Exchange 10 to Exchange 16 Migration: What about distribution groups?

Question

Hi there i got another question regarding the migration of Exchange 10 to Exchange 16...

Both Ex'es are in "tandem" mode and everything; inkl. the public folder access via Proxy Mailbox on the Ex 10; seems to work fine.

Now what about .... distribution groups?

I do have quite a few of them, all email activated and used by the customer.

What is the propper migration scenario to get the groups accross to the new Ex 16 (the Ex 10 will go down soon)

Thx BR0KK

Answer 1

Hi @BR0KK ,
According to my research and test, distribution group is saved on Active Directory, so you don't need do any action if the distribution groups are in the same domain. In an environment where Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2016 coexist, if you create a Distribution group in Exchange 2010, you can also see and manage it in Exchange 2016.
But please note that if your distribution group was created in a version prior to Exchange 2010, such as Exchange 2007, you couldn’t manage it in Exchange 2016. Because of the version of distribution group is lower. You could run the following first command to check the version of your distribution group. And if the version of distribution group is lower you could run the second command to upgrade it.

Get-DistributionGroup -Identity <> | fl *name*,*version*  
Set-DistributionGroup -Identity Migration1 -ForceUpgrade  

For more information you could refer to: Distribution Group Management Across Exchange Server Versions
There is a similar case that will help you: Migrate Dynamic Distribution Group from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013.

The following screenshot is the test I conducted in the lab, I create a new distribution group in Exchange 2010, and I could view and manage it in EAC of Exchange 2016.

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