Tag Archives: csvde

Bulk Importing Users with CSVDE

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KB ID 0000498 

Problem

This is not a task I’ve had to do for ages, so when I had to do it this week, I thought I’d just do a quick Google search as a refresher. What I can remember was a simple task took me far too long to work out. So heres a quick solution for everybody else.

Solution

Before I begin, the spreadsheet below, was the hard work of John Haddock, I have only made some minor tweaks and adjustments.

1. You will need the names of the users you want to import in a spreadsheet, preferably with their first name and last names in different columns.

2. Download the CSVDE-Template spreadsheet.

3. On the first tab of the spreadsheet (Setup) enter your domain details, and the other cells as required.

4. Select the second tab (Auto-Generated-Version), and paste your users first-names into column G (Labelled gn for Given Name), and their surnames into column D (Labelled sn).

5. The rest of the fields should now “Auto fill”. To make sure all the user names are unique, look down column V (Duplicate check), and make sure all the entries say “False” if any say “true” you will need to alter the values for that user manually.

6. Once you are happy, select all the columns (Except U and V, {the yellow ones}) and copy them to the clipboard.

7. Select the third Tab (Paste-Your-CSV-Data-Here), Select the entire spreadsheet and Paste Special > Paste Values. (So the formulas DONT get pasted into the spreadsheet).

8. File > Save As > Change the “Save as type” to CSV >Save > OK > Yes.

9. Then at command line issue the following command:

10. All being well it should say “The command has completed successfully” If it does fail it handily tells you what line of the spreadsheet it failed on so you can investigate.

11. By default all the user accounts will be disabled, but you can select them all and enable them.

12. If you would like to reset all the passwords on mass, see the following article:

Windows – Reset all User Passwords in an OU

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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Bulk Export Users From One Domain, and Import Into Another

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KB ID 0000794 

Problem

I’ve written in the past about bulk importing users with CSVDE, but what if you want to move/migrate your users to another domain? You first need to export all the users, then import them into the new domain.

Solution

Step 1 Export Domain Users to CSV File

1. Here all my users are in one OU, if that OU has ‘nested OU’s within it that’s OK.

2. The command to ‘export’ is as follows;

Note: You need to ‘run as administrator‘

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csvde -d {LDAP Path} -f c:\filename.csv

Example

csvde -d "ou=Main-Site,dc=pnl,dc=com" -f C:\ExportedUsers.csv

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3. The users will be exported. If it fails at this point it will give you a descriptive error, CSVDE has been around for a while, Google the error (most fixes are pretty simple).

4. Now open the CSV File with Excel, the second line will probably be the OU, you can leave this here if you want but if your target OU is different (or Like me you prefer to create it manually), then delete row 2 (Don’t delete Row 1!).

5. You do not need all the columns, delete all the columns EXCEPT,

DN
objectClass
ou
distinguishedName
name
cn
sn
givenName
displayName
sAMAccountName
userPrincipalName

So when complete it should look like the following;

6. Change any details in the LDAP path that are different for the new domain.

7. You may also need to change the domain name that’s listed on the userPrincipleName.

Step 2 Import Domain Users from CSV File

1. On the target domain, (if you are not importing the OU’s, then make sure they already exist). The syntax for the import is;

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csvde -i -f c:\filename.csv

 

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9. Your users should be imported.

10. By default they will be disabled, but you can bulk enable them.

11. At this point all the users have no password, this can also be bulk set.

Windows – Reset all User Passwords in an OU

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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Windows – ‘The directory service has exhausted the pool of relative identifiers’

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KB ID 0000797 

Problem

I got this error when attempting to bulk create users with CSVDE (see below). But you may simply see it when trying to create a user, or other AD object.

Unwilling To Perform
The server side error is “The directory service has exhausted the pool of relative identifiers.”

Solution

Well that is a scary looking error! Firstly make sure you can see all your FSMO role servers.

Locate your FSMO Role Servers

In my case, I tracked this down to an old DC that has been removed from the domain but was still referenced in DNS. Open your domain forward lookup zone, look in the _tcp container, for any SRV references to old/removed domain controllers and simply delete them.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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