Distribution groups are handy when you need to send email notifications to a specific group of people. If enabled by the administrator, they can also receive emails from external sources. Distribution groups are ideal when you need to disseminate information to a fixed group of people, such as “Building A Employees” or the “Contoso Team”.
Distribution groups can be upgraded to Microsoft 365 Groups, however, Microsoft 365 Groups cannot be added as members of distribution groups. Distribution groups can be integrated into Teams, but only the individual members will be added, not the group itself. For more details about Distribution Groups, please refer to the MSDN article Distribution Groups.
You can create a distribution group using the Exchange Admin Center, PowerShell, or CoreView.
1. Using the Exchange Admin Center
- Go to the Exchange Admin Center
- Under “Recipients”, select “Groups”, and then “Distribution”.
- Fill in all the necessary information.
- If desired, enable the external email under “Settings > Communication”.
- Click “Create group” to finish.
- For more details, please refer to the MSDN article titled Use EAC to create Distribution List Groups.
2. Using PowerShell
To create distribution groups in PowerShell, use the New-DistributionGroup cmdlet.
Syntax:
New-DistributionGroup
# Below example creates a distribution group named ITDepartment and specifies the members.
New-DistributionGroup -Name "ITDepartment" -Members chris@contoso.com,michelle@contoso.com,laura@contoso.com,julia@contoso.comFor more detailed information, please refer to the Microsoft documentation on New-DistributionGroup.
3. Using CoreView
- Go to the CoreView portal
- Under “Actions”, click on “Management actions” and select “Distribution group”. Then choose “Create distribution group”.
- This will lead you to the “Create distribution group” wizard.
- Fill in all the necessary information. Please note that the “Alias” field should not contain any spaces.
With CoreView, you can also limit who can send messages to the group. Only specified senders will have the ability to send to the group, and emails sent by anyone else will be rejected.
- Submit the form to complete the creation process.
