How to export members of an Exchange distribution group to a text file

Exchange Server and Active Directory�do not contain�a simple feature that lets you export the names of�users who are members of a particular distribution group. This article�explains how to programmatically extract this information using a script. You can run this script directly from the server or any domain workstation.

The steps in extracting the information is as follows. Using a batch file, extract a Distribution List in LDF format using LDIFDE. This will include the distribution list members, but the output will not be formatted the way we want it � each line would start with the word �member:� and will contain the full LDAP Path. We are interested in only the display names of the users. So we write another VBS script that opens the LDF file and cleanses the data by removing the �member:� prefix and the unwanted portion of the LDAP Path. In the end we just have a normal list of display names of the users. This article requires that you have the LDIFDE.exe tool in your system path.

1.� Write the batch file that runs LDIFDE against your Active Directory. Save the file as ExportDL.BAT using a text editor like Notepad. If you�re using Notepad, make sure that the file extension is�.bat and not�.bat.txt when you save the file.
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Here the two lines starting with LDIFDE and CSCRIPT are repeated for each distribution group in the active directory.�The example shows how to write the script for distribution groups named GroupName1, GroupName2 and GroupNameN, where they represent the display name of the individual distribution groups in Active Directory. In this example, all the distribution groups are placed in the OU named myOU. If your distribution groups are scattered in separate OUs, take care to give the complete LDAP path in the �d switch. Also, in this example,�it is�assumed that the Active Directory�domain name as mydomain.com (represented by dc=mydomain,dc=com in this code snippet) and the domain controller as mydc1. You will need to change these parameters in your script to reflect actual values.
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The function of each iteration in the batch file is to extract (using LDIFDE) each distribution group into an LDIF file named groups.ldf. The groups.ldf file is a temporary file. The next statement (cscript modify.vbs) invokes the modify.vbs script (described below). The modify.vbs script works on the groups.ldf file to produce meaningful output.
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2.� Write the MODIFY.VBS file. Again, you can use Notepad. You may not need to make any changes to the below code. This file opens the groups.ldf file created by LDIFDE in the batch file you created in step 1. It then extracts only the display names of each member of the group and places it into a new text file. The text file containing the group members is created automatically and is given the name of the distribution group from which the users were extracted. If the file already exists, it is overwritten automatically every time you run the script.
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3. Run the ExportDL.bat file. Once execution completes, see the folder where you put the above two files. You should see that you have new text files with the names all your distribution groups.

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