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Provisioning users into applications using PowerShell

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The following documentation provides configuration and tutorial information demonstrating how the generic PowerShell connector and the Extensible Connectivity(ECMA) Connector host can be used to integrate Microsoft Entra ID with external systems that offer Windows PowerShell based APIs.

For additional information see Windows PowerShell Connector technical reference

Prerequisites for provisioning via PowerShell

The following sections detail the prerequisites for this tutorial.

Download the PowerShell setup files

Download the PowerShell setup files from our GitHub repository. The setup files consist of the configuration file, the input file, schema file and the scripts used.

On-premises prerequisites

The connector provides a bridge between the capabilities of the ECMA Connector Host and Windows PowerShell. Before you use the Connector, make sure you have the following on the server hosting the connector

  • A Windows Server 2016 or a later version.
  • At least 3 GB of RAM, to host a provisioning agent.
  • .NET Framework 4.7.2
  • Windows PowerShell 2.0, 3.0, or 4.0
  • Connectivity between hosting server, the connector, and the target system that the PowerShell scripts interact with.
  • The execution policy on the server must be configured to allow the connector to run Windows PowerShell scripts. Unless the scripts the connector runs are digitally signed, configure the execution policy by running this command:
    Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
  • Deploying this connector requires one or more PowerShell scripts. Some Microsoft products may provide scripts for use with this connector, and the support statement for those scripts would be provided by that product. If you are developing your own scripts for use with this connector, you'll need to have familiarity with the Extensible Connectivity Management Agent API to develop and maintain those scripts. If you are integrating with third party systems using your own scripts in a production environment, we recommend you work with the third party vendor or a deployment partner for help, guidance and support for this integration.

Cloud requirements

  • A Microsoft Entra tenant with Microsoft Entra ID P1 or Premium P2 (or EMS E3 or E5). Using this feature requires Microsoft Entra ID P1 licenses. To find the right license for your requirements, see Compare generally available features of Microsoft Entra ID.
  • The Hybrid Identity Administrator role for configuring the provisioning agent and the Application Administrator or Cloud Application Administrator roles for configuring provisioning in the Azure portal.
  • The Microsoft Entra users, to be provisioned, must already be populated with any attributes required by the schema.

Download, install, and configure the Microsoft Entra Connect Provisioning Agent Package

If you have already downloaded the provisioning agent and configured it for another on-premises application, then continue reading in the next section.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Hybrid Identity Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Hybrid management > Microsoft Entra Connect > Cloud sync > Agents.

Screenshot of new UX screen.

  1. Select Download on-premises agent, review the terms of service, then select Accept terms & download.

    Note

    Please use different provisioning agents for on-premises application provisioning and Microsoft Entra Connect cloud sync / HR-driven provisioning. All three scenarios should not be managed on the same agent.

  2. Open the provisioning agent installer, agree to the terms of service, and select Install.

  3. When the Microsoft Entra provisioning agent configuration wizard opens, continue to the Select Extension tab and select On-premises application provisioning when prompted for the extension you want to enable.

  4. The provisioning agent uses the operating system's web browser to display a popup window for you to authenticate to Microsoft Entra ID, and potentially also your organization's identity provider. If you are using Internet Explorer as the browser on Windows Server, then you may need to add Microsoft web sites to your browser's trusted site list to allow JavaScript to run correctly.

  5. Provide credentials for a Microsoft Entra administrator when you're prompted to authorize. The user is required to have the Hybrid Identity Administrator or Global Administrator role.

  6. Select Confirm to confirm the setting. Once installation is successful, you can select Exit, and also close the Provisioning Agent Package installer.

Configure the On-premises ECMA app

Tip

Steps in this article might vary slightly based on the portal you start from.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications.
  3. Select New application.
  4. Search for the On-premises ECMA app application, give the app a name, and select Create to add it to your tenant.
  5. Navigate to the Provisioning page of your application.
  6. Select Get started.
  7. On the Provisioning page, change the mode to Automatic.
  8. On the On-Premises Connectivity section, select the agent that you just deployed and select Assign Agent(s).
  9. Keep this browser window open, as you complete the next step of configuration using the configuration wizard.

