Applies to: Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Online
Topic Last Modified: 2012-10-15
A mail-enabled security group can be used to distribute messages as well as to grant access permissions to resources in Active Directory. For more information, see Recipients.
What do you need to know before you begin?
- Estimated time to complete: 2 to 5 minutes.
- You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this
procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the
"Distribution groups" entry in the Recipients
Permissions topic.
- For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the
procedures in this topic, see Keyboard Shortcuts in
the Exchange Admin Center.
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Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection. |
What do you want to do?
Create a mail-enabled security group
Use the EAC to create a security group
- In the EAC, navigate to Recipients
> Groups.
- Click New > Security group.
- On the New security group page, complete the following
fields:
- * Display name Use this box to
type the display name. This name appears in the shared address
book, on the To: line when email is sent to this group, and in the
Groups list in the EAC. The display name is required and should be
user-friendly so people recognize what it is. It also must be
unique in the forest.
Note: If a group naming policy is applied, you must follow the naming constraints enforced for your organization. For more information, see Create a Distribution Group Naming Policy. If you want to override your organization's group naming policy, see Override the Distribution Group Naming Policy. - * Alias Use this box to type the alias
for the security group. The alias can’t exceed 64 characters and
must be unique in the forest. When a user types the alias on the
To: line of an email message, it resolves to the group's display
name.
- Description Use this box to describe
the security group so people know what the purpose of the group
is.
- Organizational unit You can select an
organizational unit (OU) other than the default (which is the
recipient scope). If the recipient scope is set to the forest, the
default value is set to the Users container in the Active Directory
domain that contains the computer on which the EAC is running. If
the recipient scope is set to a specific domain, the Users
container in that domain is selected by default. If the recipient
scope is set to a specific OU, that OU is selected by default.
To select a different OU, click Browse. The dialog box displays all OUs in the forest that are within the specified scope. Select the desired OU, and then click OK.
- * Owners By default, the person who
creates a group is the owner. All groups must have at least one
owner. You can add owners by clicking Add.
- Members Use this section to add members
and to specify whether approval is required for people to join or
leave the group.
Group owners don't have to be members of the group. Use Add group owners as members to add or remove the owners as members.
To add members to the group, click Add . When you’ve finished adding members, click OK to return to the New security group page.
Select the Owner approval is required check box if you want the group owners to receive user requests to join the group. If you select this option, members can only be removed by the group owners.
- * Display name Use this box to
type the display name. This name appears in the shared address
book, on the To: line when email is sent to this group, and in the
Groups list in the EAC. The display name is required and should be
user-friendly so people recognize what it is. It also must be
unique in the forest.
- When you've finished, click Save to create the security
group.
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By default, all new mail-enabled security groups require that all senders be authenticated. This prevents external senders from sending messages to mail-enabled security groups. To configure a mail-enabled security group to accept messages from all senders, you must modify the message delivery restriction settings for that group. |
Use the Shell to create a security group
This example creates a security group with an alias fsadmin and the name File Server Managers. The security group is created in the default OU, and anyone can join this group with approval by the group owners.
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New-DistributionGroup -Name "File Server Managers" -Alias fsadmin -Type security |
For more information about using the Shell to create mail-enabled security groups, see New-DistributionGroup.
How do you know this worked?
To verify that you’ve successfully created a mail-enabled security group, do one of the following:
- In the EAC, navigate to Recipients
> Groups. The new mail-enabled security group
is displayed in the group list. Under Group Type, the type
is Security group.
- In the Shell, run the following command to display information
about the new mail-enabled security group.
Copy Code Get-DistributionGroup <Name> | FL Name,RecipientTypeDetails,PrimarySmtpAddress
Change mail-enabled security group properties
Use the EAC to change mail-enabled security group properties
- In the EAC, navigate to Recipients >
Groups.
- In the list of groups, click the security group that you want
to view or change, and then click Edit .
- On the group properties page, click one of the following
sections to view or change properties.
General
Use this section to view or change basic information about the group.
- * Display name This name appears
in the address book, on the To: line when email is sent to this
group, and in the Groups list. The display name is required and
should be user-friendly so people recognize what it is. It also has
to be unique in your domain.
- * Alias This is the portion of the
email address that appears to the left of the at (@) symbol.
If you change the alias, the primary SMTP address for the group
will also be changed, and contain the new alias. Also, the email
address with the previous alias will be kept as a proxy address for
the group.
- Description Use this box to describe
the group so people know what the purpose of the group is. This
description appears in the address book and in the Details pane in
the EAC.
- Hide this group from address
lists Select this check box if you don't want
users to see this group in the address book. If this check box is
selected, a sender has to type the group's alias or email address
on the To: or Cc: lines to send mail to the group.
Tip: Consider hiding security groups because they're typically used to assign permissions to group members and not to send email. - Organizational unit This read-only box
displays the organizational unit (OU) that contains the security
group. You have to use Active Directory Users and Computers to move
the group to a different OU.
Ownership
Use this section to assign group owners. The group owner can add members to the group, and approve or reject requests to join the group. By default, the person who creates a group is the owner. All groups must have at least one owner.
You can add owners by clicking Add . You can remove an owner by selecting the owner and then clicking Remove .
Membership
Use this section to add or remove members. Group owners don't have to be members of the group. Under Members, you can add members by clicking Add . You can remove a member by selecting a user in the member list and then clicking Remove .
Membership approval
Use this section to specify whether owner approval is required for users to join the group. If you select the Owner approval is required check box, the group owner or owners receive an email requesting approval to join the group. As previously mentioned, only owners can remove members from the group.
Delivery management
Use this section to manage who can send email to this group.
- Only senders inside my
organization Select this option to allow only
senders in your organization to send messages to the group. This
means that if someone outside of your organization sends an email
message to this group, it will be rejected. This is the default
setting.
