Creating New AD Users in Powershell from Existing User

Question

Often I have to create new users in active directory by copying the profile of an user already present.
Is there a way to make my life easier with powershel ?

Can I modify this one?

$userInstance = Get-ADUser -Identity "saraDavis"
New-ADUser -SAMAccountName "ellenAdams" -Instance $userInstance -DisplayName "EllenAdams"

I have to modify/add the value to the new user listed below:

• User logon name:
• Profile > content ( in home folder)
• Attribute editor >Employ ID

Answer 1

Hello,

these values can be set using the following parameters of New-ADUser cmdlet:

User logon name: -UserPrincipalName <String>

Profile > content ( in home folder): -HomeDirectory <String>

Attribute editor >Employ ID: -EmployeeID <String>

All parameters are listed here:
New-ADUser

For your code, it would look something like this:

$userInstance = Get-ADUser -Identity "saraDavis"   
New-ADUser -SAMAccountName "ellenAdams" -Instance $userInstance -DisplayName "EllenAdams" -UserPrincipalName "EllenAdams@domain.local" -HomeDirectory "Path" -EmployeeID "12345"  

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Answer 2

Hi @Marc ,
That’s exactly what you need for that.
In your script, just replace « saraDavis » by your source or template account.

One good practice would be to create one or more templates account with all properties you want.
Also, when you populate your variable &userinstance you could specify all properties you wish to copy as shown below, that for avoiding errors during copy, because not every attributes can be copied.

$newuser= Get-ADUser -Identity usertemplate01 -Properties StreetAddress,City,Title,PostalCode,Office,Department,Manager

Hope this will be helpful...
Regards.

Answer 3

Thank you both, very useful.
What about "member Of"? how can I import / populate these "folders" to the new user as well?

Answer 4

I found out "memberof"

Answer 5

I did a test:

$userInstance = Get-ADUser -Identity 111111 -Prop * | select memberof, UserPrincipalName , ChangePasswordAtLogon, Description, DisplayName, HomeDirectory, HomeDrive, Office, Path, Company, Department, Manager, ScriptPath, Division, Fax, Organization, ProfilePath, Surname, Title, Country, State
New-ADUser -SAMAccountName "101010" -Instance $userInstance -Name "Bob" -Surname "Smith"-DisplayName "Smith Bob" -UserPrincipalName "101010@keyman .it" -HomeDirectory "\HOMEFOLDER\101010" -EmployeeID "101010"

I have received the error below(I have admin right):

New-ADUser : Access is denied
At line:2 char:1

• New-ADUser -SAMAccountName "101010" -Instance $userInstance -Name " ...
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• CategoryInfo : PermissionDenied: (CN=Bob,CN=Users,DC=xxx,DC=xxxxx,DC=it:String) [New-ADUser], Unaut
  horizedAccessException
• FullyQualifiedErrorId : ActiveDirectoryCmdlet:System.UnauthorizedAccessException,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Man
  agement.Commands.NewADUser