Place the InputFile.txt and Schema.xml file in locations

Before you can create the PowerShell connector for this tutorial, you need to copy the InputFile.txt and Schema.xml file into the correct locations. These files are the ones you needed to download in section Download the PowerShell setup files.

File location
InputFile.txt C:\Program Files\Microsoft ECMA2Host\Service\ECMA\MAData
Schema.xml C:\Program Files\Microsoft ECMA2Host\Service\ECMA

Configure the Microsoft Entra ECMA Connector Host certificate

  1. On the Windows Server where the provisioning agent is installed, right click the Microsoft ECMA2Host Configuration Wizard from the start menu, and run as administrator. Running as a Windows administrator is necessary for the wizard to create the necessary Windows event logs.
  2. After the ECMA Connector Host Configuration starts, if it's the first time you have run the wizard, it will ask you to create a certificate. Leave the default port 8585 and select Generate certificate to generate a certificate. The autogenerated certificate will be self-signed as part of the trusted root. The certificate SAN matches the host name.
  3. Select Save.

Create the PowerShell Connector

General Screen

  1. Launch the Microsoft ECMA2Host Configuration Wizard from the start menu.

  2. At the top, select Import and select the configuration.xml file from step 1.

  3. The new connector should be created and appear in red. Click Edit.

  4. Generate a secret token used for authenticating Microsoft Entra ID to the connector. It should be 12 characters minimum and unique for each application. If you do not already have a secret generator, you can use a PowerShell command such as the following to generate an example random string.

    -join (((48..90) + (96..122)) * 16 | Get-Random -Count 16 | % {[char]$_})

  5. On the Properties page, all of the information should be populated. The table is provided as reference. Click Next.

    Property Value
    Name The name you chose for the connector, which should be unique across all connectors in your environment. For example, PowerShell.
    Autosync timer (minutes) 120
    Secret Token Enter your secret token here. It should be 12 characters minimum.
    Extension DLL For the PowerShell connector, select Microsoft.IAM.Connector.PowerShell.dll.

Screenshot of general screen.

Connectivity

The connectivity tab allows you to supply configuration parameters for connecting to a remote system. Configure the connectivity tab with the information provided in the table.

  • On the Connectivity page, all of the information should be populated. The table is provided as reference. Click Next.

Screenshot of the connectivity screen.

Parameter Value Purpose
Server <Blank> Server name that the connector should connect to.
Domain <Blank> Domain of the credential to store for use when the connector is run.
User <Blank> Username of the credential to store for use when the connector is run.
Password <Blank> Password of the credential to store for use when the connector is run.
Impersonate Connector Account Unchecked When true, the synchronization service runs the Windows PowerShell scripts in the context of the credentials supplied. When possible, it is recommended that the $Credentials parameter is passed to each script is used instead of impersonation.
Load User Profile When Impersonating Unchecked Instructs Windows to load the user profile of the connector’s credentials during impersonation. If the impersonated user has a roaming profile, the connector does not load the roaming profile.
Logon Type When Impersonating None Logon type during impersonation. For more information, see the dwLogonType documentation.
Signed Scripts Only Unchecked If true, the Windows PowerShell connector validates that each script has a valid digital signature. If false, ensure that the Synchronization Service server’s Windows PowerShell execution policy is RemoteSigned or Unrestricted.
Common Module Script Name (with extension) xADSyncPSConnectorModule.psm1 The connector allows you to store a shared Windows PowerShell module in the configuration. When the connector runs a script, the Windows PowerShell module is extracted to the file system so that it can be imported by each script.
Common Module Script AD Sync PowerShell Connector Module code as value. This module will be automatically created by the ECMA2Host when the connector is running.
Validation Script <Blank> The Validation Script is an optional Windows PowerShell script that can be used to ensure that connector configuration parameters supplied by the administrator are valid.
Schema Script GetSchema code as value.
Additional Config Parameter Names FileName,Delimiter,Encoding In addition to the standard configuration settings, you can define additional custom configuration settings that are specific to the instance of the Connector. These parameters can be specified at the connector, partition, or run step levels and accessed from the relevant Windows PowerShell script.
Additional Encrypted Config Parameter Names <Blank>

Capabilities

The capabilities tab defines the behavior and functionality of the connector. The selections made on this tab cannot be modified when the connector has been created. Configure the capabilities tab with the information provided in the table.

