Create Bulk Users

by David | Feb 5, 2024 | Information Technology, PowerShell

Today we are going to go over how to create hundreds of users at once using PowerShell in active Directory. This is great for building a home lab to test things out with. To learn how to build your own AD lab, you can look over this video. Towards the end of this video he shows you how to do the same thing, but, today, I am going to show you a simple way to get unique information. This way you can use PowerShell to Create Bulk Users in your Active Directory.

The Script

$DomainOU = "DC=therandomadmin,dc=com"
$Domain = "therandomadmin.com"
$Users = import-csv C:\temp\ITCompany.csv
$OUs = $users | Group-Object -Property StateFull | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
New-ADOrganizationalUnit -Name "Employees" -Path "$DomainOU"
$EmployeePath = "OU=Employees,$($DomainOU)"
foreach ($OU in $OUs) {
    New-ADOrganizationalUnit -Name $OU -Path $EmployeePath
}
foreach ($user in $Users) {
    $Param = @{
        #Name
        GivenName = $User.GivenName
        Surname = $User.Surname
        DisplayName = "$($User.GivenName) $($User.MiddleInitial) $($User.Surname)"
        Name = "$($User.GivenName) $($User.MiddleInitial) $($User.Surname)"
        Description = "$($user.City) - $($User.Color) - $($user.Occupation)"

        #Email and Usernames
        EmailAddress = "$($User.GivenName).$($User.MiddleInitial).$($User.Surname)@$($Domain)"
        UserPrincipalName = "$($User.GivenName).$($User.MiddleInitial).$($User.Surname)@$($Domain)"
        SamAccountName = "$($User.GivenName).$($User.MiddleInitial).$($User.Surname)"

        #Contact Info
        StreetAddress = $user.StreetAddress
        City = $user.City
        State = $user.State
        Country = $user.Country
        HomePhone = $user.TelephoneNumber

        #Company Info
        Company = "DPB"
        Department = $user.Color
        Title = $user.Occupation
        EmployeeID = $user.Number
        EmployeeNumber = $user.NationalID.replace("-",'')
        Division = $user.State

        #Account Data
        Enabled = $true
        ChangePasswordAtLogon = $false
        AccountPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "$($user.Password)@$($user.NationalID)" -AsPlainText -Force
        Path = "OU=$($User.StateFull),$EmployeePath"

        #Command
        ErrorAction = "SilentlyContinue"
        Verbose = $true

    }
    try {
        New-ADUser @Param 
    } catch {
        Write-Error "$($User.GivenName) $($User.MiddleInitial) $($User.Surname)"
    }
}

Bulk User File?

This script is very dependant on a csv file that magically seems to appear. Well, it doesn’t. The first thing we need is to get a CSV of bulk users to create bulk users. To do this, you can navigate to a site called fake name generator. This site allows you to quickly generate user information to use to build your site.

1. Navigate to the https://www.fakenamegenerator.com/.
2. Click Order in Bulk
3. Check the I agree check box
4. Select Common Sepearted (CSV) and the compression is zip.
5. Then select your country. I selected American.
   • Note: Some languages will cause issues with AD due to unique characters. If you do select this, make sure to correct for it.
6. Select your country of choice. I choose the US.
7. Select the age and gender ranges. You can keep this standard
8. Then I selected All on the included fields.
9. Select how many you want and enter email
   • Note: A single OU doesn’t display more than 2000 users. This script creates sub OUs just for this case based on the zodaic signs.
10. Then verify and place your order.

Once you have the file, we can get started explaining what we are going to do to Create Bulk Users in Active Directory with the Power of PowerShell.

The Breakdown

It’s time to break down this script. The first two lines are the domain information. I’m using therandomadmin.com as a example. The next is the Bulk Users csv. These are the lines you want to change if you want to use this in your own lab. The next line grabs the OUs names. We want the full state names in this case from the csv. Next we will create the Employees OU that will host all of the other OUs.

New-ADOrganizationalUnit -Name "Employees" -Path "$DomainOU"

Now we have the OU built, we will make a path for later. by dropping the Employees and the domain ou into it’s own variable. using this variable, we enter a foreach loop using the OUs. We want to build a new OU for each OU in the OUs.

foreach ($OU in $OUs) {
    New-ADOrganizationalUnit -Name $OU -Path $EmployeePath
}

Next, we will go through the loop of users. In each loop, we want to build a splat. Splatting was covered here in a previous blog. In this splat, we are looking over the New-ADUser commandlet. Lets break it apart.

