Automate Active Directory with PowerShell (Hands-On)

Explore how Active Directory serves as a centralized database and directory service that stores users, passwords, access levels, devices, printers, group policies, and supports LDAP queries across Windows domain networks.

Active Directory serves as a centralized, scalable database for users, groups, computers, and resources, managed via domain controllers, LDAP access, and group policies.

Understand the structure of Active Directory by comparing folders that organize users, computers, and resources. Explore how organizational units, domains, domain trees, forests, and the schema enable scalable management.

Manage Active Directory with PowerShell by understanding SIDs and GUIDs, and handling accounts, including SAM account name and UPN.

Create and manage active directory groups for permissions. Learn about security and distribution groups, universal/global/domain local scopes, and how to add members, nest groups, and use the attribute editor.

Design an effective Active Directory organizational units structure by aligning with department, region, and object type needs, enabling unique group policy, delegated permissions, and sub-OU hierarchies.

Explore PowerShell's help system with Get-Help and Get-Command, learn to search commands with wildcards, view full syntax and examples, and access concept-based help topics.

Learn how to use PowerShell comparison operators for Active Directory management, including equality (-eq), inequality (-ne), ordering (-lt/-le/-gt/-ge), and pattern matching (-like, -clike, -match, -contains, -notlike, -cnotlike), with Intellisense support.

Master CSV file handling with PowerShell by importing CSV data, sorting by column, and exporting sorted results to new files using Import-Csv, Sort-Object, and NoTypeInformation.

Master PowerShell objects and the pipeline with Select-Object, Where-Object, Get-Member, and Group-Object, then apply Foreach-Object to delete files older than 10 days using Get-ChildItem with -WhatIf.

Explore how PowerShell pipelines pass objects between cmdlets, apply default views to show properties, and end with Out-Default to display readable output.

Master PowerShell output formatting and conversion by creating lists and tables with Format-List and Format-Table, and converting objects to html, csv, json, xml, and styling html with css.

Explore the PowerShell AD module to manage Active Directory with efficient, verb-noun cmdlets for bulk management of users, groups, service accounts, and organizational units, with help via Get-Help.

Explore essential PowerShell parameters such as WhatIf, -confirm, and -force, and learn to use -credential and -server for managing AD objects.

Master PowerShell understanding II to manage Active Directory with cmdlets and parameters, including identity parameter and Get-ADDomain, and perform CSV-based bulk creation using dynamic values instead of hard-coded data.

Retrieve active directory users with Get-ADUser, inspect the AD user object and its properties, and view extra attributes with a properties parameter. Use Out-Gridview to visualize and compare users.

Form the distinguished name of an AD object and use LDAP or PowerShell filters, with a defined search base, to retrieve precise results.

Automate Active Directory user provisioning with PowerShell by creating new accounts, enabling them, and batch-importing from CSV to assign OUs and enforce password changes at first logon.

Automate AD user modifications with Set-ADUser in PowerShell, including single and bulk updates via Get-ADUser and CSV loops, with WhatIf safety.

Create an Active Directory group using PowerShell with New-ADGroup, specifying name, scope, and path, then retrieve an existing group to use as a template for a distribution group with Get-ADGroup.

Add and remove members from an Active Directory group using PowerShell. Learn to use Add-ADGroupMember and Remove-ADGroupMember with Identity and Members parameters, handle confirmations, and manage nested groups.

Discover how to retrieve members of an AD group with Get-ADGroupMember, including recursive membership, and export the results to a CSV file using PowerShell.

Learn to modify AD group properties with Set-ADGroup in PowerShell—using identity, pipeline objects, or a CSV-driven loop—and to remove groups with Remove-ADGroup, with verification via Get-ADGroup.

Automate bulk Active Directory group management with a csv-driven PowerShell script that adds or removes members using an operation column, with recursive group member retrieval and validation.