Create and manage dynamic distribution groups in Exchange Online

In the EAC, you can create DDGs with only pre-canned filters.

To create a DDG in EAC, perform the following steps:

1. In the EAC, select Recipients > Groups.

2. Select Add a group and follow the instructions in the Details pane.

   • Under Choose a group type section, select Dynamic distribution and select Next.

   • Under Set up the basics section, enter the details and select Next.

3. Under Assign Users section, select the group owner from the Owner drop-down list.

4. Use the Members section to specify the types of recipients for the group and to set up rules that determine membership. Select one of the following boxes:

   • All recipient types: Select this checkbox to send messages that meet the criteria defined for this group to all recipient types.

   • Only the following recipient types: Select this checkbox to send messages that meet the criteria defined for this group to one or more of the following recipient types:

     • Users with Exchange mailboxes: Select this checkbox if you want to include users that have Exchange mailboxes. Users that have Exchange mailboxes are those users that have a user domain account and a mailbox in the Exchange organization. Resource mailboxes are also included.

     • Mail users with external email addresses: Select this checkbox if you want to include users that have external email addresses. Users that have external email accounts have user domain accounts in Active Directory, but use email accounts that are external to the organization. This enables them to be included in the global address list (GAL) and to be added to distribution lists.

     • Resource mailboxes: Select this checkbox if you want to include Exchange resource mailboxes. Resource mailboxes allow you to administer company resources through a mailbox, such as a conference room or a company vehicle.

     • Mail contacts with external email addresses: Select this checkbox if you want to include contacts that have external email addresses. Contacts that have external email addresses don't have user domain accounts in Active Directory, but the external email address is available in the GAL.

     • Mail-enabled groups: Select this checkbox if you want to include security groups or distribution groups that have been mail-enabled. Mail-enabled groups are similar to distribution groups. Email messages that are sent to a mail-enabled group account will be delivered to several recipients.

5. Select one of the attributes specified in the table under Pre-canned filters in dynamic distribution groups from the Select condition drop-down list and provide a value to define the criteria for membership in this group.

   

   Important

   The values that you enter for the selected attribute must exactly match those that appear in the recipient's properties. For example, if you enter Washington for State or province, but the value for the recipient's property is WA, the condition won't be met. Also, text-based values that you specify aren't case-sensitive. For example, if you specify Contoso for the Company attribute, messages will be sent to a recipient if this value is contoso.

6. To add another rule to define the criteria for membership, select Add another rule. When you've finished, select Next.

   Important

   If you add multiple rules to define membership, a recipient must meet the criteria of each rule to be added as a member to the DDG. In other words, each rule is connected with the Boolean operator AND.

7. Under Edit settings section, enter the group email address and select Next.

8. Under Review and finish adding group section, verify all the details, select Create group and then select Close.

You can use Exchange Online PowerShell to create a DDG with custom recipient filters.

Filter and condition settings for DDGs that have custom recipient filters can be managed only by using Exchange Online PowerShell.

To create DDGs using Exchange Online PowerShell, execute the commands as shown in the following examples:

Example 1

This example shows how to create a DDG named "Mailbox Users DDG" that contains only mailbox users.

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

Example 2

This example shows how to create a DDG with a pre-canned filter. The DDG contains all mailbox users and contact recipients who have a Department field that equals the strings "Marketing" or "Sales".

New-DynamicDistributionGroup -Name "Marketing Group" -IncludedRecipients "MailboxUsers,MailContacts" -ConditionalDepartment "Marketing","Sales"

Example 3

This example shows how to create a DDG with a custom recipient filter. The DDG contains all mailbox users that have a value of "FullTimeEmployee" in the CustomAttribute10 property.

New-DynamicDistributionGroup -Name "Full Time Employees" -RecipientFilter "(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'UserMailbox') -and (CustomAttribute10 -eq 'FullTimeEmployee')"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-DynamicDistributionGroup. For more information about the filterable properties you can use with the RecipientFilter parameter, see Filterable properties for the RecipientFilter parameter.

1. In the EAC, select Recipients > Groups > Dynamic distribution list.

2. In the list of groups, select the DDG that you want to view or change.

3. On the group's properties page, select one of the following sections to view or change properties:

   • General
   • Members
   • Settings

General

Use this section to view or change:

• The following properties of the group under Basic information section:

  • Name: This name appears in the address book, on the To: line when an email is sent to this group, and in the Groups list. The display name is required and should be user-friendly so that people recognize what it is. It also has to be unique in your domain.

  • Description: Use this option to describe the group so that people know what the purpose of the group is. This description appears in the address book and in the Details pane in the EAC.

• Under Email addresses section, you can view or change the email addresses associated with the group. These addresses include the group's primary SMTP addresses and any associated proxy addresses. Select Edit to change/edit the Primary email address and to add/delete Aliases, and then select Save changes.

  • You can also select the group and then select Edit email addresses from the toolbar to change/edit the Primary email address and to add/delete Aliases, and then select Save changes.

Members

Use this section to change/edit the following:

• Under Owners section, select View all and manage owners to add/remove group owners from the drop-down list and then select Save changes.

