---
title: Office 365 Group Management
slug: office-365-group-management
docTags: 
createdAt: 2025-08-15T03:19:50.132Z
---

Office 365 is rapidly evolving and currently, some features in Azure can only be managed through Microsoft’s Graph API while others can only be managed through Remote PowerShell. 

Below is the list of Group types available within Azure at the time of writing:
[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/groups-overview?view=graph-rest-1.0](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/groups-overview?view=graph-rest-1.0)

| **Type**                                                                                                                                                                  | **Use case**                                                                                                                              | **groupType** | **mail-enabled** | **security-enabled** | **Can be created and managed via API?** |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | ---------------- | -------------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| [Office 365 groups](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/groups-overview?view=graph-rest-1.0#office-365-groups)                                           | Facilitating user collaboration with shared Microsoft online resources.                                                                   | \["Unified"]  | true             | false                | Yes                                     |
| [Security groups](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/groups-overview?view=graph-rest-1.0#security-groups-and-mail-enabled-security-groups)              | Controlling user access to in-app resources.                                                                                              | \[]           | false            | true                 | Yes                                     |
| [Mail-enabled security groups](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/groups-overview?view=graph-rest-1.0#security-groups-and-mail-enabled-security-groups) | Controlling user access to in-app resources, with a shared group mailbox.                                                                 | \[]           | true             | true                 | **No**                                  |
| Distribution groups                                                                                                                                                       | Distributing mail to the members of the group. It is recommended to use Office 365 groups due to the richer set of resources it provides. | \[]           | true             | false                | **No**                                  |

 

- Microsoft only allows remote systems to manage Microsoft 365 and Security Groups through Microsoft Graph. Azure (Cloud Only) Distribution Groups have limited functions for 3rd party products to manage through Remote PowerShell. 
- Activate recommends that you manage your current Distribution Groups on the local Active Directory and allow these changes to synchronise through AAD Sync as this has proven to be the quickest and easiest way to manage Distribution Groups
- If you have a need to use Azure Distribution Groups (these are Distribution Groups created in Azure only and not synchronised through AAD Sync) for email notifications, Microsoft recommends that you upgrade your Azure Distribution Groups to use Microsoft 365 groups or you can use Activate V8 to manage Azure Distribution Groups through Remote Power Shell
  [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/why-you-should-upgrade-your-distribution-lists-to-groups-in-outlook-7fb3d880-593b-4909-aafa-950dd50ce188?ui=en-US\&rs=en-US\&ad=US](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/why-you-should-upgrade-your-distribution-lists-to-groups-in-outlook-7fb3d880-593b-4909-aafa-950dd50ce188?ui=en-US\&rs=en-US\&ad=US)
- Once you have upgraded your Azure Distribution Groups to Microsoft 365 Groups, Activate will be able to manage these groups via the Graph API
- Microsoft does not recommend that you remove the last on-premises Exchange Server if you are using Microsoft Entra Connect 
- Activate can manage access to Azure Security Groups via our Services and Roles modules either by managing the on-premises group and allowing AAD sync to make these changes, or by changing the membership of the Azure Security Group directly
- Activate can manage Microsoft Teams groups through the Activate Microsoft 365 Teams Manager module