How to create a user account by mirroring another account in PowerShell (Trying to learn to use Powshell for some daily AD tasks intead of the GUI)

Question

Hi,
I am trying to create user accounts via PowerShell instead of the Gui in server 2008 R2 (PowerShell 2.0).
I know how to create a user account with the following Power Shell command below is one from a dummy domain I created to practice.
PS C:\Users\Administrator> New-ADUser -SamAccountName "TestOut" -UserPrincipalNa
me "[email protected]" -GivenName "Test" -Surname "out" -DisplayName "Testou
t" -Name "Testout" -Enabled $true -Path "CN=users,DC=bwcat,DC=net,DC=int" -Accou
ntPassword (Read-Host -AsSecureString "Enter Account Password") 
However when doing day to day tasks where I work normally we have a new hire, they contact IT and ask that a user account is created.   I will ask who they would like to mirror.
I then would go into the gui pull up the user that they want to mirror right click him and choose copy.  This would create a new user account that I would then fill out.
I am wondering if its possible to do this same thing via PowerShell, or  if its not an option because it takes more work type up everything than it does to go into the gui and do it.
Anyway thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Hi Wilder, hi Mark,
first of all: The tutorial sources Mark posted - especially the book "Powershell 3 in A month of lunches" - are good to get a baseline start. A really great reference, especially when you try to learn it while still dealing with your daily business.
On another note, Wilder: While I fully agree that learning things sequentially is usually the best, I too jumped right in instead of learning how to walk first (though it's been some time now. Fewer years than you'd think, but still ...). So I thought I'd
give you a little aid with that function husk, so you could just stuff interesting bits into an available structure, making use of the fun tools in a useful context (It's fun fiddling around with the commands, but if you have to type in all of them manually
each time, using the GUI is often just faster. Doing fun things and being efficient with it feels even better though ...). So ... while I
do agree with yourself, learn it the Correct & Proper Way, I also do
intend to finish this little explanation about the husk, all the way to the end.
Everything below this paragraph is part of this.
function Copy-ADUser
<#
.SYNOPSIS
A brief description of the Copy-ADUser function.
.DESCRIPTION
A detailed description of the Copy-ADUser function.
.PARAMETER GivenName
A description of the GivenName parameter.
.PARAMETER Surname
A description of the Surname parameter.
.PARAMETER Template
A description of the Template parameter.
.EXAMPLE
PS C:\> Copy-ADUser -GivenName "Max" -Surname "Mustermann" -Template "Jonny.Normal"
.NOTES
Additional information about the function.
#>
[CmdletBinding()]
Param (
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$Surname,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$GivenName,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$Template
) # Create finished Strings
$JoinedName = $GivenName + "." + $Surname
# Create new User
$NewUser = New-ADUser -Surname $Surname -GivenName $GivenName -DisplayName "$Surname, $GivenName" -SamAccountName $JoinedName -Name "$Surename, $GivenName" -PassThru
# Copy from old User
$NewUser | Add-ADPrincipalGroupMembership -MemberOf (Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $Template | Where { $_.Name -ne 'Domain Users' })
# Do Whatever else you feel like doing
This is again the same function husk I posted earlier. Only this time, I filled a little logic (the pieces that were already posted in this thread). This time, I'll not only go over each part again ... I'll do it by reposting the segments and trying to show
some examples on how to modify the parts. Thus some of it will be repetitive, but this way all the info is in one spot.
Segment: Comment Based Help
<#
.SYNOPSIS
A brief description of the Copy-ADUser function.
.DESCRIPTION
A detailed description of the Copy-ADUser function.
.PARAMETER GivenName
A description of the GivenName parameter.
.PARAMETER Surname
A description of the Surname parameter.
.PARAMETER Template
A description of the Template parameter.
.EXAMPLE
PS C:\> Copy-ADUser -GivenName "Max" -Surname "Mustermann" -Template "Jonny.Normal"
.NOTES
Additional information about the function.
#>
That's the premier documentation part of a function, that teaches a user what the function does and how to use it. It's what's shown when using the Get-Help cmdlet.
Comment texts are not restricted to single lines however. For example you could replace ...
.EXAMPLE
PS C:\> Copy-ADUser -GivenName "Max" -Surname "Mustermann" -Template "Jonny.Normal"
... with ...