• Use Members section to change the criteria used to determine membership of the group. You can delete or change existing membership rules and add new rules. For procedures that tell you how to manage membership rules, see Create a dynamic distribution group.

Settings

Under General settings section, select the checkbox Hide from my organization's global address list if you want to hide the group from the list.

Delivery management

Use this section to manage who can send emails to this group.

• Sender options

  By default, only people inside your organization can send messages to this group. You can also allow people outside the organization to send messages to this group.

  • Only allow messages from people inside my organization: Select this option to allow only senders in your organization to send messages to the group. This option's activation means that if someone outside your organization sends an email message to this group, it's rejected. This setting is the default setting.

  • Allow messages from people inside and outside my organization: Select this option to allow anyone to send messages to the group.

• Specified senders

  You can further limit who can send messages to the group by allowing only specific senders to send messages to this group. Select/remove one or more recipients/groups from the drop-down list. If you add senders to this list, they're the only ones who can send emails to the group. Emails sent by anyone not in the list are rejected.

  Important

  If you've configured the group to allow only senders inside your organization to send messages to the group, emails sent from a mail contact are rejected, even if they're added to this list.

Manage delegates

Use this section to assign permissions to a user (called a delegate) to allow them to send messages as the group or send messages on behalf of the group. You can assign the following permissions:

• Send as: This permission allows the delegate to send messages as the group. After this permission is assigned, the delegate has the option to add the group to the From line to indicate that the message was sent by the group.

• Send on behalf: This permission also allows a delegate to send messages on behalf of the group. After this permission is assigned, the delegate has the option to add the group on the From line. The message will appear to be sent by the group and will say that it was sent by the delegate on behalf of the group.

To assign permissions to delegates in EAC, select Edit manage delegates, add the delegates, select the Permission type from the drop-down list, and select Save changes.

Message approval

Use this section to set options for moderating the group. Moderators approve or reject messages sent to the group before the messages reach the group members.

• Require moderator approval for messages sent to this group: This option is a checkbox and it's not selected by default. If you select this checkbox, incoming messages are reviewed by the group moderators before delivery. Group moderators can approve or reject incoming messages.

• Group moderators: To add/remove group moderators, search/add users from the drop-down list. If you've selected Require moderator approval for messages sent to this group and you don't select a moderator, messages to the group are sent to the group owners for approval.

• Add senders who don't require message approval: To add/remove users that can bypass moderation for this group, search/add users from the drop-down list.

• Notify a sender if their message isn't approved:: This option contains three sub-options, each of which has a radio button for you to select. These sub-options enable you to set how users are notified about message approval.

  • Only sender: This setting is the default setting. When this setting is enabled, a notification is sent to all senders, inside and outside your organization, when their message isn't approved.

  • Only senders in your organization: When you select this option, only users or groups in your organization are notified when a message that they sent to the group isn't approved by a moderator.

  • No notifications: When you select this option, notifications aren't sent to senders whose messages aren't approved by the group moderators.

Use the Get-DynamicDistributionGroup and Set-DynamicDistributionGroup cmdlets to view and change properties for DDGs. Advantages of using Exchange Online PowerShell are (a) the ability to change the properties that aren't available in the EAC and (b) the ability to change properties for multiple groups. For information about what parameters correspond to DDG properties, see the following articles:

• Get-DynamicDistributionGroup
• Set-DynamicDistributionGroup

Here are some examples of using Exchange Online PowerShell to change DDG properties:

Example 1

   Get-DynamicDistributionGroup -ResultSize unlimited | Set-DynamicDistributionGroup -HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled $true -MaxReceiveSize 5MB -ModerationEnabled $true -ModeratedBy administrator

The preceding PowerShell command syntax is an example of a command that changes the following parameters for all DDGs in the organization:

• Hide all DDGs from the address book
• Set the maximum message size that can be sent to the group to 5 MB
• Enable moderation
• Assign the administrator as the group moderator

Example 2

   Set-DynamicDistributionGroup -Identity "All Employees" -EmailAddresses SMTP:[email protected], smtp:[email protected]

The preceding PowerShell command syntax is an example of a command that adds the proxy SMTP email address, [email protected], to the "All Employees" group.

Example 3

   New-DynamicDistributionGroup -Name "Full Time Employees" -RecipientFilter "(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'UserMailbox') -and (CustomAttribute1 -eq 'FullTimeEmployee')"

The preceding PowerShell command syntax is an example of a command that changes the custom recipient filter of the "FullTimeEmployee" DDG so that it contains all mailbox users that have a value of FullTimeEmployee in the CustomAttribute1 property.

To view the members of a DDG in EAC, perform the following steps after signing in to EAC:

1. Select Recipients > Groups > Dynamic distribution list.
2. Select the desired group from the group list.
3. Navigate to the Members tab.
4. Under the Members section, select View all members. On the resultant page, you can also search for members using the Search members list field.

To view the members of a DDG using Exchange Online PowerShell, use the Get-DynamicDistributionGroupMember command. Replace DDGIdentity with the name, alias, or email address of the DDG and run the following command in Exchange Online PowerShell:

   Get-DynamicDistributionGroupMember -Identity <DDGIdentity>

For detailed parameter and syntax information, see Get-DynamicDistributionGroupMember.