Id like to get some feedback and opinions on how to manage a situation that we dont have an answer to. We have been using a Unix based email platform called Sun iPlanet Messaging Server. Our ERP system also runs on Sun. A process on the ERP system runs nightly and generates email lists that comprise of simple text files. The text file is just an email address line by line. For the most part a majority of the email addresses are external to our domain. The Sun server had no problem emailing to any email address. Nightly a cron job would delete the email list on the Sun Messaging server and load the newly created list from the ERP system. We have migrated all email systems to Exchange 2007. As you all know Distribution Lists are a whole different animal with each external address requiring a contact in AD. Our users do not have access to AD (nor would I trust to delegate an OU to them). The whole automated process we had is now broke and requires a manual effort to create/delete contacts and add/remove to DLs. Im looking for opinions or even real life experience from others on how to maintain / manage something like this. The lists in question are very dynamic with people being added and deleted daily. This is not something I want to take care of manually and would prefer automation. But since Exchange needs a Contact for every external address Im not sure how to do this. The automation would need to compare the content of text files, create contacts for new users, delete contacts for deleted users, and add and delete users from a distribution list. For now we took a step back and turned the automation back on on a Sun server. The DLs that are automatically updated were moved back to the Sun server and a contact was created on the Exchange server for the DL. Emails sent to an automated DL get sent off to the Sun server and then sent on their way. This is not a permanent fix but a temporary band-aid. Ill be eager to hear back! Todd

So, as you've already discovered, Exchange isn't really the appliance-style email system you're used to. This is good in some ways, bad in others. You are likely going to have to acquire some 3rd party product, possibly leveraging Exchange SDK. If you're up for it yourself, the link Ive provided (SDK) documents how to make this type of entry in AD from an external source. You could also use MIIS/ILM. Since your issue is actually with AD, not Exchange, I'd look into ways of manually creating objects from an external source. Setting the right attributes, makes them contacts, users, whatever in Exchange. I'm not an ILM expert, but I've worked with guys who have gotten it to do this type of thing. Perhaps post something here instead: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=540&SiteID=17 Sorry, I don't have any more specific answers. Good luck, and let me know if I can help.

Thanks for the info. I am actually making some progress using Exchange Management Shell. I'm scripting using the compare-object command between two csv files. I'm just struggling trying to retain the header information in the csv. I'm almost there