thom Posted July 15, 2005 Posted July 15, 2005 We bought a programme called AD Infinitum to add all of our users, but it cost a whopping £200 8O I was then talking about this to a 10th year VB guru and he said he would try to make a programme to do that. The whizzkid knocked up a rough version to do that year's imports! Using a SIMS (or any) .csv file. It fills in all fields you could ask for as well as creating usernames following any desired format. It creates home folders and sorts out permissions etc. A year later he had got his head around a VB.net and did version 2 with a much improved GUI. We said we would advertise it for him to make a bit of cash (about £60 per copy). He has now just left year 11 but will be coming back in 6th form. I think i should suggest to him to make this a free download/open source product to boost his profile. What do you all think? It would definately help all you techies out there.
tarquel Posted July 15, 2005 Posted July 15, 2005 It reads a text file of names. Splits them into Firstname surname. Generates a username in the format we use eg smith.a Checks to see if it exists in AD already. If it does it will try smith.an and so on. Ps I dont like the naming convention but im stuck with it. Create the user. Set temp password. Flag it for being changed on first log on. Creates home directory Set NTFS persmissions Change ownership to the user (so quotas work properly) tada Much like my batch script Ps anyone know how to do includes in VB script it doesnt seem to be as simple as include myfunctions.vbs ???? um....dont you have to put brackets or "'s around the file you want to include (like php programming?) Don't know vbs i'm afraid [any good sites on where to learn it?] Nath
Dos_Box Posted July 15, 2005 Author Posted July 15, 2005 We bought a programme called AD Infinitum to add all of our users, but it cost a whopping £200 8O I was then talking about this to a 10th year VB guru and he said he would try to make a programme to do that. The whizzkid knocked up a rough version to do that year's imports! Using a SIMS (or any) .csv file. It fills in all fields you could ask for as well as creating usernames following any desired format. It creates home folders and sorts out permissions etc. A year later he had got his head around a VB.net and did version 2 with a much improved GUI. We said we would advertise it for him to make a bit of cash (about £60 per copy). He has now just left year 11 but will be coming back in 6th form. I think i should suggest to him to make this a free download/open source product to boost his profile. What do you all think? It would definately help all you techies out there. Indeed. £60 is too steep as you can pick up tools for £19 to do this. A free tool would be ideal though to raise his profile, especially as if it spreads far and wide, so will his name and reputation.
Geoff Posted July 15, 2005 Posted July 15, 2005 Yup, stick the GPL on it and Sourceforge will host it. When he does disappear off to uni you can keep his software working too.
OverWorked Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 I'm surprised no-one has mentioned CSVDE, it's included with Windows 2000 Server and Server 2003. It's what I use. The easiest way to get the hang of it is to use it to export your AD into a .csv file, then you can see the format required. Once the users are created, all I have to do is add them to groups. Server 2003 creates the home folders and profile folder with the correct NTFS permisions automatically. If anyone wants detailed info, just ask. But it will take me a while to create it.
Dos_Box Posted July 18, 2005 Author Posted July 18, 2005 The problem we have is that bulk user creation is a once a year task. no-one wants to re-learn a command line app, especially one as awkward as CSVDE. It's not the most freindly tool available and if we can make one that is then so much the better.
ChrisH Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 addusers.exe from the resource kit is more friendly but not much more. As for letting 2003 assign permissions I make sure my home directories are set to modify and not full control like the default.
Ric_ Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 Chris, any chance of you giving us a sneak peak of your all-singing-all-dancing user creation script? I was telling Dos_box about it and he was whinging that, due to the naturew of it being a script, it wouldn't have a GUI!
ChrisH Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 Yes no gui but it does have a log file. If I bothered to learn any proper VB I could probably convert it but the last time I built an application with a GUI was in Pascal on a Mac!!!!
Inox Posted July 25, 2005 Posted July 25, 2005 Just to add my penny's worth - while at my 1st Techie's job I created a VB program to batch create users and add them to active directory, it also creates the users shares, shares them and sets NTFS permissions. It was originally created for my own personal use to speed things up on the windows 2000 network, but since shifting jobs I have addapted it for use on windows 2003 server (there r some slight differences as to how things r procesed). The only problem is that I originally designed it with only that school in mind and was going to develope it more at a later date and maybe make some money off it once it was ready, however I had a slight HD dying issue and unfortunatly my backup didn't work, so I lost the source code for it :-( O have since started writing a new version with full release in mind (so an interface overhaul and making it as simple as possible whilst keeping all the functionality). The one thing I need to do now is to learn how to do the windows scripting for the parts of my proggy that used to run from batch files. If anyone wants to have a look at it goto http://inox.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/inosoft (I was playing around with Macromedia Fireworks and Swish at the time too ;-p ) The program it's self isn't on there, but if anyone wants it and some basic instructions please let me know and i'll send it to them/upload it on here. It can be very quick once u know what your doing, but please bear in mind that it was never intended as it is now to be used outside of the school that I wrote it for some some file editing is needed (about 5 lines accross 3 files, nothing hard, just copy n paste). It will add approx 800 users in 2 to 3 mins with all shares + permissions. Lemmi know what u think. P.s. I am not going to be releasing this version to the general public, nor am I charging anything for it, although I have not yet decided what to do with a full version of it when it's finished. It will probably end up GNU anyways ;-p as I dont like ripping ppl off, but lets face it, in this world with the crappy pay, we have to gain all the income we can!
