Imanami Community

Is there a way to convert a Exchange Query Based Distribution List (QBDL) to a Smart DL (other then deleting the QBDL and creating a new SmartDL)?  Our issue is that if we delete a QBDL and re create it as a SmartDL with the same name and email addresses, users who have the (old) QBDL in their Outlook cache (.nk2 file) receive a NDR when they try to send to the new SmartDL group (even though all the email proxy addresses are the same as the original QBDL).

Hi Brian,

There is a long and short answer.  First the short answer: No, it is not possible to convert a QBDL to group (SmartDL or otherwise) without deleting the group and re-creating it.

Long answer: There is a special objectClass in AD called msExchDynamicDistributionList.  A group has an objectClass of group.  To migrate a QBDL to a SmartDL you would have to change the object class of the QBDL to group.  There is no way to change the objectclass of an object in AD.  You have to delete the QBDL and create a group.  Even if SmartDL supported upgrading a QBDL to SDL, it would basically have to do the same thing: delete the QBDL and create a group with all the same attributes, which would still break the Address Book.

Sorry :(

--Robert

What if we used ADSI Edit to modify the objectcategory and objectclass attributes on the QBDL, change them from "ms-Exch-Dynamic-Distribution-List" to "group" and then upgrade the object to SmartDL, might that work ?

Interesting idea... I tried it on a virtual machine.  I was half expecting my domain controller to burst into flames but instead I received "The specified method is not supported". :(

I got the same message.  Looks like it is possible to change the objectcatagory attribute but not the objectclass.  Looks like we'll have to do it the hard way.  Thanks.