.EXAMPLE
PS C:\> Copy-ADUser -GivenName "Max" -Surname "Mustermann" -Template "Jonny.Normal"
Creates a new user named Max Mustermann and copies the group memberships of the already existing user Jonny Normal to this new User
... and get an explanation on what the example does when using Get-Help with the
-Detailed parameter (Explaining examples is always a good idea).
Segment: Parameter
[CmdletBinding()]
Param (
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$Surname,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$GivenName,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$Template
This is the segment that tells Powershell what input your function accepts. Each parameter of Copy-ADUser you set will be available in the next segment as a variable of the same name. You can add additional parameters if you need more information for your
logic. For example, let's add a parameter that allows you to specify what Organization the new user should belong to:
[CmdletBinding()]
Param (
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$Surname,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$GivenName,
[string]
$Organization,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
[string]
$Template
That's how that would look like. You may notice that I didn't add the line with
"[Parameter(Mandatory = $true)] this time. This means you
may add the Organization parameter when calling Copy-ADUser, but you need not.
Segment: Logic
# Create new User
$NewUser = New-ADUser -Surname $Surname -GivenName $GivenName -DisplayName "$Surname, $GivenName" -SamAccountName "$GivenName.$Surename" -Name "$Surename, $GivenName" -PassThru
# Copy from old User
$NewUser | Add-ADPrincipalGroupMembership -MemberOf (Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $Template | Where { $_.Name -ne 'Domain Users' })
# Do Whatever else you feel like doing
This is the part of the function that does the actual work. Compared to the first husk I posted, this time there are two commands in it (and some comments). First, I create a new user, using the information passed into
the parameters -Surname and -GivenName. Then I Copy the group memberships of the user identified by the information given by the
-Template parameter.
So, let's modify it!
# Tell the user you are starting
Write-Host "Starting to create the user account for $GivenName $Surname"
# Create new User
$NewUser = New-ADUser -Surname $Surname -GivenName $GivenName -DisplayName "$Surname, $GivenName" -SamAccountName "$GivenName.$Surename" -Name "$Surename, $GivenName" -PassThru
# Tell the user you are copying Group Memberships
Write-Host "Copying the group-memberhips of $Template to $GivenName $Surname"
# Copy from old User
$NewUser | Add-ADPrincipalGroupMembership -MemberOf (Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $Template | Where { $_.Name -ne 'Domain Users' })
# Do Whatever else you feel like doing
Now after adding a few lines, the logic will tell us what it's doing (and do so before it
is taking action)!
Hm ... didn't we create a change in the Parameter Segment to add an -Organization parameter? Let's use it!
# If the -Organization parameter was set, the $Organization variable will be longer than 0. Thus do ...
if ($Organization.Length -gt 0)
# Tell the user you are starting
Write-Host "Starting to create the user account for $GivenName $Surname in the Organization $Organization"
# Create new User
$NewUser = New-ADUser -Surname $Surname -GivenName $GivenName -DisplayName "$Surname, $GivenName" -SamAccountName "$GivenName.$Surename" -Name "$Surename, $GivenName" -Organization $Organization -PassThru
# If the -Organization parameter was NOT set, the $Organization variable will have a length of 0. Thus the if-condition does not apply, thus we do the else block
else
# Tell the user you are starting
Write-Host "Starting to create the user account for $GivenName $Surname"
# Create new User
$NewUser = New-ADUser -Surname $Surname -GivenName $GivenName -DisplayName "$Surname, $GivenName" -SamAccountName "$GivenName.$Surename" -Name "$Surename, $GivenName" -PassThru
# Tell the user you are copying Group Memberships
Write-Host "Copying the group-memberhips of $Template to $GivenName $Surname"
# Copy from old User
$NewUser | Add-ADPrincipalGroupMembership -MemberOf (Get-ADPrincipalGroupMembership $Template | Where { $_.Name -ne 'Domain Users' })
# Do Whatever else you feel like doing
There! Now we first check whether the -Organization parameter was set (it's not mandatory after all, so you can skip it). If it
was set, do whatever is in the curly braces after if (...). However, if it wasn't set, do whatever is in the curly braces after
else.
And that concludes my "minor" (and hopefully helpful) tutorial on how to use the function husk I posted :)
With this, whenever you find another cool command that helps you in the user creation process, you can simply add it, similar to what I did in these examples.
And if it all didn't make much sense, go through the tutorials in proper order and come back - it'll make much more sense then.
Cheers and good luck with PowerShell,
Fred
There's no place like 127.0.0.1