Create Distribution Group in Exchange 2016 by X-Root

Exchange 2016 has three types of groups. They are, Distribution Group, Security Group and Dynamic Distribution Group. In this post, I will show steps to create Distribution Group in Exchange 2016. Distribution group creates an email address that can be used to blast emails to all members of the group.

Create Distribution Group in Exchange 2016

In this post, I will create a distribution group named Management for management users. So when somebody sends email to management@mustbegeek.com the email will be sent to all the members of management group. Log on to Exchange Admin Center (EAC). Click recipients in the features pane. Select groups tab.

Click “+” Add and click distribution group.

Type name and alias of the group name. Under Organization unit, click browse to select the particular OU. Here, I have selected Management OU. The distribution group will be created in the Management OU. If you don’t specify the OU, the distribution group will be created in Users OU by default. Under Owners, you can add users who can manage this group.

Under Members, you can specify if the group owners should be member of the group by clicking the option, Add group owners as members. There are various options for users to join or leave the group. There are three options for users to join the group, Open, Closed and Owner as shown above. I have selected Closed, which means members can be added only by group owners. Similarly, there are two options for users leaving the group, Open or Closed. Here, I have selected Open which allows any group member to leave the group without group owners approval. Click save.

As you can see above the distribution group has been created with management@mustbegeek.com email address. By default, only users inside the organization can send email to the distribution group. However, you can change this behavior and allow senders from inside and outside to send emails to this group. Open the properties of distribution group.