- Senders inside and outside of my
organization Select this option to allow
anyone to send messages to the group.
You can further limit who can send messages to the group by allowing only specific senders to send messages to this group. Click Add and then select one or more recipients. If you add senders to this list, they are the only ones who can send mail to the group. Mail sent by anyone not in the list will be rejected.
To remove a person or a group from the list, select them in the list and then click Remove .
Important: If you’ve configured the group to allow only senders inside your organization to send messages to the group, email sent from a mail contact will be rejected, even if they’re added to this list.
Message approval
Use this section to set options for moderating the group. Moderators approve or reject messages sent to the group before they reach the group members.
- Messages sent to this group have to be approved by a
moderator This check box isn't selected by
default. If you select this check box, incoming messages will be
reviewed by the group moderators before delivery. Group moderators
can approve or reject incoming messages.
- Group moderators To add group
moderators, click Add . To remove a moderator, select the moderator, and then
click Remove .
If you’ve selected "Messages sent to this group have to be approved
by a moderator" and you don't select a moderator, messages to the
group will be sent to the group owners for approval.
- Senders who don't require message
approval To add people or groups that can
bypass moderation for this group, click Add . To remove a person or a group, select the item, and
then click Remove .
- Select moderation notifications Use
this section to set how users are notified about message
approval.
- Notify all senders when their messages aren't
approved This is the default setting. Senders
inside and outside your organization will be notified when their
messages aren’t approved.
- Notify senders in your organization when their messages
aren't approved When you select this option,
only people or groups in your organization are notified when a
message that they sent to the group isn't approved by a
moderator.
- Don't notify anyone when a message isn't
approved When you select this option,
notifications aren't sent to message senders whose messages aren't
approved by the group moderators.
- Notify all senders when their messages aren't
approved This is the default setting. Senders
inside and outside your organization will be notified when their
messages aren’t approved.
Email options
Use this section to view or change the email addresses associated with the group. This includes the group’s primary SMTP addresses and any associated proxy addresses. The primary SMTP address (also known as the reply address) is displayed in bold text in the address list, with the uppercase SMTP value in the Type column.
- Add Click Add
to add a new email address for this mailbox. Select one of
following address types:
- SMTP This is the default address type.
Click this button and then type the new SMTP address in the
* Email address box.
Note: To make the new address the primary SMTP address for the group, select the Make this the reply address check box. This check box is displayed only when the Automatically update email addresses based on the email address policy applied to this recipient check box isn’t selected. - Custom address type Click this button
and type one of the supported non-SMTP email address types in the
* Email address box.
Note: With the exception of X.400 addresses, Exchange doesn't validate custom addresses for correct formatting. You must make sure that the custom address you specify complies with the format requirements for that address type.
- SMTP This is the default address type.
Click this button and then type the new SMTP address in the
* Email address box.
- Edit To change an email address
associated with the group, select it in the list, and then click
Edit .
Note: To make an existing address the primary SMTP address for the group, select the Make this the reply address check box. As previously mentioned, this check box is displayed only when the Automatically update email addresses based on the email address policy applied to this recipient check box isn’t selected. - Remove To delete an email address
associated with the group, select it in the list, and then click
Remove .
- Automatically update email addresses based on the email
address policy applied to this
recipient Select this check box to have the
recipient's email addresses automatically updated based on changes
made to email address policies in your organization. By default,
this box is selected.
MailTip
Use this section to add a MailTip to alert users of potential issues before they send a message to this group. A MailTip is text that’s displayed in the InfoBar when this group is added to the To, Cc, or Bcc lines of a new email message. For example, you could add a MailTip to large groups to warn potential senders that their message will be sent to lots of people.
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MailTips can include HTML tags, but scripts aren't allowed. The length of a custom MailTip can't exceed 175 displayed characters. HTML tags aren't counted in the limit. |
Group delegation
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 Of 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 in 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, click Add under the appropriate permission to display the Select Recipient page, which displays a list of all recipients in your Exchange organization that can be assigned the permission. Select the recipients you want, add them to the list, and then click OK. You can also search for a specific recipient by typing the recipient’s name in the search box and then clicking Search .
Use the Shell to change security group properties
Use the Get-DistributionGroup and Set-DistributionGroup cmdlets to view and change properties for security groups. Advantages of using the Shell are the ability to change the properties that aren’t available in the EAC and to change properties for multiple security groups. For information about which parameters correspond to which distribution group properties, see the following topics:
Here are some examples of using the Shell to change security group properties.
This example displays a list of all security groups in the organization.
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Get-DistributionGroup -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'MailUniversalSecurityGroup')} |
This example changes the primary SMTP address (also called the reply address) for the Seattle Administrators security group from admins@contoso.com to seattle.admins@contoso.com. The previous reply address will be kept as a proxy address.
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Set-DistributionGroup "Seattle Employees" -EmailAddresses SMTP:sea.admins@contoso.com,smtp:admins@contoso.com |
This example hides all security groups in the organization from the address book.
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Get-DistributionGroup -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'MailUniversalSecurityGroup')} | Set-DistributionGroup -HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled $true |
How do you know this worked?
To verify that you’ve successfully changed properties for a security group, do the following:
- In the EAC, select the group and then click Edit
to view the property or feature that you changed.
Depending on the property that you changed, it might be displayed
in the Details pane for the selected group.
- In the Shell, use the Get-DistributionGroup cmdlet to
verify the changes. One advantage of using the Shell is that you
can view multiple properties for multiple groups. In the example
above where all security groups were hidden from the address book,
run the following command to verify the new value.
Copy Code Get-DistributionGroup -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'MailUniversalSecurityGroup')} | fl Name,HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled