Schedule Import of Users from CSV

With Adaxes you can automate the provisioning of user accounts by importing data from a CSV file into Active Directory on a regular basis. To schedule the import process you need to create a Scheduled Task that will periodically execute a PowerShell script. The script will read in a CSV file using the Import-Csv cmdlet and pass the data to the New-AdmUser cmdlet to create users in Active Directory.

The New-AdmUser cmdlet is included in Adaxes PowerShell Module for Active Directory. To use the cmdlet in a Scheduled Task, you need to install Adaxes PowerShell Module on the computer, where your Adaxes service is running.

Perform the following steps to schedule the import of user accounts from a CSV file:

Create a CSV file with user data.

Columns

By default, Adaxes will expect the columns in the CSV file to be named like in the table below. If the columns in your CSV file are named differently, you will need to use column mapping.

Column Name	Description	Example	Type
AccountExpirationDate	The expiration date for the account. When set to 0, the account never expires.	4/17/2006 Monday, April 17, 2006 Monday, April 17, 2006 2:22 PM Mon, 17 Apr 2006 21:22:48 GMT 05/01/2012 5:00:00 PM	Date
AccountNotDelegated	Specifies whether the security context of the user is delegated to a service.	true false	Boolean
AccountPassword	The user password.	secret	Secure String
AllowReversiblePassword Encryption	Specifies whether reversible password encryption is allowed for the account.	true false	Boolean
CannotChangePassword	Specifies whether the account password can be changed.	true false	Boolean
ChangePasswordAtLogon	Specifies whether the password must be changed during the first logon.	true false	Boolean
City	The user's town or city.	London	String
Company	The user's company.	Acme	String
Country	The country or region code for the user's language of choice.	US FR	String
Department	The user's department.	Sales	String
Description	The description of the user.	External subcontractor	String
DisplayName	The display name of the user.	John Smith	String
Division	The user's division.	Software	String
EmailAddress	The user's e-mail address.	johndoe@example.com	String
EmployeeID	The user's employee ID.	A123321	String
EmployeeNumber	The user's employee number.	112233	String
Enabled	Specifies if the account is enabled.	true false	Boolean
Fax	The user's fax phone number.	+1 (999) 555 1122	String
GivenName	The user's first name.	John	String
HomeDirectory	The user's home directory.	\\SERVER\johnsmith	String
HomeDrive	The drive that is associated with the UNC path defined by the HomeDirectory property.	D:	String
HomePage	The URL of the home page of the user.	http://example.com/jsmith	String
HomePhone	The user's home telephone number.	+1 (999) 555 2222	String
Initials	The initials that represent part of the user's name.	L	String
LogonWorkstations	The computers that the user can access.	COMP1,COMP2.example.com	String
Manager	The user's manager.	john.doe CN=Doe,CN=Users,DC=acme,DC=com 7D1D1508-2A07-47D8-8933-C9E557ED86D0 S-1-5-21-1233211223-291919	ADUser
MobilePhone	The user's mobile phone number.	+1 (999) 555 3333	String
Name	The user's full name.	John Smith	String
Office	The location of the user's office or place of business.	B1021	String
OfficePhone	The user's office telephone number.	+1 (999) 555 4444	String
Organization	The user's organization.	Accounting	String
OtherAttributes	Values for user properties that cannot be specified in the CSV file columns.	'extensionAttribute1'=value 'customAttribute'=value1,value2 'attr1'=val; 'attr2'=val1,val2	TTT
OtherName	The name in addition to a user's given name and surname, such as the user's middle name.	Peter	String
PasswordNeverExpires	Specifies whether the password of the account can expire.	true false	Boolean
PasswordNotRequired	Specifies whether the account requires a password.	true false	Boolean
Path	The DN of the Organizational Unit (OU) or container where the new user will be created.	CN=Users,DC=acme,DC=com	String
POBox	The user's post office box number.	25656	String
PostalCode	The user's postal code or zip code.	18711	String
ProfilePath	The path to the user's profile.	\\SERVER\profiles\johndoe	String
ProtectedFromAccidental Deletion	Specifies whether an object is protected from accidental deletion.	true false	Boolean
SamAccountName	The user's logon name (pre-Windows 2000).	johnsmith	String
ScriptPath	The path to the user's log on script.	\\SCRIPTS\johnsmithLogin	String
SmartcardLogonRequired	Specifies whether a smart card is required to logon.	true false	Boolean
State	The user's state or province.	Nevada	String
StreetAddress	The user's street address.	100 Main Street	String
Surname	The user's last name or surname.	Smith	String
Title	The user's title.	Sales Manager	String
TrustedForDelegation	Specifies whether an account is trusted for Kerberos delegation.	true false	Boolean
UserPrincipalName	The user's logon name.	johnsmith@example.com	String

Launch Adaxes Administration Console, expand your Adaxes service, right-click Scheduled Tasks, point to New and click Scheduled Task.

Enter a name for the new Scheduled Task, and click Next.