ChrisH Posted July 25, 2005 Posted July 25, 2005 We have been talking about us all doing such a program between is Here . We have yet to decide on a language but maybe you could get in on this as well.
Inox Posted July 25, 2005 Posted July 25, 2005 We have been talking about us all doing such a program between is Here . We have yet to decide on a language but maybe you could get in on this as well.Yeah I have just been reading about that. Sounds like a good idea. Just one thing comes to mind, I am assuming that this app would be free, so would it be a GNU licence? Am just thinking ahead when ppl on here produce some of the best vsoftware in the world and words gets around and everyone wants it.
zippy Posted July 25, 2005 Posted July 25, 2005 Ps anyone know how to do includes in VB script it doesnt seem to be as simple as include myfunctions.vbs ???? Chris, you need to use a .WSF file if you want to include reusable script fragments. The format is 'XML' style: This file becomes the entry point, rather than a .VBS. All usual gubbins works, like drag & drop and so on. Hope that helps ZIP
ChrisH Posted July 26, 2005 Posted July 26, 2005 Ah cheers never found anything suggesting anything like that Playing with VB.net at the moment so will have a go when I go back to work.
Dos_Box Posted August 3, 2005 Author Posted August 3, 2005 You can also try this program called Ad Infinitium on a free 30 day trial (considering you only need it once a year it's worth a look) http://www.sofotex.com/AD-Infinitum-download_L11903.html
limbo Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Hi Guys, First post so be gentle with me! I have a very talented team working for me and we have managed to set up a system that automatically interrogates our MIS system (CMIS) every night - looks for any new students or staff that have been added and creates them a usernme, home directory, e-mail address, secure login for our website etc. This has been working amazingly well for about 18 months, we are now altering the whole way the domain works to get rid of the third party security software we currently use and put in place full group policies etc. This is making life a little more difficult because we are having to move students in and out of OU's and local groups, but getting there slowly and with a bit of luck it will be up and running in time for September - who knows we may even get a coupld of days off before hand too!!
Dos_Box Posted August 3, 2005 Author Posted August 3, 2005 Good luck. Summer is always a busy time for everyone (apart from teachers!)
MkII Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Welcome limbo - and wow! So are you guys gonna put yourself out as consultants so we can all get such a wonderful system?
SpuffMonkey Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 We have been talking about us all doing such a program between is Here . We have yet to decide on a language but maybe you could get in on this as well. Found this after some long winded Googling http://www.tech-geeks.org/geeklog/article.php?story=20040308171332896&mode=print Might be a good starting place - am going to have a play with it shortly Cheers
paullong Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 that's far too scarey for me to understand PS - Limbo - I assume that's you Neil?
ChrisH Posted August 4, 2005 Posted August 4, 2005 We have been talking about us all doing such a program between is Here . We have yet to decide on a language but maybe you could get in on this as well. Found this after some long winded Googling http://www.tech-geeks.org/geeklog/article.php?story=20040308171332896&mode=print Might be a good starting place - am going to have a play with it shortly Cheers I have coded a very similar script myself and I'm going to put a GUI on it this afternoon if I get the chance. For the project we are looking at using vb.net so the code will be different. We may be adding other stuff by the look of it as well like the program the ICTNUT has written to deal with finding certain file types in home directories and dealing with them etc.
Inox Posted August 4, 2005 Posted August 4, 2005 Guys, I have a Q - seen as how the majority of skills "seems" to be in VB6, why r u thinking of doing it in VB.NET (which is vastly different from VB6) ? Y not just use VB6 as this would stop people from having to get new software and transfer skills. Before anyone says it, VB6 will still work nicely on XP (and Vista I hope) and it terms of running the apps created by either there is not a big difference for the type of things being discussed here.
ChrisH Posted August 4, 2005 Posted August 4, 2005 Just moving with the times. The entire scope for what we are going to do isnt final yet so who knows... I know what your saying about VB6 and the current scope of what were doing but it's good to have the option of some more functionality. I'm sure most would like to update their skills anyway
russdev Posted August 4, 2005 Posted August 4, 2005 Yes i think that is the main reason we want to improve our skill set... The other thing is making sure that program remains accesably at moment vb 6 runs on vista 2 years down line it may not... where as .net is going to... Also vb6 has lots of failings and when you are working with controling windows and servers these failings become obvious.... Anyway go add your views and two pences worth... Russ
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