Distribution Group question!

[TheMisio]

Dear Techies,

I can't remember if I've asked this already (if so, I apologise).

Does any one know the maximum number of recipients in a distribution list? I think AD limits number of users in a group to 5000. However, I can't figure out how big copanies of over 5000 users get around this? I can't believe that 50000 seat company create 100 DLs?

We use Windows 2003 domain and Exchange 2003.

Any help much appreciated.

Regards,

 

[cckens]

Just an off shot, create 2 disto lists with 5000 then add those distros to a new one... this may or maynot work as I can't be sure... never had more than 5000 members.

cckens

"Not always my best shot, but I hit the target now and then"
-me

 

[58sniper]

When you send mail to a DL, it (the DL) gets expanded to determine who's gets the message. As the DL gets bigger, that expansion takes more system resources. So much so that you can generally set which GC to use for expansion. So that's problem #1.

The next issue is that there are rarely 5000+ people who aren't members of other groups as well. Take for example a multi location business. You would likely have a DL for employees in location A, and a DL for employees in location B. It doesn't make sense to create a DL called ALL STAFF and put the individuals in. You'd put the location A and B DLs in it. That way, when you add a user to the site specific DL, they are automatically covered for ALL STAFF. That's called nested groups.

I hope this helps.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[zbnet]

Also bear in mind that the maximum number of recipients setting applies after a DL is expanded, not before in 2003. So, the setting for the maximum number of recipients a single email can be sent to needs to be bigger than the expanded numnber of recipients in your biggest DL. This is a bit poor, but at least in Exchange 2007 it counts member DLs as a single recipient for these purposes.