Active Directory Bulk User Creation 2012 R2

[itguy22]

Does anybody know of any free tools that can create multiple AD users in AD 2012R2 for example using a CSV?

 

It is to create user accounts for a new intake of pupils?

 

Thanks.

[halbaradkenafin]

Powershell is your friend for this. I'll post my script in a minute.

 

Edit:

 

Here is my code, you'll need to customise a few things for your domain but it should be pretty easy to just drop it into notepad and save it as a .ps1 and run from a powershell prompt.

 

################################################
# Script to add new users to AD
# Call from Powershell window with -Path option 
# Directed to the csv file to import
# Example CSV file in the folder
#
# Also adds users to Intake Security Group 
#
################################################

param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$Path = $(Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the path to the csv")
)
Function Check-ADUser
{
   [string]$Name = $args[0]
$ADUser = Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $Name}

if ($ADUser) 
   {
	return $ADUser.SamAccountName
}
else 
   {
	return 0
}

}

$Users = Import-Csv -Path $Path
Write-Output -InputObject "Forename, Surname, Username, Password" >> "NewUsersCreated.csv"
foreach ($User in $Users) 
{
$ShortName = ($User.Forename).Substring(0,1) + "." + $User.Surname
$IsADUser = Check-ADUser $ShortName
$Count = 1
while ($IsADUser -ne 0) {
	$ShortName = ($User.Forename).Substring(0,1) + "." + $User.Surname + "$Count"
	$IsADUser = Check-ADUser $ShortName
	$Count += 1
}
$DisplayName = $User.forename + " " + $User.surname
$SecureString = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $User.Password -AsPlainText -Force
$HomeDirectory = "\\fileserver\share\" + $User.intakeyear + "\" + $ShortName
$ProfilePath = "\\fileserver\share\" + $User.intakeyear + "\" + $ShortName
$UserPrincipalName = $ShortName + "@domain.local"
$email = $ShortName + "@domain.local"
New-ADUser -Name $ShortName -Description $User.description -DisplayName $DisplayName -GivenName $User.forename -HomeDirectory $HomeDirectory -HomeDrive "N:" -ProfilePath $ProfilePath -SamAccountName $ShortName -Surname $user.surname -UserPrincipalName $UserPrincipalName -Path $User.OU -AccountPassword $SecureString -EmailAddress $email -Enabled 1 -ChangePasswordAtLogon 1
Start-Sleep -s 10
Add-ADGroupMember -Identity $User.intakeyear -Member $ShortName
Write-Output -InputObject "$Forename, $Surname, $ShortName,$($User.password)" >> "NewYearUsersCreated.csv"
}

 

You might not use all the things there, like Profile Path and Home Path but it's just a case of removing the variable declaration and then removing it from the New-ADUser section too. The script will dump out a csv containing all the usernames and passwords as it will automatically create usernames with the next available username, such as J.Smith1 if there is already a J.Smith.

Edited June 1, 2015 by halbaradkenafin

[itguy22]

Looks good, do you have a sample CSV?

[mrbios]

I use this every year:

Dovestones Software Active Directory User Import - AD Bulk Users

[halbaradkenafin]

Looks good, do you have a sample CSV?

 

forename,surname,initial,OU,description,password,intakeyear
test,user,t,"OU=IntakeYear,OU=Students,DC=Domain,DC=local",Student Test,"Password1",2014

[SHimmer45]

the $."somename" would need to match the 1st cell in the column of you CSV iirc

i use this for creating users currently

Import-Csv D:\users.csv | Foreach-object {
New-ADUser -Name $_.DisplayName -UserPrincipalName $_.UserPrincipalName -SamAccountName $_.Username -GivenName $_.GivenName -DisplayName $_.DisplayName -Surname $_.Surname -Description $_.Description -Path $_.Path -ScriptPath $_.ScriptPath -HomeDirectory $_.Homedirectory -HomeDrive $_.HomeDrive -AccountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString $_.Password -AsPlainText -Force) -Enabled $True -PasswordNeverExpires $True -PassThru }

 

1st time doing it using powershell so i have kept it as simple as possible.

 

my CSV headers are

 

Username,GivenName,Surname,DisplayName,UserPrincipalName,Password,Description,HomeDirectory,HomeDrive,ScriptPath,Path

[halbaradkenafin]

the $."somename" would need to match the 1st cell in the column of you CSV iirc

 

As long as it matches a column name it doesn't matter which order they are in. I'm doing basically the same thing as you with a bit of error checking and creating paths etc to save the amount of information I put into the csv, so I can pretty much just get the csv from the MIS team add a column for password/intake year and import it.

