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We recently migrated from an on premises Exchange deployment to Exchange in the cloud (Office 365). With our on premises Exchange, we could create a distribution group in Active Directory and then have Exchange to use it as a distribution list (one of the options for creating a distribution list was to use an existing group in AD). This allowed us to add users to groups using Active Directory and automatically have them added to the distribution list in Exchange.

Is there a way to continue to do this with Exchange online? I'd like to be able to create the user in Active Directory and then add them to an Active Directory group and have them automatically added to distribution lists that exist in Exchange online (effectively, I'd like to manage our exchange online distribution lists in active directory as we had been doing.

Is this possible, if so, how do I go about doing this?

Our Environment:

  • 2 domain controllers running Sever 2016 (but at 2008 domain functional level)

  • They sync to our Azure AD service and Exchange online.

  • Currently, changes in our distribution groups/lists on either end (AD or Exchange) don't make any changes to the other end.

user5870571
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yougotiger
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1 Answers1

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The answer to your question is yes you can. You need to configure directory synchronization between your on premise Active Directory server and Exchange Online. This will create a hybrid environment. You can manage distribution lists on your Active Directory server and the changes will be synchronized with Exchange Online. The limitation of this is that DirSync does not support writing distribution list change in Exchange Online back to the Active Directory server. That means your changes need to be made on your Active Directory server.

If your goal is to get all users migrated onto Exchange Online, then what you do is configure directory synchronization and if you want you can configure Single Sign On. Then migrate all mailboxes to Exchange Online and then migrate the distribution lists to Exchange Online too.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2417592/owners-of-an-on-premises-distribution-group-that-s-synced-to-office-365-can-t-manage-the-distribution-group-in-exchange-online

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124513(v=exchg.150).aspx

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-365-integration-with-on-premises-environments-263faf8d-aa21-428b-aed3-2021837a4b65?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

http://windowsitpro.com/exchange-server/managing-distribution-lists-hybrid-exchange-onlineoffice-365-environments

user5870571
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