Active Directory (PowerShell)

Getting Started

You need to have RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools) installed For Windows 7 see - http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=7887. This enables your local machine to remotely manage Windows Servers and Services via the usual MMC GUI's (eg AD Users and Computers) and (most importantly) includes PowerShell modules in order to be able to do so as well.

Be aware that PowerShell DFS management is currently poor, its only possible from Windows 8 and 2012 machines, and even then its very limited.

Once installed go to Control Panel | Programs | Turn Windows features on or off and enable the PowerShell module, full path as follows...

• Remote Server Administration Tools | Role Administration Tools | Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell

In order to be able access the PowerShell Active Directory CmdLets, import the AD module into your PowerShell session...

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

Group Policy

The PowerShell GPO module is installed with

• Windows XP - Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) - http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=21895
• Windows 7 - Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) - http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=7887
  • You may need to specifically enable Group Policy Mgmt Tools, full path as follows...
    • Remote Server Administration Tools | Feature Administration Tools | Group Policy Management Tools

In order to be able access the PowerShell GPO CmdLets, import the GPO module into your PowerShell session...

Import-Module GroupPolicy

Users

Get-ADUser examples

$users = Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase "DC=domain,DC=com"                           # Get all users in domain.com
$user = Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq "username"}                             # Get user by logon/SAM account name
$user = Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq "username"} -Properties *               # Get all properties for user
$user = Get-ADUser -Filter {{Surname -eq "last" -and GivenName -eq "first"}}           # Get user by first and last names
$users = Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase "OU=London,OU=Users,DC=EU,DC=domain,DC=com"  # Get users in London OU

To create a CSV export of fields from AD...

$users = Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase "DC=DOMAIN,DC=COM" -Properties Enabled, CanonicalName, Country, Created, LastLogonDate, mail
$users | Select-Object Name, Enabled, CanonicalName, Country, Created, LastLogonDate, mail | export-csv -Path users.csv

• LastLogonDate - Be aware that the last logon date field typically has an accuracy/tolerance of 14 days, AD intentionally doesn't update the field at every logon from the user/device object so as to reduce the amount of data replication between domain controllers

AD Fields

Field names don't necessarily match up between the PowerShell module, LDAP, and what you see in the Users and Computers MMC GUI, see below for an in-exhaustive list...

Active Directory user field equivalents

PowerShell	ldapDisplayName	Users and Computers	Comments
UserPrincipalName		Account | User logon name
Name	name	Account | Pre Win2k login name
GivenName	givenName	General | First name
Surname	sn	General | Last name
DisplayName	displayName	General | Display Name
Description	description	General | Description
Path	N/A	N/A	X.500 path of OU/container for object
SamAccountName	sAMAccountName		Set to same as name if not specified
AccountPassword			If not set, new user account is disabled

Groups

AD Fields

Active Directory group field equivalents

PowerShell	ldapDisplayName	Users and Computers	Comments
Name	name	General (name at top)
SamAccountName	sAMAccountName	General | Group name (per-Windows 2000)	Set to same as name if not specified
N/A	info	General | Notes
Description	description	General | Description
Path	N/A	N/A	X.500 path of OU/container for object

Computers

Get-ADComputer examples

$devices = Get-ADComputer -Filter * -SearchBase "DC=domain,DC=com" -Properties IPv4Address, OperatingSystem,  Created, LastLogonDate

• LastLogonDate - Be aware that the last logon date field typically has an accuracy/tolerance of 14 days, AD intentionally doesn't update the field at every logon from the user/device object so as to reduce the amount of data replication between domain controllers

Organisation Unit

New-ADOrganizationalUnit examples

$OU = New-ADOrganizationalUnit -Name "DeptX" -Path "DC=domain,DC=com" -PassThru

Errors

• Unable to find a default server with Active Directory Web Services running
  • Check that you have an accessible DC with Web Services available
  • See http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=2852 to install (requires restart!)

Managing Multiple Domains

Unless you've specified otherwise, commands will be handled by the domain identified by ...?

Use -Server and -Credentials options, available for all PowerShell AD commands, to specify the DC and credentials required to service the commands, for example...

$users = Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase "DC=domain,DC=com"  -Server "10.10.1.10" -Credential $cred

For more info on working with credentials or help on creating a credentails object see Credentials_(PowerShell).