Mail-Enable or Mail-Disable a Distribution Group

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Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

You can mail-enable or mail-disable a distribution group. By default, distribution groups are mail-enabled when created.

Looking for additional management tasks related to distribution groups? Check out Managing Distribution Groups.

Use the EMC to mail-enable a distribution group

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Distribution groups" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

  1. In the console tree, navigate to Recipient Configuration > Distribution Group.

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

  3. On the Introduction page, click Existing Group, and then click Browse.

  4. In Select Group, select the group that you want to mail-enable, and then click OK.

  5. On the Group Information page, in the Alias box, type the name of the alias for the group. The alias can't exceed 64 characters and must be unique in the forest.

    Note

    The Name and Name (pre-Windows 2000) boxes are read-only and can't be modified at this time. If you want to modify these names, use the Group Information tab in the distribution group's properties.

  6. On the New Distribution Group page, review the Configuration Summary. To make any configuration changes, click Back. To mail-enable the group, click New.

  7. On the Completion page, review the following, and then click Finish to close the wizard:

    • A status of Completed indicates that the wizard completed the task successfully.

    • A status of Failed indicates that the task wasn't completed. If the task fails, review the summary for an explanation, and then click Back to make any configuration changes.

Use the EMC to mail-disable a distribution group

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Distribution groups" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

  1. In the console tree, navigate to Recipient Configuration > Distribution Group.

  2. In the result pane, select the group that you want to mail-disable.

  3. In the action pane, under the group name, click Disable.

  4. A warning appears confirming that you want to mail-disable the group. Click Yes.

Use the Shell to mail-enable a distribution group

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Distribution groups" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

This example mail-enables the security group Schema Admins. When you mail-enable a group, you must specify the alias, display name, and primary SMTP address.

Enable-DistributionGroup -Identity "Schema Admins" -Alias "SchemaAdmins" -DisplayName "Schema Admins" -PrimarySMTPAddress "schemaadmins@contoso.com"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Enable-DistributionGroup.

Use the Shell to mail-disable a distribution group

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Distribution groups" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

After you disable a distribution group, you can remove it from the global address list (GAL), without removing it from Active Directory. The Active Directory group object still exists, but the distribution group will be unable to send or receive mail.

This example disables the distribution group Employee Garage Sales.

Disable-DistributionGroup -Identity "Employee Garage Sales"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Disable-DistributionGroup.

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