Other Posts in this Series:

• Use PowerShell ADSI to Search Computers in Active Directory
• Use PowerShell ADSI to Search Groups in Active Directory
• Use PowerShell ADSI to Create an AD Group
• Use PowerShell ADSI to Delete an AD Group
• Use PowerShell ADSI to Modify an AD Group

• <<
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• >>

This post provides an example of how we can use PowerShell and ADSI to add, update, clear and append Active Directory attributes.

Use Put() to Set an Active Directory Attribute using PowerShell

In its simplest form, we can use the Put() method to simply set an Active Directory attribute (in this case on a user record) using PowerShell like so:

$objSearcher=[adsisearcher]'(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(sAMAccountName=alkaneuser))'
	
$colProplist = "department"
foreach ($i in $colPropList) { $objSearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add($i) | out-null } 
	
$colResults = $objSearcher.FindOne()	
 
if ($colResults -ne $null)
{   	  
    $user = [adsi]($colResults.Properties).adspath[0]

    #set attribute
    $user.Put("department", "Example department2"); 
    $user.setinfo();    	
}

Use PutEx() to Update and Append to an Active Directory Attribute using PowerShell

We can also use the Put() method to update an Active Directory attribute in similar fashion.  But using PutEx() gives us more flexibility, since we can use it to update, append (for multi-string attribute types), delete and completely clear Active Directory attributes.

$ADS_PROPERTY_CLEAR = 1
$ADS_PROPERTY_UPDATE = 2
$ADS_PROPERTY_APPEND = 3
$ADS_PROPERTY_DELETE = 4

$objSearcher=[adsisearcher]'(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(sAMAccountName=alkaneuser))'
	
$colProplist = "department"
foreach ($i in $colPropList) { $objSearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add($i) | out-null } 
	
$colResults = $objSearcher.FindOne()	
 
if ($colResults -ne $null)
{   	  
  
    $user = [adsi]($colResults.Properties).adspath[0]

    #set attribute
    $user.Put("department", "Example1"); 
    $user.setinfo();   

    #update attribute - uncomment as required
    $user.PutEx($ADS_PROPERTY_UPDATE, "department", @("Example2")); 
    $user.setinfo();     
  
    #update attribute - uncomment as required
    $user.PutEx($ADS_PROPERTY_DELETE, "department", @("Example2")); 
    $user.setinfo();             
   
    #append attribute - uncomment as required
    $user.PutEx($ADS_PROPERTY_APPEND, "department", @("Example3")); 
    $user.setinfo(); 
    	
}

Note in the above example that we are updating the department attribute, which is a single string attribute. Hence if we try and append to it when it is already set, we will see an error (we can’t append to singular strings, only multi-string arrays).  So in the example above we delete the attribute first to prevent this from happening.  Otherwise we can simply update the attribute instead.

Contrast this with the otherhomephone attribute, which is a multi-string attribute (essentially an array of strings) that we can append to:

$ADS_PROPERTY_CLEAR = 1
$ADS_PROPERTY_UPDATE = 2
$ADS_PROPERTY_APPEND = 3
$ADS_PROPERTY_DELETE = 4

$objSearcher=[adsisearcher]'(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(sAMAccountName=alkaneuser))'
	
$colProplist = "otherhomephone"
foreach ($i in $colPropList) { $objSearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add($i) | out-null } 
	
$colResults = $objSearcher.FindOne()	
 
if ($colResults -ne $null)
{   	  
  
    $user = [adsi]($colResults.Properties).adspath[0]

    #set attribute
    $user.Put("otherhomephone", "Example1"); 
    $user.setinfo();   

    #update attribute - uncomment as required
    $user.PutEx($ADS_PROPERTY_UPDATE, "otherhomephone", @("Example2")); 
    $user.setinfo();    
   
    #append attribute - uncomment as required
    $user.PutEx($ADS_PROPERTY_APPEND, "otherhomephone", @("Example3")); 
    $user.setinfo(); 	
}

Use PutEx() to Clear an Active Directory Attribute using PowerShell

Finally we can clear an Active Directory attribute like so:

$ADS_PROPERTY_CLEAR = 1
$ADS_PROPERTY_UPDATE = 2
$ADS_PROPERTY_APPEND = 3
$ADS_PROPERTY_DELETE = 4

$objSearcher=[adsisearcher]'(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(sAMAccountName=alkaneuser))'
	