[itguy22]

Cheers Guys

[zag]

Just another thumbs up for dovestone.

[itguy22]

Just another thumbs up for dovestone.

 

It says this is a trial? It is time limited?

[zag]

No idea, we bought it about 7 years ago. It was incredibly cheap I seam to remember.

[kennysarmy]

I've used Active User Manager V1.2.7 in the past then a series of batch files to create home drives, shares, permissions etc.

[stitch]

Just another thumbs up for dovestone. Great software and reasonably priced

[NewFormz]

If you are looking for a free solution I would recommend Wisesoft Bulk AD Users. I've used it for years and it works great, you create everything in Excel then it does the rest of the work for you.

[Sephiroth]

I agree with the notion of Powershell... Mine is by no means flawless, but I have it run as a scheduled task every night to import a CSV (also scheduled to export every night using SIMS report scheduler) and create every aspect of the account (including file shares, security groups and quotas) before e-mailing the form tutor the name, username and randomly generated password for each account.

 

I can't post the full code here for various reasons (mainly the character limit here ) but if anyone wants to do something specific with relation to user account creation or automation, I'll help where I can.

[Boredguy]

I agree with the notion of Powershell... Mine is by no means flawless, but I have it run as a scheduled task every night to import a CSV (also scheduled to export every night using SIMS report scheduler) and create every aspect of the account (including file shares, security groups and quotas) before e-mailing the form tutor the name, username and randomly generated password for each account.

 

I can't post the full code here for various reasons (mainly the character limit here ) but if anyone wants to do something specific with relation to user account creation or automation, I'll help where I can.

We do pretty much the exact same thing @Sephiroth and it doesn't half save time

[IrritableTech]

If you are looking for a free solution I would recommend Wisesoft Bulk AD Users. I've used it for years and it works great, you create everything in Excel then it does the rest of the work for you.

 

Yup - I've used this too. The other one is Mikeys Active User Manager - which he released for free in the end. Hard to find now though.

[sted]

I just wrote a spreadsheet that you just copy n paste the last 2 pages of to notepad and run as a batch file. Simple qorks out usernames for me (so if I have a kid called fred blogs in yoe 2010 it works out username is 0fbloggs etc

[Sephiroth]

We do pretty much the exact same thing @Sephiroth and it doesn't half save time

To be honest, the main reasons that I wrote this was that, usually, the fist we know of new students is when they turn up at the door needing to log in NOW. That and last year we had an intake of circa 900 (due to SOR) which I didn't want to input manually.

 

As an aside, I'd be interested to compare scripts to see how others do some of the things that I've fudged

Edited June 1, 2015 by Sephiroth

[SHimmer45]

i only looked at powershell as the DSADD way i was doing things started to give me problems running as batches due to whitespace issues which didnt become apparent until i tried to create the users mailbox....

[sted]

i only looked at powershell as the DSADD way i was doing things started to give me problems running as batches due to whitespace issues which didnt become apparent until i tried to create the users mailbox....

 

whitespace as in spacebar characters I just wrap everything in "" 's to get round that one

[sted]

not sure this is the latest revision but heres a version of my spreadsheet (I think the only revisions ive done recently are to along longer ou paths)

 

users using dsadd v3 inc dollar.xls

[SHimmer45]

whitespace as in spacebar characters I just wrap everything in "" 's to get round that one

 

tried that exchange still moaned about trailing whitespace's tbh i might have been how i was creating the CSV in excel and then checking it in notepad and adding corrections where needed.

 

since doing it with powershell i havent bothered with it as its MUCH quicker in powershell

[Sephiroth]

i was creating the CSV in excel and then checking it in notepad

From experience, it is a very bad idea to use Excel to create CSV files as it adds lots of formatting that can kill the file for it's intended purpose. In my example it removes leading zeros from usernames. Obviously not helpful.

[SHimmer45]

From experience, it is a very bad idea to use Excel to create CSV files as it adds lots of formatting that can kill the file for it's intended purpose. In my example it removes leading zeros from usernames. Obviously not helpful.

 

done it that way for a long time without issue

 

but its led me to find and use a better method