Day: August 29, 2020

Use Powershell to Create and Add members to Active Directory Groups from csv

by Skylar PearceActive Directory / Powershell

This is a task that I feel like there are a ton of ways to do it, this is just mine. With this you create a csv file with two columns; the first is the username of the person you want to add to the group and the second is the group that the person should be in. The script will check to see if the group exists and if it doesn’t it will be created in the path you define and then it will add the member, if the group does already exists it simply adds the user. This is a fast way to create a bunch of groups if you need to. For connecting to Active directory see this post.

Script:

#You need to have a connection to AD first or run this from a DC (see https://allthesystems.com/2020/08/powershell-connection-examples/)
#Define path to csv and basepath to create groups if they dont exist
$list = Import-Csv -Path C:\Path\to\csv\newgroups.csv
$BasePathForGroups = "OU=Path,OU=To,OU=OU,DC=Domain,DC=com"

foreach ($item in $list) {
    #Set variables for loop from csv line
    $group = $item.group
    $member = $item.member

    #Check if group exists
    if(Get-ADGroup $group){

        Write-Host "group exists. adding member: $member"
        #Adds member
        Add-ADGroupMember -Identity $group -Members $member

    }
    else {
        Write-Host "Group doesnt exist.  creating: $group"
        #Creates group
        New-ADGroup -Name $group -SamAccountName $group -GroupCategory Security -GroupScope Global -DisplayName $group -Path $BasePathForGroups
        #Adds member
        Add-ADGroupMember -Identity $group -Members $member 
    }

}
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Powershell Add Portgroups to VMWare Hosts

by Skylar PearcePowershell / vCenter - VMWare PowerCLI

If you don’t have licensing for distributed switches in vCenter adding portgroups to a new host or a new cluster can be super time consuming in the UI BUT thankfully VMWare has had mercy on us and provided comandlets to use Powershell to add portgroups to VMWare hosts. This is a script I use a lot to add portgroups to hosts and it is way faster and way less painful than doing it by hand so… enjoy! For PowerCLI setup and connecting to vCenter see this post.


Script:

#Check for Creds and ask for them if they aren't found
if (!($Creds)) {$creds = get-credential -Message "Enter your vCenter Creds"}
#Change these to your values
$vSwitchName = "vSwitch_Name"
$PortgroupName = "Name_of_Portgroup"
$VLanId = "123"
$vCenter_Server = "vCenter_Server_Name"
$Hosts = (
    "Host1",
    "Host2",
    "host3"
)

#Connect to vCenter
Connect-VIServer -server $vCenter_Server -Credential $creds -force

foreach ($Host in $Hosts) {
    #Adds portgroup to host
    get-vmhost -Name $Host | get-virtualswitch -name $vSwitchName |  New-VirtualPortGroup -name $PortgroupName -VLanId $VLanId
}
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