Creating User Accounts from a CSV (Comma Separated Value) File
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In this lecture, I am going to be showing you how you can create active directory users from a CSV file.
I am going to show you how the CSV file looks like and you can find it in the resources of this lecture called NewUsers.csv.
You can see header fields like First Name, Last Name, Job Title, Office Phone, Email Address, Description, the target Organizational Unit or where they need to be placed within Active Directory and whether or not the account should be Enabled once it's created.
So, we are going to use PowerShell to automatically create all these user accounts. These are just 10 users here but if we were working with 500 or a thousand this will also work.
Log into the IPDC01 server and I have the file already saved into my E:\ drive.
We open Windows PowerShell ISE by clicking on the Windows icon on the bottom left and typing powershell and selecting Windows PowerShell ISE.
And the Windows PowerShell ISE opens up.
Let’s start typing out the script with the following:
# Import the AD Module
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
# Get the path to our target CSV file
$filepath = Read-Host -Prompt "Please enter the path to the CSV file that contains the new user accounts"
# Import the CSV as an array
$users = Import-CSV $filepath
Press the Play button to execute the script.
Note that in the bottom pane we have the script executed and it is asking for the path to the CSV so we type in E:\NewUsers.csv and press the Enter key on your keyboard.
The script finishes executing.
Now we need to do something with that information. Let’s add to our script the following:
# Import the AD Module
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
# Get the path to our target CSV file
$filepath = Read-Host -Prompt "Please enter the path to the CSV file that contains the new user accounts"
# Import the CSV as an array
$users = Import-CSV $filepath
# Complete an action for each user in the CSV file
ForEach ($user in $users) {
# Do this for each user
echo $user.'First Name'
}
Execute the script by clicking the Play icon and enter the CSV path during script execution.
The output of the script shows the First Name column of the CSV file.
Now let’s continue with the script adding the following line now:
# Import the AD Module
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
# Get the path to our target CSV file
$filepath = Read-Host -Prompt "Please enter the path to the CSV file that contains the new user accounts"
# Import the CSV as an array
$users = Import-CSV $filepath
# Complete an action for each user in the CSV file
ForEach ($user in $users) {
# Do this for each user
echo $user.'First Name'
echo $user.Description
}
Execute the script by clicking the Play icon and enter the CSV path during script execution.
We can see that by adding the Description we have after the First Name, the Description from the CSV file.
We can see that so far the script is working as we expect.
So, what we can do now is create a new user account. Let’s type the following code:
# Import the AD Module
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
# Get the path to our target CSV file
$filepath = Read-Host -Prompt "Please enter the path to the CSV file that contains the new user accounts"
# Import the CSV as an array
$users = Import-CSV $filepath
# Complete an action for each user in the CSV file
ForEach ($user in $users) {
# Do this for each user
New-ADUser `
-Name ($user.'First Name' + " " + $user.'Last Name') `
-GivenName $user.'First Name' `
-Surname $user.'Last Name' `
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Hello, sorry if I am missing something but I do not see the CSV listed under resources. I downloaded both resources (CreateADUsersFromCSV & CreateADUsersFromCSVExpanded) and found 2 PS scripts but no CSV.
Hi
Christian Sanchez
We have added the file to the resources from this video.
Ricardo
Sorry, I want to ask. Is using quotation mark with a single(‘ ‘) or (” “) has the same meaning or different?
Hi
Adi Nugroho
You can find more information here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_quoting_rules?view=powershell-7.3
Ricardo
Ok, thank you 👍
Hi, I did try to import CSV file, and it imported and I am able to echo any names or emails, but I can’t get it working in the foreach loop.
Hi
Ke Tu
What is the problem with the For loop? I see you can echo any names or emails, so it seems to be working. Any other error?
Ricardo
Hi, I figured out.
Hi Ricardo,
how does the computer knows it has to create the users in the user OU? what if i wanted to creat a couple group, how would I indicate in the script to do so?
Hi
ALWI DELGADO ALAUDIN
It knows because the OU path is specified on the Excel sheet. To create a Group is similar just the commandlet changes from New-ADUser toNew-ADGroup.
Check the following for detailed information:
https://activedirectorypro.com/create-active-directory-security-groups-with-powershell/
Ricardo