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Mail-Enable or Mail-Disable a Security Group

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

Security groups are used to grant access permissions to resources in Active Directory. If you mail-enable the security group, you can send e-mail to all members of that group. For example, if you create a security group that gives members access to the computers in a specific server lab, you may want to send mail to that group to notify them of a power outage in the lab.

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

Use the EMC to mail-enable a security 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 the Select Group dialog box, select the security group that you want to mail-enable, and then click OK.

    Note

    If the security group that you want to mail-enable doesn't appear in the list, you may need to change the recipient scope. For more information, see Change the Recipient Scope.

  5. Click Next.

  6. On the Group Information page, complete the following fields:

    • Name   This read-only field shows the security group's display name. If you want to modify this name, use the General tab in <Security group> Properties.

    • Name (pre-Windows 2000)   This read only field shows the name for the group that's compatible with legacy versions of Windows (prior to the release of Windows 2000 Server).

    • Alias   Use this box to type an alias for the security group. The alias can't exceed 64 characters and must be unique in the forest.

  7. Click Next.

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

  9. 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 security 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 security 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 security 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 Server Lab 222 security group.

Enable-DistributionGroup -Identity "Server Lab 222"

Note

You may need to change the recipient scope to access security groups. For more information, see Change the Recipient Scope.

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.

Other Tasks

After you mail-enable the security group, you may also want to:

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