Setting Distribution Groups Default OU in Exchange 2010/2013/2016

When we creating a Mail Distribution Group in the Exchange Shell or Exchange Admin Center, we are given the option to choose which Organizational Unit (OU) in Active Directory (AD) we want the Distribution Group to be created.

Exchange 2013

Exchange 2010

If we do not choose the OU for Distribution Group then Distribution Group will be created in the default OU CN=Users,DC=mydomain,DC=com

Default container for users accounts

To change default Organization Unit for newly created Distribution Groups run this command in Exchange Management Shell:

Set-OrganizationConfig –DistributionGroupDefaultOU "OU=Exchange,OU=Distribution Groups,DC=mydomain,DC=com"

or

Set-OrganizationConfig –DistributionGroupDefaultOU "mydomain.com/Exchange/Distribution Groups"
 

 

To see default Organization Unit for Distribution Groups run this command:

Get-OrganizationConfig | fl DistributionGroupDefaultOU

Note

I think this may not be appealing for bigger companies, as they tend to have a complex OU structure and there will be more than one OU that holds the distribution groups.

For a smaller organization, this setting might come in handy as all groups will be stored in the correct OU.