Windows

Problem

You want to get the owner of a security or distribution group.

Solution

To determine the owner of a group, use the [adsi] type shortcut to bind to the group in Active Directory, and then retrieve the ManagedBy property: $group = [adsi] "LDAP://localhost:389/cn=Management,ou=West,ou=Sales,dc=Fabrikam,dc=COM"

$group.ManagedBy

Discussion

Problem

You want to get and list the properties of a specific security or distribution group.

Solution

To list the properties of a group, use the [adsi] type shortcut to bind to the group in Active Directory, and then pass the group to the FormatList cmdlet: $group = [adsi] "LDAP://localhost:389/cn=Management,ou=West,ou=Sales,dc=Fabrikam,dc=COM"

$group | FormatList *

Discussion

Problem

You want to search for a specific group, but don’t know its DN.

Solution

To search for a security or distribution group, use the [adsi] type shortcut to bind to a container that holds the group in Active Directory, and then use the System. DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher class from the .NET Framework to search for the group:

$domain = [adsi] "LDAP://localhost:389/dc=Fabrikam,dc=COM" $searcher = NewObject System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher $domain $searcher.Filter = '(&(objectClass=Group)(name=Management))'

Problem

You want to create a security or distribution group.

Solution

To create a security or distribution group, use the [adsi] type shortcut to bind to a container in Active Directory, and then call the Create() method:

$salesWest =

[adsi] "LDAP://localhost:389/ou=West,ou=Sales,dc=Fabrikam,dc=COM" $management = $salesWest.Create("Group", "CN=Management") $management.SetInfo()

Discussion

The solution creates a group named Management in the Sales West OU.

Problem

You want to modify properties of a specific user account.

Solution

To modify a user account, use the [adsi] type shortcut to bind to the user in Active Directory, and then call the Put() method to modify properties. Finally, call the SetInfo() method to apply the changes.

$user = [adsi] "LDAP://localhost:389/cn=MyerKen,ou=West,ou=Sales,dc=Fabrikam,dc=COM"

$user.Put("Title", "Sr. Exec. Overlord") $user.SetInfo()

Discussion

Problem

You want to get and list the properties of a specific user account.

Solution

To list the properties of a user account, use the [adsi] type shortcut to bind to the user in Active Directory, and then pass the user to the FormatList cmdlet: $user = [adsi] "LDAP://localhost:389/cn=MyerKen,ou=West,ou=Sales,dc=Fabrikam,dc=COM"

$user | FormatList *

Discussion

Problem

You want to search for a specific user account, but don’t know the user’s distinguished name (DN).

Solution

To search for a user in Active Directory, use the [adsi] type shortcut to bind to a container that holds the user account, and then use the System.DirectoryServices. DirectorySearcher class from the .NET Framework to search for the user:

$domain = [adsi] "LDAP://localhost:389/dc=Fabrikam,dc=COM" $searcher = NewObject System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher $domain $searcher.Filter = '(&(objectClass=User)(displayName=Ken Myer))'

When importing several users into Active Directory, it quickly becomes tiresome to do it by hand (or even to script the addition of each user onebyone). To solve this problem, we can put all our data into a CSV, and then do a bulk import from the information in the CSV.

Problem

You want to create a user account in a specific OU.

Solution

To create a user in a container, use the [adsi] type shortcut to bind to the OU in Active Directory, and then call the Create() method: $salesWest = [adsi] "LDAP://localhost:389/ou=West,ou=Sales,dc=Fabrikam,dc=COM"

$user = $salesWest.Create("User", "CN=MyerKen") $user.Put("userPrincipalName", "Ken.Myer@fabrikam.com") $user.Put("displayName", "Ken Myer") $user.SetInfo()

Discussion

Problem

You want to list all the children of an Active Directory container.

Solution

To list the items in a container, use the [adsi] type shortcut to bind to the OU in Active Directory, and then access the PsBase.Children property of that container:

$sales =

[adsi] "LDAP://localhost:389/ou=Sales,dc=Fabrikam,dc=COM"

$sales.PsBase.Children

Discussion