In Exchange 2010 distribution groups must be universal. This is [supported by documentation](https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124513(v=exchg.141).aspx)

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> You can create or mail-enable only universal distribution groups.
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I am trying to create a role based security group structure so that if someone leaves or changes jobs you only have to change the groups membership of a users "role" (Where the role is just another security group). In its simplest form roles would have users for members and the role would itself be a member of other resource-centric security groups e.g. a read-write group for a share. There is more to the model than that but it should be enough for the purpose of this question.

The problem comes from when I want to add these role groups as distribution members. If I try and add a "Marketing Manager" role to the "marketing@domain.com" distribution list it will not forward mail to the role members *unless* the role security group is universal.

Universal groups cannot be members of global groups though. So, if I wanted to convert my role groups to universal so that I can mail enable them I would then also have to change the groups the role itself is a member of as well. This means that I would be converting near all my security groups in AD to universal to support my proposed structure. 

We are a single domain forest with about 1000 users and I would expect once all the groups for this are made to have 1000+. Functional level of the domain is 2008R2

I honestly don't know of the impact this might have in our active directory environment. Is making all the group universal really the only way to do this if I wanted to add my roles to distribution groups? [The answer appears to be yes if I want them to be used for mail](https://serverfault.com/a/278939/234050). I do want this so that way help desk users don't have to worry about what groups users need. They just need to know their "role". 

The linked question answers why I cannot just have simple security groups but I want to know if my proposed structure, meaning that I will be converting near all my groups to universal, has any negative implications or is maybe considered a bad practice.