Create Bulk Users in Active Directory with Powershell & AD Tools

95% of Fortune 500 companies rely on Active Directory (AD). Launched in 1999, AD is a foundational component of all business – you’ll find it in government, at schools, and in IT environments of every type. Of course, it’s also in the cloud with Azure AD.

Creating users in AD and Azure AD is easy. It becomes tedious and a notable security risk when hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of users are created – which happens all the time. Add to that the groups that are stood up every day and the crisis is real.

One easy fix is creating bulk users with PowerShell.

Create Bulk Users in Active Directory via PowerShell

A common fix to mitigate the security risk by manual user creation is to opt for bulk user creation in Active Directory via PowerShell. To do that, you must have the ISE PowerShell module installed in your system and have administrative rights to create user accounts in Active Directory.

Step 1: Create a CSV file

To create users via PowerShell, you need to create a CSV file featuring your users’ data. The data fields in the file are the following:

• SAMAccount
• FirstName
• LastName
• Password
• OU (Organizational Unit)

You can add more if you want to. Your csv file should look something like this.

Once the file is updated, you need to save it to a location of your choice. Note down the pathway of this file as it will be required in the next step.

Step 2: Modify PowerShell Script

PowerShell has a command for bulk user creation in Active Directory. All you need to do is modify that command according to your data and run it in Windows PowerShell ISE.

Copy the following command and paste it into Windows PowerShell ISE:

# Import Active Directory module for running AD cmdlets
Import-Module activedirectory
#Store the data from your file in the $ADUsers variable
$ADUsers = Import-csv <fileandpath>
#Loop through each row containing user details in the CSV file
foreach ($User in $ADUsers)
{
#Read user data from each field in each row and assign the data to a variable as below
$Username = $User.username
$Password = $User.password
$Firstname = $User.firstname
$Lastname = $User.lastname
$OU = $User.ou
$email = $User.email
$streetaddress = $User.streetaddress
$city = $User.city
$zipcode = $User.zipcode
$state = $User.state
$country = $User.country
$telephone = $User.telephone
$jobtitle = $User.jobtitle
$company = $User.company
$department = $User.department
$Password = $User.Password

#Check to see if the user already exists in the AD

if (Get-ADUser -F {SamAccountName -eq $Username})
{
#If the user does exist, give a warning
Write-Warning "A user account with username $Username already exists in Active Directory."
}
else
{
#User does not exist then proceed to create the new user account
#Account will be created in the OU provided by the $OU variable read from the CSV file
New-ADUser `
-SamAccountName $Username `
-UserPrincipalName "$Username@<domain>" `
-Name "$Firstname $Lastname" `
-GivenName $Firstname `
-Surname $Lastname `
-Enabled $True `
-DisplayName "$Lastname, $Firstname" `
-Path $OU `
-City $city `
-Company $company `
-State $state `
-StreetAddress $streetaddress `
-OfficePhone $telephone `
-EmailAddress $email `
-Title $jobtitle `
-Department $department `
-AccountPassword (convertto-securestring $Password
-AsPlainText
-Force)
-ChangePasswordAtLogon $True
}
}

The following fields need to have your file details.

• <fileandpath> – Add the file path where you have saved your csv file.
• <domain> – Enter the domain name of your Active Directory server.

You also need to modify the field names according to your data source so that PowerShell can read your data. For example, if your data source has a username, “LoginName”, you can modify the following command

$Username = $User.username

Into:

$Username = $User.LoginName

Step 3: Run the Script

Now that you have modified the script, you can run the command by clicking the green play button on the top.

If there is any account that is already present in the directory, you will receive a warning message about that user. It won’t be created in the database. Once the import is complete, you can launch ADUC and go to the specified OU and domain to verify if the users have been successfully created.

Creating users through PowerShell is straightforward and gives you more flexibility. But if you do not have good scripting skills, you might find it complicated.

Create Bulk Users in Azure AD

Similarly, Azure provides an option for bulk user creation in Azure Active Directory. The entire process requires no complicated scripting. You need to sign in as a User Administrator or Global Administrator to execute a bulk operation.

Following are the steps for creating users in bulk with in Azure AD:

• Sign into the Azure portal, navigate to Users, and you will see the Bulk Operations option on the top.
• Click Bulk Operations.
• Select Bulk Create.

Step 1: Prepare the CSV file

You will get a bulk user creation wizard where you need to download the CSV template and fill in your data into that template. The CSV template contains most of the common attributes that are required to create a user, such as:

• SAMAccountName
• Password
• OU (Organizational Unit)
• First Name
• Last Name
• Description
• Country
• Postal Code

You can update that template and add new attributes, add users’ information, and save the file. Once it’s updated, you can rename and save it anywhere.

Step 2: Upload CSV file

Once the file is updated, upload it to the “Upload your File” option.

Azure will immediately start creating users from the data source and within a few seconds, you can view the logs from the notification bar on the top. The logs will display successful and unsuccessful outcomes, presenting a statistical overview of the user accounts created. All the users will also be listed in the Users tab for you to verify.

Synchronize – A Better Alternative for Bulk User Creation

Bulk user creation has relieved organizations from the huge manual work to create one user at a time. What if there is a tool that provides a solution for bulk user creation but with much more advanced options to work with different kinds of data sources?

GroupID Synchronize answers this question easily. It is a synchronization engine with a very intuitive GUI. You can provision, edit, and deprovision users with a few simple steps.

Synchronize supports the following providers:

• 3rd Party Switchvox Provider
• Adacel View500
• Generic LDAP version 3.0
• Lotus Notes (LDAP)
• Microsoft Access Driver (.mdb, .accdb)
• Microsoft Active Directory (LDAP)
• Microsoft Excel Driver (.xls, .xlsx)
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft Text Driver (.txt, .csv)
• Novell Directory Services (LDAP)
• ODBC Data Source
• Oracle
• Sun ONE Directory Server/iPlanet (LDAP)