OoO - DistributionGroup Setup

Question

Background: I’ve been exploring how to set up a distribution group in Exchange to receive Out-of-Office (OoO) messages from its members.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/set-out-of-office-message-for-distribution-list/ff3a82d7-72cf-42d9-9ca9-296df75803ab

Unfortunately, my initial attempts haven’t been successful. Here are the steps I’ve taken so far:

1. Identifying OoO Members: I used the following PowerShell command to retrieve all OoO members:

      Get-Mailbox
   

   This command lists all mailboxes with scheduled OoO messages for understanding.
2. Activating OoO for the Distribution Group: To enable OoO for the distribution group “Distribution-Test-Group” I used the following command:

      Set-DistributionGroup
   

   This should allow the group to respond to senders with OoO messages.
3. Member Overview: Finally, I checked the members of the distribution group “Distribution-Test-Group” and their OoO status using this command:

      Get-DistributionGroupMember
   

   This provides an overview of each member’s OoO status.

My previous analysis steps:

# Recursive DistributionGroup search
Get-ADGroup -Filter "groupcategory -eq 'Distribution'" -Properties Members |
Where-Object {$_.Members.Count -gt 0} |
Select-Object Name, @{Name='Mitgliederanzahl'; Expression={$_.Members.Count}} |
Sort-Object Name

# None-Recursive DistributionGroup Search
ForEach ($x in Get-DistributionGroup * | Sort-Object Name) {
  "Gruppe: $($x.Name)`n`nMitglieder"
  $y = Get-DistributionGroupMember $x
  $y | Sort-Object Name | Format-Table
  "Mitgliederanzahl: $($y.Count)`n=====`n"
}

# OoO Activating @DistributionGroup (Notice and code by DMA - Thank you very much)
Set-DistributionGroup -Identity "Dist-Test-Group" -SendOofMessageToOriginatorEnabled $true

# OoO Member Overview
Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "Dist-Test-Group" |
Select-Object Name, PrimarySmtpAddress, WhenCreated, @{Name="OutOfOffice"; Expression={(Get-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration $_.PrimarySmtpAddress).AutoReplyState}}

# Track DistributionGroup Messages
Get-MessageTrackingLog | ? {$_.RelatedRecipientAddress -like "Dist-Test-Group"} | Measure-Object | Format-List Count

# Track DistributionGroup Messages (Advanced Search)
Get-MessageTrackingLog -ResultSize Unlimited | ? {$_.RelatedRecipientAddress -like "Dist-Test-Group"} | Measure-Object | Format-List Count

Despite these steps, I haven’t achieved the desired outcome.
Any further guidance or insights would be greatly appreciated!
@Vasil Michev Are you there?

Best regards,
Jan

Answer 1

Hi @Jan Gebser ,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

Based on your description, I want to confirm that you want to set an out of office message for the distribution group. Also, I would like to remind you that the command you provided only has the header, could you kindly share the rest part again.

It looks like you're on the right track. You could refer to Set-DistributionGroup (ExchangePowerShell) | Microsoft Learn for more information about the command. However, if the goal is for the senders to receive an OoO response when emailing the distribution group. You could use the mail flow rule to work around the issue. For more information, you could refer to Manage mail flow rules in Exchange Online | Microsoft Learn.

Hope it helps and if there is anything else I could help with, please feel free to contact me.