This problem was crippling a large client after migrating from Microsoft Online Services (now Office 365) to Lion Server.
Not having this feature is simply unacceptable.
However, I have finalized a way to get group emails working. It involves adding the LDAP 'mail' attribute to each group that you would like to have members 'subscribed' to for group email (simply by being in that group) by doing the instructions below.
Open Directory Utility on your Lion Server. Authenticate as the LDAP Admin account (usually diradmin) and edit 'groups' in LDAPv3/127.0.0.1. You can add an object type called EMailAddress for any group in LDAP. Add the accounts to the group that you would like to receive email.
I preferred creating my own file called /etc/postfix/ldap-groups.cf, but you can use the provided /etc/postfix/ldap-aliases.cf if desired.
In it, I put the following information to make postfix find the email address for the group, and then expand memberUid to uid, then formatting the results in an acceptable email format.
/etc/postfix/ldap-groups.cf
server_host = localhost
search_base = cn=groups,dc=domain,dc=tld
version = 3
query_filter = (mail=%s)
result_attribute = memberUid
result_format = %u@domain.tld
Once that is configured, you can test it by the Terminal:
$ postmap -q (EMailAddress)@domain.tld ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-groups.cf
It should return users' email addresses.
After that, add the following information into main.cf
virtual_alias_maps = ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-groups.cf
Restart postfix
# sudo postfix reload
Send yourself a test email and enjoy the functionality of what should have been included in Lion Server in the first place.
I am currently looking for a way to query OpenLDAP in a similar way, but instead be able to get the group email address to forward to users in it and to addresses outside of only LDAP users: e.g. forward to uid1, uid2, name(at)gmail.com.
Also, being able to have some kind of rules for who can email the group ... would be nice. However, it seems that Apple has run out of nice.