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Group Membership functions

Groups let you apply a common set of policies to multiple users. Groups also guarantee consistency of permissions and privileges across the membership.

You can add members to groups manually, using a scheduled job, or import them from an external data source.

Group Membership Settings​

To avoid large, unusual changes to Smart Group and Dynasty memberships, the administrator can configure the ‘Out of Bounds’ setting for an identity store.

The administrator can:

  • Specify the maximum number of members for a Smart Group and Dynasty.
  • Determine actions to take if the limit is exceeded, such as not updating group membership or breaking the membership into smaller nested groups.

Example:

Let’s assume the administrator sets the maximum membership limit to 500 and opts for nested groups when membership exceeds this limit.

Scenario 1: On update, 485 objects are fetched to be added to Group A’s membership. Since the count is less than 500, the objects are directly added as group members.

Scenario 2: On the next update, 620 objects are fetched to be added to Group A’s membership. Since the count exceeds 500, it breaks the membership into 2 child groups (Group 1 with 500 members and Group 2 with 120 members) and nests them into Group A. Hence, GroupID checks the member count and takes necessary action before adding members to the group.

NOTE: An Office 365 group cannot have other groups as members. Therefore, the option to break the membership into child groups would have the following impact:
An Office 365 group (Group A) will be updated according to the Smart Group update process. When the maximum membership limit is hit, the update process will create child group(s). These child groups will exist but without any link to Group A. Hence, Group A’s membership will be empty.

What do you want to do?

Add members to a group​

You can add one or more objects to the membership of one or more groups. These objects would be added as permanent members. You will find them listed as members on the Members tab in Group Properties.

NOTE: In a Microsoft Entra ID based identity store, only user objects can be added as members of an Office 365 group.

Use any of the following methods to add members to groups.

Method 1:​

  1. Directory Search the required objects.
  2. Select these objects on the Search Results page and click Add to Group on the toolbar.
  3. The Find Dialog Box is displayed, where you can search and select the group(s) to add the objects to.

Method 2:​

  1. Directory Search the group you want to add members to.

  2. Select this group on the Search Results page and click Properties on the toolbar.

    The group's Group Properties page is displayed.

  3. On the Members tab, click Add.

  4. Enter a search string to locate the objects to add as members, or click Advanced to use the Find Dialog Box for performing a search.

  5. Save the changes.

NOTE: These methods for adding members are recommended for static (unmanaged) groups only. For Smart Groups, GroupID will discard any manual membership changes when it updates the group through the Smart Group Update job.

To add a member temporarily to a group, see Change the membership type of a group member .

Change the membership type of a group member​

By default, all new members are added as permanent member to a group. However, you can change the membership type of an object from permanent to temporary and vice versa.

You can also add or remove an object from a group's membership for a temporary period.

  1. Directory Search a group to change the membership type of its member(s).

  2. Select this group on the Search Results page and click Properties on the toolbar.

    The group's Group Properties page is displayed, where the Members tab lists the group members.

  3. To change the membership type of a member, click anywhere in the respective row to make it editable, and select one of the following options from the Membership list:

    • Perpetual - To make the object a permanent member of the group.

    • Temporary Member - To make the object a temporary member of the group for the period you specify in the Beginning and Ending boxes. At the end of the period, the object is removed from the group membership.

    • Addition Pending - Indicates that the object will be a temporary member of the group for a period in the future. Use the Beginning and Ending boxes to set a period. Before the beginning date, the object’s membership type is displayed as ‘Addition Pending’. On the beginning date, the membership type changes to ‘Temporary Member’.

      Here is an example:

      You add Smith as a temporary member to Group A on May 15, 2019 for future dates, May 20-30, 2019.

      Smith will be displayed in Group A’s membership with ‘Addition Pending’ as its membership type from May 15 to 19, 2019. However, Smith would not be added to group membership in the provider.

      On May 20, Smith will become a temporary member of Group A and its membership type will change to ‘Temporary Member’ from May 20 to 30, 2019. Smith will also be added to group membership in the provider.

      After May 30, Smith will be removed from Group A as a member in GroupID and in the provider.

    • Removal Pending - Indicates that the object will be temporarily removed from group membership for a period in the future. Use the Beginning and Ending boxes to set a period. Before the beginning date, the object’s membership type is displayed as ‘Removal Pending’. On the beginning date, the membership type will change to ‘Temporary Removed’.

      Here is an example:

      You remove Smith from Group A on May 15, 2019 for future dates, May 20-30, 2019.

