Did you know that you can create dynamic distribution lists in Zimbra? The benefit of dynamic distribution lists is that they are based on LDAP queries. So whenever users are added/removed/changed on your Zimbra server, the distribution list is automatically kept up-to-date based on the contents of LDAP and your query.
The creation of dynamic distribution lists can be done via the Zimbra Administrative web UI and the command line.
How to create a dynamic distribution list that contains all the active accounts of a specific domain?
Via the command line this can be done as follows, replace example.com with your actual domain, don’t forget to use the zimbra OS user:
zmprov cddl all@example.com memberURL ‘ldap:///??sub?(&(&(objectClass=zimbraAccount)(mail=*@example.com)(ZimbraAccountStatus=active))(!(objectClass=zimbraCalendarResource)))’ zimbraIsACLGroup FALSE
Then you will be able to use the all@example.com email address to send messages to all users with an example.com email address.
The same can be done from the Admin Console Web UI,
- Go to Manage > Distribution Lists.
- Click ‘New’ from the gear icon
- Add a dynamic distribution list name. Don’t add members to the list.
- Click “Next” to configure the dynamic DL
- For the ‘Member URL’ field, select ‘ldap:///??sub?(&(&(objectClass=zimbraAccount)(mail=*@example.com)(ZimbraAccountStatus=active))(!(objectClass=zimbraCalendarResource)))’ to create a DL for all active accounts.
The Member URL can be found on this screen:
Dynamic distribution lists can be based on many different LDAP attributes, for example if you look up an account in the Admin Console, you will see many fields such as Office, Department, Country etc, etc. These can all be used for the creation of dynamic distribution lists. You can click on the field label to find the LDAP attribute name. For example Office is stored in LDAP as physicalDeliveryOfficeName.
Further reading
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