrganizationalUnit Users -RecipientFilter {((RecipientType -eq 'UserMailbox' -and ServerName -eq 'Server1') -and -not(Name -like 'SystemMailbox{*')