It is recommended to use nouns to name Scheduled Tasks (e.g. CSV Importer, Membership Manager), because tasks will appear as operation initiators in the Adaxes Log and approval email notifications.
Specify how often the task should run and click Next.
To import user accounts into an Organizational Unit, select the Organizational Unit object type.

Click Next.
Click Add an action and select Run a program or PowerShell script.

Click the button to provide a custom description for the action.
Click the Edit button to open the script editor.

If your CSV file doesn't contain any special columns and all columns are named exactly as in the table from Step 1 of this tutorial, use the below script to import new users.

Import-Module Adaxes

$file = "\\SERVER\Share\users.csv"
$targetDN = "%distinguishedName%"
$domain = $Context.GetObjectDomain($targetDN)

Import-CSV $file | New-AdmUser -Path $targetDN -Server $domain `
    -AdaxesService localhost

The -Path parameter specifies the distinguished name (DN) of the Organizational Unit or container where to create user accounts. Value reference %distinguishedName% will be replaced with the DN of the Organizational Unit included in the activity scope of the task.

If your CSV file contains columns with the following data types, they need to be processed in the script:

Password e.g. AccountPassword
Boolean e.g. ChangePasswordAtLogon, Enabled
DN e.g. Manager

Processing columns with specific data types

Import-Module Adaxes

$file = "\\SERVER\Share\users.csv"
$targetDN = "%distinguishedName%"
$domain = $Context.GetObjectDomain($targetDN)

$importedUsers = Import-Csv $file
foreach ($user in $importedUsers)
{
    # Password column
    $user.AccountPassword = `
        ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText $user.AccountPassword -Force

    # Boolean columns
    $user.Enabled = [System.Boolean]::Parse($user.Enabled)
    $user.ChangePasswordAtLogon = [System.Boolean]::Parse($user.ChangePasswordAtLogon)
    
    # DN syntax column
    $managerID = $user.Manager
    $manager = Get-ADmObject -Filter {(employeeID -eq $managerID)} `
        -AdaxesService localhost -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    $user.Manager = $manager.DistinguishedName

    $user | New-AdmUser -Path $targetDN -AdaxesService localhost -Server $domain
}

The columns have to be processed because Active Directory expects data of a specific type. For example, to specify a manager, you need to pass the manager's distinguished name (DN). This means you need to obtain the DN in the script if the column in your CSV contains some other unique identifier, like employee ID.

You need to use column mapping in the script if your CSV file has custom column names.

Column mapping

If the columns in your CSV file have names that don't match AD property names, the CSV file has to be processed differently. Use the below script that maps custom column names to LDAP properties.

The $columnMap variable specifies a hashtable that maps column names from your file to property names of the new user accounts.

Import-Module Adaxes

$file = "\\SERVER\Share\users.csv"
$targetDN = "%distinguishedName%"
$domain = $Context.GetObjectDomain($targetDN)
$columnMap = @{
    "First Name" = "givenName";
    "Last Name" = "sn";
    "EmpID" = "employeeID";
    "EmpRole" = "adm-CustomAttributeText1";
}

$importedUsers = Import-Csv $file
foreach ($user in $importedUsers)
{
    $propertyToValue = @{}
    foreach ($property in $user.PSObject.Properties)
    {
        # Get AD property name
        $propertyName = $columnMap[$property.Name]
        $value = $property.Value
		
        if ($NULL -eq $value)
        {
            continue
        }
		
        $propertyToValue.Add($propertyName, $value)
    }
    New-AdmUser -Path $targetDN -Server $domain -Name $name `
        -AdaxesService localhost -Enabled $True -OtherAttributes $propertyToValue
}

Error Email Notifications

If you want the script to send an email notification if an error occurred during user account creation, you can use the following code:

...

try
{
    $user | New-AdmUser -Path $targetDN -AdaxesService localhost -Server $domain`
        -ErrorAction Stop
}
catch [System.Exception]
{
    $to = "admin@company.com"
    $subj = "Failed to Import User from CSV"
    $bodyText = "Adaxes failed to import user " + $user.Name + " from $file."`
        + "`nError: " + $_.Exception.Message
    $bodyHtml = $NULL
    $Context.SendMail($to, $subj, $bodyText, $bodyHtml)

    $Context.LogMessage($bodyText, "Error")
}

For information on how to create scripts for Business Rules, Custom Commands, and Scheduled Tasks, see Server-Side Scripting.

When finished, click OK two times and then click Next.

On the Activity Scope page, specify the Organizational Unit where imported user accounts will be created.
- Click the Add button.
- Select the target Organizational Unit.
- In the Assignment Options dialog, check the The Organizational Unit object checkbox and uncheck the Objects located in the Organizational Unit checkbox.
- Click OK two times.
Using Business Rules you can automatically move newly created users to appropriate Organizational Units based on certain rules. For more details, see Automatically Move Users between Organizational Units.
The activity scope of the Scheduled Task must include a single Organizational Unit! Otherwise the task will import user accounts to each OU included in the activity scope.

Click Finish.

Schedule Import of Users from CSV

Error Email Notifications

See Also

Delegating Permissions

Automation

Simplifying Data Entry

Active Directory Management

Web Interface Customization

Self-Service