How can I supply elements of an array to the New-ADUser Class. Or can I do this another way?

Question

Hi, I want to write a function to create a new user, and I want to keep it as simple as possible.
For example, I want to be able to call the function like.
CreateNewUser John Doe
The function itself will need to pass the value of the name, in this example John Doe into an array. And then I want to be able to reference that array for everything else.
e.g
Function CreateNewUser($fname,$lname)
[string[]]]$objName = $fname,$lname
New-ADUser -name $objname -givenname $objname[0] -surname $objname[1]
I hope you get the idea. Is this possible, am I doing it right, and is there a better way of doing this?
Thanks

Answer 1

If you are just trying to make it look a bit cleaner you can use splatting so new-aduser isn't incredibly long...here is an example.
$Params = @{
Name = $DisplayName
SamAccountName = $SamAccountName
UserPrincipalName = $UserPrincipalName
GivenName = $GivenName
Surname = $Surname
DisplayName = $DisplayName
Path = $Path
AccountPassword = $Password
Enabled = $True
ChangePasswordAtLogon = $True
HomeDirectory = $HomeDirectory
ScriptPath = $ScriptPath
EmployeeID = $EmployeeID
Department = $Department
Division = $Division
New-ADUser @Params
The splatting will definitely help, but I think what the OP is really looking for is a wrapper to make the command line really simple. I have a function I use called Copy-AdUser that does several things internally to support our business needs. The command
line is simple:
Copy-AdUser -Instance gwashing -GivenName Abraham -SurName Lincoln -Title President -Location 'White House'
Now you may not need to copy an existing user, but the ideas are the same. You can accept basic information about the user as parameter values and then in the guts of the function you can calculate all the other attributes, group membership, etc. The function
looks something like this:
Function Copy-ADUser {
#.SYNOPSIS
# Creates new Active Directory user based on attributes #and group membership of an existing user
#.DESCRIPTION
# Creates an Active Directory user based on an existing #user's group membership and Organizational Unit.
# Requires that the MS Active Directory module is loaded.
#.EXAMPLE
# Copy-AdUser -Instance gwashing -GivenName Abraham #-SurName Lincoln -Title "President" -Location "White House"
[CmdletBinding()]
Param
# Template user. Copies parent OU and group membership
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true,Position=0)]
$Instance,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=1)]
[String]$GivenName,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=2)]
[String]$SurName,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=3)]
[String]$Title,
# building code for primary location
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=4)]
[String]$Location,
# Optional. Department or division (IT, HR, etc.)
[Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
[String]$Department,
# Optionally specify the SAMAccountName if it needs to be different than the standard formula
[Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
[string]$SamAccountName = ($GivenName.tolower().substring(0,1) +
$SurName.ToLower().Substring(0, [System.Math]::Min(7, $SurName.Length))),
# Optionally specify the UPN prefix if it needs to be different.
# This will be used for email addresses and the UPN
[Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
[string]$UPNPrefix = ($GivenName.tolower() + '.' + $SurName.tolower())
# company specific variables
$EmailDomain = '@domain.com'
$HomeFolderPath = '\\Server\Share'
# calculate stuff
$Instance = Get-ADUser $Instance -Properties *
$OU = $Instance |
Select-Object @{n='ParentContainer';e={$_.DistinguishedName -replace "CN=$($_.cn),",''}}
$ADGroups = $Instance.MemberOf
$UserPrincipalName = ($UPNPrefix + $EmailDomain)
$FirstLast = "$GivenName $SurName"
$Proxies = "SMTP:$UserPrincipalName"
$HomeFolder = "$HomeFolderPath\$($SAMAccountName.ToUpper())"
# Create the Active Directory User
If(Get-ADUser -Filter {SAMAccountName -eq $SAMAccountName})
Write-Warning "User with name $SamAccountName already exists!
Please try again and specify unique values for the -samaccountname and -UPNPrefix parameters."
Return
Else
$Attributes = @{
Name = $FirstLast
GivenName = $GivenName
SurName = $SurName
UserPrincipalName = $UserPrincipalName
SAMAccountname = $SAMAccountName
AccountPassword = (Read-host -assecurestring 'Enter Password')
DisplayName = $FirstLast
Description = "$Location $Title"
EmailAddress = $UserPrincipalName
homedrive = 'H:'
HomeDirectory = $HomeFolder
ScriptPath = 'login.bat'
Title = $Title
Company = $Location
Department = $Department
path = $OU.ParentContainer
Enabled = $True
OtherAttributes = @{proxyaddresses=$Proxies}
New-Aduser @Attributes
# Add User to the same groups as the UserToCopy
$ADGroups |
ForEach-Object {
Add-ADGroupMember -Identity $_ -Members $SAMAccountName
# Create home folder and set permissions
Do
Set-FolderPermission -Path $HomeFolder -User $SamAccountName -Permission 'Fullcontrol' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Until
(Get-ACL $Homefolder).Access.IdentityReference -like "*$SamAccountName*"
Please note this is probably not ready for you to use. You can change any of the internal logic to support naming schemes and paths that your organization uses. Also, there is a call to a function at the bottom that creates a home folder and sets permissions
on that folder. I haven't included that function so this part will error out.