  • On the Capabilities page, all of the information should be populated. The table is provided as reference. Click Next.

Screenshot of the capabilities screen.

Parameter Value Purpose
Distinguished Name Style None Indicates if the connector supports distinguished names and if so, what style.
Export Type ObjectReplace Determines the type of objects that are presented to the Export script.
Data Normalization None Instructs the Synchronization Service to normalize anchor attributes before they are provided to scripts.
Object Confirmation Normal This is ignored.
Use DN as Anchor Unchecked If the Distinguished Name Style is set to LDAP, the anchor attribute for the connector space is also the distinguished name.
Concurrent Operations of Several Connectors Checked When checked, multiple Windows PowerShell connectors can run simultaneously.
Partitions Unchecked When checked, the connector supports multiple partitions and partition discovery.
Hierarchy Unchecked When checked, the connector supports an LDAP style hierarchical structure.
Enable Import Checked When checked, the connector imports data via import scripts.
Enable Delta Import Unchecked When checked, the connector can request deltas from the import scripts.
Enable Export Checked When checked, the connector exports data via export scripts.
Enable Full Export Checked Not supported. This will be ignored.
No Reference Values In First Export Pass Unchecked When checked, reference attributes are exported in a second export pass.
Enable Object Rename Unchecked When checked, distinguished names can be modified.
Delete-Add As Replace Checked Not supported. This will be ignored.
Enable Export Password in First Pass Unchecked Not supported. This will be ignored.

Global Parameters

The Global Parameters tab enables you to configure the Windows PowerShell scripts that are run by the connector. You can also configure global values for custom configuration settings defined on the Connectivity tab. Configure the global parameters tab with the information provided in the table.

  • On the Global Parameters page, all of the information should be populated. The table is provided as reference. Click Next.

Screenshot of the global screen.

Parameter Value
Partition Script <Blank>
Hierarchy Script <Blank>
Begin Import Script <Blank>
Import Script Paste the import script as the value
End Import Script <Blank>
Begin Export Script <Blank>
Export Script Paste the import script as the value
End Export Script <Blank>
Begin Password Script <Blank>
Password Extension Script <Blank>
End Password Script <Blank>
FileName_Global InputFile.txt
Delimiter_Global ;
Encoding_Global <Blank> (defaults to UTF8)

Partitions, Run Profiles, Export, FullImport

Keep the defaults and click next.

Object types

Configure the object types tab with the information provided in the table.

  • On the Object types page, all of the information should be populated. The table is provided as reference. Click Next.

Screenshot of the object types screen.

Parameter Value
Target Object Person
Anchor AzureObjectID
Query Attribute AzureObjectID
DN AzureObjectID

Select Attributes

Ensure that the following attributes are selected:

  • On the Select Attributes page, all of the information should be populated. The table is provided as reference. Click Next.

  • AzureObjectID

  • IsActive

  • DisplayName

  • EmployeeId

  • Title

  • UserName

  • Email

Screenshot of the select attributes screen.

Deprovisioning

On the Deprovisioning page, you can specify if you wish to have Microsoft Entra ID remove users from the directory when they go out of scope of the application. If so, under Disable flow, select Delete, and under Delete flow, select Delete. If Set attribute value is chosen, the attributes selected on the previous page won't be available to select on the Deprovisioning page.

  • On the Deprovisioning page, all of the information should be populated. The table is provided as reference. Click Next.

Screenshot of the deprovisioning screen.

Ensure ECMA2Host service is running and can read from file via PowerShell

Follow these steps to confirm that the connector host has started and has identified any existing users from the target system.

