Setting Distribution Groups Default OU in Exchange 2010/2013/2016

When creating a Distribution Group in the Exchange Shell or Console, we are given the option to choose which Organizational Unit (OU) in Active Directory (AD) we want the group’s object to be created in:

However, we do not necessarily need to choose an OU. We can tell Exchange where it should create all OUs by default using the Set-OrganizationConfig cmdlet. By default, no OU is selected which means Exchange will create all distribution groups in the Users OU:

Let us say we want all distribution groups to be created in the Exchange -> Distribution Groups OU:

 

Using the above cmdlet it is easy to globally set the default OU for any newly created distribution group from now on:

When creating a new distribution group now, we still get the exact same wizard with the Organizational unit field not populated. However, if we don’t choose any OU, the distribution group will now be created in the OU we set up above.