Powershell – Is it possible to set a users memberOf property in Active Directory using Powershell

active-directorypowershellpowershell-2.0

I need to create a Powershell script that sets some user attributes in Active Directory.

I'm using the Set-AdUser command and passing in a user object as follows:

$user = Get-AdUser -Identity $userIdentity
$user.MemberOf = $dn_of_group
Set-ADUser -Instance $user

this returns an error of 'The adapter cannot set the value of property "MemberOf"'.

Is it possible to set the MemberOf property from powershell?

If so, what am I doing wrong?

Best Answer

You cannot modify the MemberOf property - you need to add the user to the group using the Add-ADGroupMember Cmdlet:

Add-ADGroupMember $dn_of_group $user

Related Solutions

C# – Validate a username and password against Active Directory

If you work on .NET 3.5 or newer, you can use the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement namespace and easily verify your credentials:

// create a "principal context" - e.g. your domain (could be machine, too)
using(PrincipalContext pc = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "YOURDOMAIN"))
{
    // validate the credentials
    bool isValid = pc.ValidateCredentials("myuser", "mypassword");
}

It's simple, it's reliable, it's 100% C# managed code on your end - what more can you ask for? :-)

Read all about it here:

Update:

As outlined in this other SO question (and its answers), there is an issue with this call possibly returning True for old passwords of a user. Just be aware of this behavior and don't be too surprised if this happens :-) (thanks to @MikeGledhill for pointing this out!)

Windows – How to run a PowerShell script

Launch Windows PowerShell, and wait a moment for the PS command prompt to appear
Navigate to the directory where the script lives
```
PS> cd C:\my_path\yada_yada\ (enter)
```
Execute the script:
```
PS> .\run_import_script.ps1 (enter)
```

What am I missing??

Or: you can run the PowerShell script from cmd.exe like this:

powershell -noexit "& ""C:\my_path\yada_yada\run_import_script.ps1""" (enter)

according to this blog post here

Or you could even run your PowerShell script from your C# application :-)

Asynchronously execute PowerShell scripts from your C# application

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – Validate a username and password against Active Directory

Windows – How to run a PowerShell script

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