  1. On the server running the Microsoft Entra ECMA Connector Host, select Start.
  2. Select run if needed, then enter services.msc in the box.
  3. In the Services list, ensure that Microsoft ECMA2Host is present and running. If it is not running, select Start.
  4. On the server running the Microsoft Entra ECMA Connector Host, launch PowerShell.
  5. Change to the folder where the ECMA host was installed, such as C:\Program Files\Microsoft ECMA2Host.
  6. Change to the subdirectory Troubleshooting.
  7. Run the script TestECMA2HostConnection.ps1 in the directory as shown, and provide as arguments the connector name and the ObjectTypePath value cache. If your connector host is not listening on TCP port 8585, then you may also need to provide the -Port argument as well. When prompted, type the secret token configured for that connector. 
    PS C:\Program Files\Microsoft ECMA2Host\Troubleshooting> $cout = .\TestECMA2HostConnection.ps1 -ConnectorName PowerShell -ObjectTypePath cache; $cout.length -gt 9
Supply values for the following parameters:
SecretToken: ************
  8. If the script displays an error or warning message, then check that the service is running, and the connector name and secret token match those values you configured in the configuration wizard.
  9. If the script displays the output False, then the connector has not seen any entries in the source target system for existing users. If this is a new target system installation, then this behavior is to be expected, and you can continue at the next section.
  10. However, if the target system already contains one or more users but the script displayed False, then this status indicates the connector could not read from the target system. If you attempt to provision, then Microsoft Entra ID may not correctly match users in that source directory with users in Microsoft Entra ID. Wait several minutes for the connector host to finish reading objects from the existing target system, and then rerun the script. If the output continues to be False, then check the configuration of your connector and the permissions in the target system are allowing the connector to read existing users.

Test the connection from Microsoft Entra ID to the connector host

  1. Return to the web browser window where you were configuring the application provisioning in the portal.

    Note

    If the window had timed out, then you need to re-select the agent.

    1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Application Administrator.
    2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications.
    3. Select the On-premises ECMA app application.
    4. Select Provisioning.
    5. If Get started appears, then change the mode to Automatic, on the On-Premises Connectivity section, select the agent that you just deployed and select Assign Agent(s), and wait 10 minutes. Otherwise go to Edit Provisioning.

  2. Under the Admin credentials section, enter the following URL. Replace the connectorName portion with the name of the connector on the ECMA host, such as PowerShell. If you provided a certificate from your certificate authority for the ECMA host, then replace localhost with the host name of the server where the ECMA host is installed.

    Property Value
    Tenant URL https://localhost:8585/ecma2host_connectorName/scim

  3. Enter the Secret Token value that you defined when you created the connector.

    Note

    If you just assigned the agent to the application, please wait 10 minutes for the registration to complete. The connectivity test won't work until the registration completes. Forcing the agent registration to complete by restarting the provisioning agent on your server can speed up the registration process. Go to your server, search for services in the Windows search bar, identify the Microsoft Entra Connect Provisioning Agent service, right-click the service, and restart.

  4. Select Test Connection, and wait one minute.

  5. After the connection test is successful and indicates that the supplied credentials are authorized to enable provisioning, select Save.

Configure the application connection

Return to the web browser window where you were configuring the application provisioning.

Note

If the window had timed out, then you need to re-select the agent.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications.

  3. Select the On-premises ECMA app application.

  4. Select Provisioning.

  5. If Get started appears, then change the mode to Automatic, on the On-Premises Connectivity section, select the agent that you deployed and select Assign Agent(s). Otherwise go to Edit Provisioning.

  6. Under the Admin credentials section, enter the following URL. Replace the {connectorName} portion with the name of the connector on the ECMA connector host, such as CSV. The connector name is case sensitive and should be the same case as was configured in the wizard. You can also replace localhost with your machine hostname.

    Property Value
    Tenant URL https://localhost:8585/ecma2host_CSV/scim

  7. Enter the Secret Token value that you defined when you created the connector.

    Note

    If you just assigned the agent to the application, please wait 10 minutes for the registration to complete. The connectivity test won't work until the registration completes. Forcing the agent registration to complete by restarting the provisioning agent on your server can speed up the registration process. Go to your server, search for services in the Windows search bar, identify the Microsoft Entra Connect Provisioning Agent Service, right-click the service, and restart.

