Create, edit, or delete a security group
Updated: February 27, 2014
Note
This topic provides online help content for cloud services, such as Windows Intune and Office 365, which rely on Windows Azure Active Directory for identity and directory services.
A security group in a Microsoft cloud service is a group of users that is granted access to specific resources by an administrator. For example, an administrator can create a security group to grant a certain group of people access to a SharePoint site.
Note
Only global and user management administrators have permissions to create, edit, or delete security groups. For more information about administrator roles, see Assigning administrator roles.
What do you want to do?
Add a security group
Edit a security group
Delete a security group
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The following steps can be completed using either the Office 365 account portal, the Windows Intune account portal or the Windows Azure AD portal, depending on which services your organization has subscribed to. In this way, portals act as front-end interfaces that pull in directory data associated with your organizations Windows Azure AD tenant. For more information about using portals to manage your tenant, see Administering your Windows Azure AD tenant.
Add a security group
Depending on which portal you are using, in the left pane, click either Users or Users and Groups, and then click Security Groups.
On the Security groups page, click New. The New security group wizard appears.
On the Details page, type a name and description for the group, and then click Save.
On the Select members page, from the List type drop-down list, select which type of members you want to add to the new security group: users or other security groups. Under Available members, you can see a list of all the members in that list type. Select the check box next to each member that you want to add, and then click Add. The added members are displayed in the Selected members list. To remove a member from the Selected members list, select the check box next to the member that you want to remove, and then click Remove. When your selected members list is completed, click Save and Close.
Note
- If your company has more than 2,000 security groups, they will be displayed under Available members in an unsorted list. In this case, you will need to manually search for the groups that you want to add as members.
- If there are more than 2,000 members in your Selected members list, they are displayed in an unsorted list.
- If your company has more than 2,000 security groups, they will be displayed under Available members in an unsorted list. In this case, you will need to manually search for the groups that you want to add as members.
Edit a security group
Depending on which portal you are using, in the left pane, click either Users or Users and Groups, and then click Security Groups.
Your security groups are listed on the Security groups page. Select the check box next to the group that you want to edit and then click Edit, or click the group name.
Click the Details or Members tab, depending on the changes that you want to make. Complete your changes, and then click Save and Close.
Important
If the group that you are trying to edit is synchronized with your Active Directory service, an error message appears, and you will be unable to edit the group using this procedure. To edit the group, use your local Active Directory management tools.
Delete a security group
Depending on which portal you are using, in the left pane, click either Users or Users and Groups, and then click Security Groups.
On the Security groups page, select the check box next to the group that you want to delete, and then click Delete.
Important
You cannot delete a group synchronized with your on-premises Active Directory service. To delete the group, use your local Active Directory management tools.
A dialog box appears asking if you are sure that you want to delete the group. After you click Yes, the dialog will show the deletion in process. Click Close when the deletion has completed.