Workaround for lack of support for nested distribution groups in Outlook?

Hello,

We're migrating to Exchange/Outlook 2003 from a mail system which
allows nested distribution groups in the users' Contacts folder. The
migration tool can't migrate any nested groups because Outlook doesn't
support them.

Can anyone suggest a workaround please?

AD does allow nested distribution groups but company policy doesn't
allow external contacts in the AD. Plus the groups are in a few
hundred departmental mailboxes - not personal ones - so we don't want
to shift management of the lists (creation, updating, assignment of
permissions) from the users to the administrators.

It's a showstopper for us.

Thanks,

- Alan.

Outlook definitely does support nested distribution lists. Migration is another matter, of course. I doubt that most migration tools would handle nested DLs well.

Nested DLs themselves are a potential maintenance and support nightmare. I'd avoid them myself and use categories to manage any list with more than 10 members or a membership that changes more than once a year.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

"Alan" wrote in message ups.com...
Hello,

We're migrating to Exchange/Outlook 2003 from a mail system which
allows nested distribution groups in the users' Contacts folder. The
migration tool can't migrate any nested groups because Outlook doesn't
support them.

Can anyone suggest a workaround please?

AD does allow nested distribution groups but company policy doesn't
allow external contacts in the AD. Plus the groups are in a few
hundred departmental mailboxes - not personal ones - so we don't want
to shift management of the lists (creation, updating, assignment of
permissions) from the users to the administrators.

It's a showstopper for us.

Thanks,

- Alan.

Thanks Sue but I'm confused. I must have explained it badly. Migration
aside, we've been told that Outlook itself doesn't allow you to create
DLs containing other DLs in the user's Contacts folder; instead, they
have to be created as public lists in AD by an administrator using
ADUC.

Unfortunately, we can't avoid them because they already exist and the
migration has to be as transparent as possible. We're into the
thousands of mailboxes and hundreds of lists.

On Jun 9, 8:55 pm, "Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]"
wrote:
Outlook definitely does support nested distribution lists. Migration is another matter, of course. I doubt that most migration tools would handle nested DLs well.

Nested DLs themselves are a potential maintenance and support nightmare. I'd avoid them myself and use categories to manage any list with more than 10 members or a membership that changes more than once a year.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

"Alan" wrote in oglegroups.com...
Hello,

We're migrating to Exchange/Outlook 2003 from a mail system which
allows nested distribution groups in the users' Contacts folder. The
migration tool can't migrate any nested groups because Outlook doesn't
support them.

Can anyone suggest a workaround please?

AD does allow nested distribution groups but company policy doesn't
allow external contacts in the AD. Plus the groups are in a few
hundred departmental mailboxes - not personal ones - so we don't want
to shift management of the lists (creation, updating, assignment of
permissions) from the users to the administrators.

It's a showstopper for us.

Thanks,

- Alan.

Untrue - nested Distribution Lists can be stored in the Contact's folder for the user. Where did you hear otherwise? However, like Sue, I find categories far more flexible.

--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Alan asked:

| Thanks Sue but I'm confused. I must have explained it badly. Migration
| aside, we've been told that Outlook itself doesn't allow you to create
| DLs containing other DLs in the user's Contacts folder; instead, they
| have to be created as public lists in AD by an administrator using
| ADUC.
|
| Unfortunately, we can't avoid them because they already exist and the
| migration has to be as transparent as possible. We're into the
| thousands of mailboxes and hundreds of lists.
|
| On Jun 9, 8:55 pm, "Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]"
| wrote:
|| Outlook definitely does support nested distribution lists. Migration
|| is another matter, of course. I doubt that most migration tools
|| would handle nested DLs well.
||
|| Nested DLs themselves are a potential maintenance and support
|| nightmare. I'd avoid them myself and use categories to manage any
|| list with more than 10 members or a membership that changes more
|| than once a year.
||
|| --
|| Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
|| Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
|| http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
|| and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
|| Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
|| http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54
||
|| "Alan" wrote in
|| oglegroups.com...
||| Hello,
||
||| We're migrating to Exchange/Outlook 2003 from a mail system which
||| allows nested distribution groups in the users' Contacts folder. The
||| migration tool can't migrate any nested groups because Outlook
||| doesn't support them.
||
||| Can anyone suggest a workaround please?
||
||| AD does allow nested distribution groups but company policy doesn't
||| allow external contacts in the AD. Plus the groups are in a few
||| hundred departmental mailboxes - not personal ones - so we don't
||| want to shift management of the lists (creation, updating,
||| assignment of permissions) from the users to the administrators.
||
||| It's a showstopper for us.
||
||| Thanks,
||
||| - Alan.

Was told so straight from the horse's mouth! But they were server-
orientated guys in fairness. Guess you always need to validate things
yourself.

I'm guessing it's not something that has just been added to Outlook
2007? We'll be using from Outlook XP on.

Once the data has been actually migrated, we'll encourage the users to
try categories. One thing at a time. We're already asking them a lot
to changeover and keep the organisation running smoothly.

Thanks to your both.

On Jun 10, 12:53 am, "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
wrote:
Untrue - nested Distribution Lists can be stored in the Contact's folder for the user. Where did you hear otherwise? However, like Sue, I find categories far more flexible.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Alan asked:

| Thanks Sue but I'm confused. I must have explained it badly. Migration
| aside, we've been told that Outlook itself doesn't allow you to create
| DLs containing other DLs in the user's Contacts folder; instead, they
| have to be created as public lists in AD by an administrator using
| ADUC.
|
| Unfortunately, we can't avoid them because they already exist and the
| migration has to be as transparent as possible. We're into the
| thousands of mailboxes and hundreds of lists.
|
| On Jun 9, 8:55 pm, "Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]" | wrote:

|| Outlook definitely does support nested distribution lists. Migration
|| is another matter, of course. I doubt that most migration tools
|| would handle nested DLs well.
||
|| Nested DLs themselves are a potential maintenance and support
|| nightmare. I'd avoid them myself and use categories to manage any
|| list with more than 10 members or a membership that changes more
|| than once a year.
||
|| --
|| Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
|| Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
|| http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
|| and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
|| Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
|| http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54
||
|| "Alan" wrote in
|| oglegroups.com...
||| Hello,
||
||| We're migrating to Exchange/Outlook 2003 from a mail system which
||| allows nested distribution groups in the users' Contacts folder. The
||| migration tool can't migrate any nested groups because Outlook
||| doesn't support them.
||
||| Can anyone suggest a workaround please?
||
||| AD does allow nested distribution groups but company policy doesn't
||| allow external contacts in the AD. Plus the groups are in a few
||| hundred departmental mailboxes - not personal ones - so we don't
||| want to shift management of the lists (creation, updating,
||| assignment of permissions) from the users to the administrators.
||
||| It's a showstopper for us.
||
||| Thanks,
||
||| - Alan.

We've used nested DLs stored in Exchange 203 maiboxes and Public Folders for a long time, managing them with Outlook 2003.

Recently we discovered that messages sent to a DL containing other DLs and individual addresses go out only to the individual addresses. After sending, the sent item shows the name of the first nested DL as if it were an individual address. An NDR is generated for this address saying "the recipient's destination email system is unknown or invalid". The rest of the nested DLs are simply not listed in the sent item.

Also, when editing the main DL we sometimes get errors sayng the nested ones are missing or invalid.

We created a new DL that works fine until changes are made to any of nested DLs. This causes the main DL to break as above.

All of this used to work as of not long ago.

We'll look into categories but, in the meantime, any thoughts on what may be disrupting our DLs would be appreciated.

M.

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