  8. Select Test Connection, and wait one minute.

  9. After the connection test is successful and indicates that the supplied credentials are authorized to enable provisioning, select Save.

Configure attribute mappings

Now you need to map attributes between the representation of the user in Microsoft Entra ID and the representation of a user in the on-premises InputFile.txt.

You'll use the Azure portal to configure the mapping between the Microsoft Entra user's attributes and the attributes that you previously selected in the ECMA Host configuration wizard.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications.

  3. Select the On-premises ECMA app application.

  4. Select Provisioning.

  5. Select Edit provisioning, and wait 10 seconds.

  6. Expand Mappings and select Provision Microsoft Entra users. If this is the first time you've configured the attribute mappings for this application, there will be only one mapping present, for a placeholder.

  7. To confirm that the schema is available in Microsoft Entra ID, select the Show advanced options checkbox and select Edit attribute list for ScimOnPremises. Ensure that all the attributes selected in the configuration wizard are listed. If not, then wait several minutes for the schema to refresh, and then reload the page. Once you see the attributes listed, then cancel from this page to return to the mappings list.

  8. Now, on the click on the userPrincipalName PLACEHOLDER mapping. This mapping is added by default when you first configure on-premises provisioning. Change the value to match the following:

    Mapping type Source attribute Target attribute
    Direct userPrincipalName urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:ECMA2Host:2.0:User:UserName

  9. Now select Add New Mapping, and repeat the next step for each mapping.

  10. Specify the source and target attributes for each of the mappings in the following table.

    Mapping type Source attribute Target attribute
    Direct objectId urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:ECMA2Host:2.0:User:AzureObjectID
    Direct userPrincipalName urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:ECMA2Host:2.0:User:UserName
    Direct displayName urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:ECMA2Host:2.0:User:DisplayName
    Direct employeeId urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:ECMA2Host:2.0:User:EmployeeId
    Direct jobTitle urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:ECMA2Host:2.0:User:Title
    Direct mail urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:ECMA2Host:2.0:User:Email
    Expression Switch([IsSoftDeleted],, "False", "True", "True", "False") urn:ietf:params:scim:schemas:extension:ECMA2Host:2.0:User:IsActive

    Screenshot of attribute mappings.

  11. Once all of the mappings have been added, select Save.

Assign users to an application

Now that you have the Microsoft Entra ECMA Connector Host talking with Microsoft Entra ID, and the attribute mapping configured, you can move on to configuring who's in scope for provisioning.

Important

If you were signed in using a Hybrid Identity Administrator role, you need to sign-out and sign-in with an account that has the Application Administrator, Cloud Application Administrator or Global Administrator role, for this section. The Hybrid Identity Administrator role does not have permissions to assign users to applications.

If there are existing users in the InputFile.txt, then you should create application role assignments for those existing users. To learn more about how to create application role assignments in bulk, see governing an application's existing users in Microsoft Entra ID.

Otherwise, if there are no current users of the application, then select a test user from Microsoft Entra who will be provisioned to the application.

  1. Ensure that the user selected has all the properties, mapped to the required attributes of the schema.
  2. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Application Administrator.
  3. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications.
  4. Select the On-premises ECMA app application.
  5. On the left, under Manage, select Users and groups.
  6. Select Add user/group.
  7. Under Users, select None Selected.
  8. Select users from the right and select the Select button.
  9. Now select Assign.

Test provisioning

Now that your attributes are mapped and users are assigned, you can test on-demand provisioning with one of your users.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications.
  3. Select the On-premises ECMA app application.
  4. Select Provisioning.
  5. Select Provision on demand.
  6. Search for one of your test users, and select Provision.
  7. After several seconds, then the message Successfully created user in target system appears, with a list of the user attributes.

Start provisioning users

  1. After on-demand provisioning is successful, change back to the provisioning configuration page. Ensure that the scope is set to only assigned users and groups, turn provisioning On, and select Save.
  2. Wait several minutes for provisioning to start. It might take up to 40 minutes. After the provisioning job has been completed, as described in the next section, if you're done testing, you can change the provisioning status to Off, and select Save. This action stops the provisioning service from running in the future.

Next steps