How To: Enumerate usage of distribution groups

Applies To:

GroupID 10 - Automate
(with Microsoft Exchange messaging providers)

Use Case:

You want a report on the usage of distribution groups so that you can identify and expire the groups that are not in use or not needed anymore.

Summary:

The Group Usage Service is a scheduled job that works under the Automate license. This job harvests Exchange message tracking logs and enumerates to update the first use, last use, and frequency of usage info for each distribution group in the GroupID database.

More Information:

A Group Usage Service job can process all servers in your Exchange organization and harvest distribution list expansion events from the message tracking logs. You can use multiple instances of this job to process different servers in the same Exchange organization but avoid configuring more than one instance to process the same Exchange Server, else you will end up with redundant data. Message tracking must be enabled on all Exchange Servers for the Group Usage Service job to work.

We will look into the detailed working of Group Usage Service and its results in the following sections.

Group Usage Service job:

A scheduled job of Group Usage Service collects expansion events from message tracking logs and time-stamps the groups that were expanded after the last time the Group Usage Service job ran. An expansion event occurs when an Exchange Server expands a distribution list for sending messages. The event is recorded in the Exchange Server's message tracking log. The Group Usage Service job reads this log, parsing it for the timestamp that indicates when the distribution list was last used.

Define a scheduled Group Usage Service job:

1. In GroupID Management Console, click the Scheduling node. Click New in the Actions pane and select Group Usage Service Job from the menu.
   The Create Job dialog box is displayed with the General tab in view.

2. In the Job Name box, type a name for the job.

3. The Name Preview box displays the job name prefixed with GUS_. The job will appear in the scheduled jobs list and email notifications with this name.

4. Click the Triggers button to launch the dialog box where you can define the start date, time, frequency, and other preferences for the job run schedule.

5. Click the Add Container button to add a container for the job to process.

6. The Select Container dialog box is displayed. It shows the domain name of the connected identity store. If the connected domain belongs to a forest, then the Domains list shows the name of the parent domain. Expanding the parent node shows the complete domain hierarchy in the forest.

   • To configure the job for a single domain, click the check box available with the domain name.
   • To configure the job for a parent domain and all its sub-domains, select the check box for the parent domain.
        

   Note:

   When a container is selected, the Group Usage Service job processes all groups in the selected container and its sub-containers.

7. Select the Include all containers check box if you want the job to process all the containers in the selected domain.

8. All the messaging servers available in the connected identity store get listed in the Messaging Server(s) area. Select the check box for the messaging server you want this Group Usage Service job to process.

9. Select the Include all messaging servers check box if you want this job to process all the messaging servers available in the connected identity store.
   
   

10. On the Authentication tab, provide the credentials of the service account to run the scheduled job.

    

11. Click the Provide Credentials button; the GroupID Authenticate window is displayed.

12. Click your required identity store from the list.

13. Provide the user name and password for the service account in the User Name and Password boxes to connect to the identity store and mark the expansion count of groups in it.

14. Click Log in. The identity store name and the service account user name get populated in the Identity Store and User boxes on the Authentication tab.

15. Click OK.

16. Run the job.

In the GroupID Reports module, you can review information on the usage of distribution groups in a nicely formatted report named Mail-enabled groups and the time they were last used.

Related Articles:

• How To: Generate a report on mail-enabled groups and the time they were last used
• How To: Schedule and get a Report in your Inbox

Reference:

GroupID Online Help - Scheduled Group Usage Service Job