      Smith will be displayed in Group A’s membership with ‘Removal Pending’ as membership type from May 15 to 19, 2019.

      On May 20, Smith’s membership type in GroupID will change to ‘Temporary Removed’; lasting till May 30, 2019. However, Smith will be removed from Group A’s membership in the provider.

      After May 30, Smith will be added back to Group A as a permanent member in GroupID and in the provider.

    • Temporary Removed - Indicates that the object is temporarily removed from group membership for the period specified in the Beginning and Ending boxes. At the end of the period, the object is added back to the group membership as a permanent member.

  4. Save the changes.

The Membership Life Cycle job updates the temporary membership of groups. It adds and removes temporary members from group membership on the specified dates.

Consider a scenario where the Membership Life Cycle job is scheduled to run once a week, say Mondays. If an object is to be added to group membership for three days - Wednesday till Friday, it will not be added. This happens because the Membership Life Cycle job did not run on the particular days for temporary membership update.

Remove members permanently from a group​

  1. Directory Search the group you want to remove member(s) from.

  2. Select this group on the Search Results page and click Properties on the toolbar.

    The group's Group Properties page is displayed.

  3. On the Members tab, select the group members you want to remove and click Remove.

  4. Save the changes.

NOTE: This method of removing members is recommended for static (unmanaged) groups only. For Smart Groups, GroupID will discard any manual membership changes when it updates the group through the Smart Group Update job.

To remove a member temporarily from a group, see Change the membership type of a group member .

Add a group to the membership of another group (nesting)​

  1. In GroupID portal, click Groups in the left navigation pane, select Groups.
  2. Select the My Groups, My Memberships, or My Expiring Groups tab.
  3. Select the group(s) to add to the membership of another group and click Add to Group on the toolbar.
  4. On the Find Dialog Box, search and select the group to add members to it, and click OK.

Import members to a group​

You can import members to a group using an external file.

NOTE: In a Microsoft Entra ID based identity store, only user objects can be added as members of an Office 365 group.

  1. In GroupID portal, click Groups in the left navigation pane, select Groups.

    The Groups page is displayed with the My Groups tab in view.

  2. Select the group you want to import members to, and click Properties on the toolbar.

    The group's Group Properties page is displayed.

  3. On the Group properties - Members tab, click Import to launch the Import Members wizard.

  4. See Import Group Members for further information and instructions.

  5. Save the changes.

Export group members​

You can export members of a group to an external file.

  1. Directory Search a group to export its members to an external file.

  2. Select this group on the Search Results page and click Properties on the toolbar.

    The group's Group Properties page is displayed.

  3. On the Members tab, click Export to launch the Export Members wizard.

  4. On the Attributes page:

    1. In the Attributes list, select the required directory attributes and move them to the Selected Attributes list.

      Members' data for the selected attributes is exported to the output file.

    2. Click Next.

  5. On the File Type page, select the file type to export the data to. Supported file types are:

    • Microsoft Excel (.xls and .xlsx)
    • Comma Separated Value (.csv)
    • Extensible Markup Language (.xml)
    • Text (.txt)

  6. Click Finish.

  7. When the file is successfully generated, you can save it to your machine.

Invite a guest user​

For a Microsoft Entra ID based identity store, the portal enables you to invite a user from another Microsoft Entra ID tenant to the membership of a group in your domain.

  1. In GroupID portal, click Groups in the left navigation pane, select Groups.

    The Groups page is displayed with the My Groups tab in view.

    Or

    Directory Search the group you want to invite a guest user to.

  2. Select the required group from the list and click Properties on the toolbar. The group's Group Properties page is displayed.

  3. On the Members tab, click the Invite User button.

  4. On the Invite User dialog box, provide the following information:

    1. In the Email box, enter the email address of the user you want to invite to your domain.

    2. In the Redirect URL box, provide the URL of a portal page, such as the My Profile page. On accepting the invite, the guest user will be redirected to this page.

    3. Add any message for the guest user in the Personal Message box.

    4. Click Invite User.

      NOTE: If the group you want to invite a guest user to is a distribution group and the invited user is not in the guest user list of Microsoft 365 Admin portal than the invited user is not added into the group on the first invite but on the second invite.

  5. The guest user is sent an email with the redirect link. On clicking this link, the guest user is successfully invited.

    The Invite User button on the Invite User dialog box changes to Add To Group.

  6. Click the Add To Group button to add the guest user as a group member.

  7. Save the information.

An object for the guest user is created in Microsoft Entra ID, with type as ‘guest user’. This user has the same rights and permissions as any other group member.

See Also