The Splat

GivenName = $User.GivenName
Surname = $User.Surname
DisplayName = "$($User.GivenName) $($User.MiddleInitial) $($User.Surname)"
Name = "$($User.GivenName) $($User.MiddleInitial) $($User.Surname)"
Description = "$($user.City) - $($User.Color) - $($user. Occupation)"

Using the csv file. We are using the Given name, Surname, and Middle Initial. Using this information, we make the display name, given name, sur name and the name. Then we use the city, color and occupation. The next part is we want to build the usernames.

EmailAddress = "$($User.GivenName).$($User.MiddleInitial).$($User.Surname)@$($Domain)"
UserPrincipalName = "$($User.GivenName).$($User.MiddleInitial).$($User.Surname)@$($Domain)"
SamAccountName = "$($User.GivenName).$($User.MiddleInitial).$($User.Surname)"

Using the same structure as the name, We just add dots and for the email, we just add the domain. Then we will grab the street address, city, state, country, and home phone.

StreetAddress = $user.StreetAddress
City = $user. City
State = $user. State
Country = $user. Country
HomePhone = $user.TelephoneNumber

Next we want to use do the company information. We want the department as the color, the Title will be the occupation, employee id will be the users number, the employee number would be the social and finally the division would be the state.

Company = "The Random Admin"
Department = $user. Color
Title = $user. Occupation
EmployeeID = $user. Number
EmployeeNumber = $user.NationalID.replace("-",'')
Division = $user. State

Now we have company information, we want to make account information. Things like being enabled, password changing, the password and finally the OU. We want to do the Full state name for the OU. This way it matches with the OUs we built before hand.

Enabled = $true
ChangePasswordAtLogon = $false
AccountPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "$($user.Password)@$($user.NationalID)" -AsPlainText -Force
Path = "OU=$($User.StateFull),$EmployeePath"

Finally, we want to push though the command itself. These are the cmdletbinding() flag commands like verbose and error action.

ErrorAction = "SilentlyContinue"
Verbose = $true

Now the splat is done. It’s time to build the try catch with a useful error. By default the Error message is massive. So, making it easier with just the Name is very much more helpful. We will make sure to splat in the new-aduser information.

try {
        New-ADUser @Param 
} catch {
        Write-Error "$($User.GivenName) $($User.MiddleInitial) $($User.Surname)"
}

That’s all for this script. It’s not hard, but it should allow you to create a lab quickly. You can download the CSV here if you wish.

What can we learn as a person today?

Unlike the God’s of old, we are not able to create new people in our lives to meet our needs. Instead, we have to find people. Like we pointed out last week, networking is massive. How we are to other with our networking is extremely important. Without networking, we tend to find ourselves in a hole. Imagine a giant hole in the ground with oiled up smooth metal walls and all you have to get out is a rope that is at the top of the hole. There is a lot that can happen here. The rope can stay there. Someone can throw you the rope.

Throwing the rope

Someone can throw you the rope and walk away. The rope will land in the hole with you. You can try to throw the rope out, but without something to cling to, the rope will just fall back down to you. This is like the man who says to just study for this exam or that exam. He threw you a rope, but hasn’t really done anything else.

Now image if someone secured that rope to something like a car or a rock and threw the other end to you. Now you have something to climb up with. This is the person who has given you resources to look into. For example, I hear you want to get into networking but have no experience. I’m going to say study the network plus exam and then tell you about professor messor on youtube. This is super helpful and most people can climb out of the hole with the rope. However, in this senerio, the wall’s are oiled up. Thus, footing is an issue.

Finally, we have the guy who ties the rope to his car, and throws you the other end. Then backs up with his car pulling you out of the hole. This would be a manager, or a senior member of an IT company taking a new person under their wing and leverging the company to help them learn new things. This is the kind of company, I would want to work with.

Final Thoughts

When you are working with people helping them with their career, some people just need the rope. Some people need the anchor and finally some needs to be pulled out of the hole. A lot of this is due to society and situations. Being aware of these facts can help you network with others better and grow your support team. Being aware of yourself allows you to know who you need as well. Do you need the truck? Do you need an anchor? What is it that we need to get you out of the holes that we find ourselves in? What can we be to others?