Distribution group management is quite challenging when it comes to Office 365. Managing a Distribution group needs to be done On Premises if you are synchronizing your Distribution groups to Office 365. A migrated user will not be able to manage the groups he own easily as before and rely on additional mechanisms as
outlined here. In order to mitigate this challenges some Admins delete and re-create these groups in cloud as
explained here with the exception of Security Enabled distribution groups that still have On premises access dependencies. Managing Cloud based Distribution Groups is
explained here. Not just the cloud based Distribution groups are suffice for today's needs in this Agile and Collaborative world, its time to adopt the Modern Groups aka Office 365 Groups.
Unlike traditional Distribution Groups, Office 365 Groups provide much more as explained in detail in my earlier blog post curated with references and latest updates "
Office 365 Groups Overview, Administration and Roadmap in a NutShell"
I wrote this article today to give a quick refresh on the topic and refer you to the latest support article published that helps you to migrate Distribution lists in Cloud to Office 365 Groups.
You can migrate your Distribution groups to Office 365 groups provided they are Cloud-managed, simple, non-nested distribution lists.
Microsoft team has provided a list of PowerShell scripts that make your migration smooth, You can identify the eligible groups for migration using the
Get-DlEligibilityList.ps1 script and refer the table that lists which distribution lists are eligible or not eligible for migration.
Identify the eligibility criteria for the migration and make sure you edit your existing Distribution groups accordingly if you need them to be migrated to an Office 365 Group.
Access the Admin Help Support Article here:
Migrate distribution lists to Office 365 Groups - Admin help
Download the Scripts here:
Migrate Distribution Lists to Office 365 Groups
Clear steps to migrate distribution lists to an Office 365 group is available in the support article. Make sure you read the
FAQs
and
Additional Information section.
If you are using the latest
AAD Connect to synchronize your identities and your on-premises Exchange servers are
Exchange 2013 cumulative update 8 (released in March 2015) or Exchange 2016 you get the benefits of using
Group Writeback feature, that allow you to writeback Office 365 Groups as Distribution lists On premises.
Read here for more updates:
Group writeback
Update:
Now you have the option to convert a distribution list to Office 365 group directly in the Office 365 Exchange Admin Center.
Read the
Migrate a distribution group to an Office 365 group section on this TechNet article to know more:
Create and manage distribution groups
Update:
New EHLO Blog post :
Migrate traditional Distribution Groups to Office 365 Groups
Add-on Read:
Read the below essential blog post from Veteran
MVP Tony Redmond to know how to identify a Obsolete Office 365 Group using PowerShell
Read here:
Identifying Obsolete Office 365 Groups with PowerShell
Stay tuned for more updates...