$colProplist = "department"
foreach ($i in $colPropList) { $objSearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add($i) | out-null } 
	
$colResults = $objSearcher.FindOne()	
 
if ($colResults -ne $null)
{   	  
    $user = [adsi]($colResults.Properties).adspath[0]
   
    #clear attribute - uncomment as required
    $user.PutEx($ADS_PROPERTY_CLEAR, "department", $null); 
    $user.setinfo();   	
}

Other Posts in this Series:

• Use PowerShell ADSI to Search Computers in Active Directory
• Use PowerShell ADSI to Search Groups in Active Directory
• Use PowerShell ADSI to Create an AD Group
• Use PowerShell ADSI to Delete an AD Group
• Use PowerShell ADSI to Modify an AD Group

• <<
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• >>

This post includes an example of how we can use ADSI to list nested members of an AD group.  In other words, if the group contains nested groups, it will iteratively search all the members of those nested groups too.

I’ve filtered this first example to only find enabled objects for those organisations that don’t do good housekeeping!

function Find-Enabled-Members
{
    Param
    (
       [string]$DN
    )

    if (!([adsi]::Exists("LDAP://$DN"))) {
        write-host "$DN does not exist"
        return     
    }
        
    $foundCount = 0
    $group = [adsi]("LDAP://$DN")

    ($group).member | ForEach-Object {

        $groupObject = [adsisearcher]"(&(distinguishedname=$($_)))"  
        $groupObjectProps = $groupObject.FindOne().Properties
             
        if ($groupObjectProps.objectcategory -like "CN=group*") { 
            #search nested group
            $foundCount += Find-Enabled-Members "$_"            
        } else {
            $objenabled = ($groupObjectProps.useraccountcontrol[0] -band 2) -ne 2

            if ($objenabled) {
                write-host "Found $($groupObjectProps.samaccountname) in $($group.Name)"
                $foundCount += 1
            }              
        }
    }
    return $foundCount
}

#group to search for
$groupName = "Alkane_AD_Group"

$objSearcher=[adsisearcher]"(&(objectCategory=group)(name=$groupName))"
$objSearcher.PageSize = 200

#specify properties to include
$colProplist = "name","distinguishedname"
foreach ($i in $colPropList) { $objSearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add($i) | out-null } 
	
$group = $objSearcher.FindOne()

if ($group -ne $null)
{
    #if group found

    $name = ($group.Properties).name
    $distinguishedName = ($group.Properties).distinguishedname
    
    write-host "Found group $name.  Searching members..."
    
    #find members
    $members = Find-Enabled-Members $distinguishedName
    write-host "Total enabled members including nested members is $members"
}

Since it’s checking if each member is enabled or not, it does take slightly longer to run.  If you just wanted to check the member count whether it’s disabled or enabled, you can use the following example:

function Find-Members
{
    Param
    (
       [string]$DN
    )

    if (!([adsi]::Exists("LDAP://$DN"))) {
        write-host "$DN does not exist"
        return     
    }
        
    $group = [adsi]("LDAP://$DN")

    $foundCount = $group.Member.Count

    ($group).member | ForEach-Object {

        $groupObject = [adsisearcher]"(&(distinguishedname=$($_)))"  
        $groupObj = $groupObject.FindOne()

        if ($groupObj -ne $null) {

            $groupObjectProps = $groupObj.Properties
             
            if ($groupObjectProps.objectcategory -like "CN=group*") { 

                #get path of the object from search result
                $pathToObject = ($groupObjectProps).adspath[0]

                #convert/cast search result object path to an ADSI object
                $obj = [adsi]($pathToObject)
                
                #subtract one to deduct group object (we only want to count the members)
                $foundCount = $foundCount - 1
               
                $foundCount += Find-Members "$_"         
            }
        }
    }
    return $foundCount
}

#group to search for
$groupName = "Alkane_AD_Group"

$objSearcher=[adsisearcher]"(&(objectCategory=group)(name=$groupName))"
$objSearcher.PageSize = 200

#specify properties to include
$colProplist = "name","distinguishedname"
foreach ($i in $colPropList) { $objSearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add($i) | out-null } 
	
$group = $objSearcher.FindOne()

if ($group -ne $null)
{
    #if group found

    $name = ($group.Properties).name
    $distinguishedName = ($group.Properties).distinguishedname
    
    $members = Find-Members $distinguishedName
    write-host "Total members including nested members is $members"
}