jbmurphy.com

In this previous post : PowerShell wrapper for creating a new distribution group, I created a script for creating a new distribution group. I wanted to take that a step further and prompt the SysAdmin to add users. I created a new recursive function called AddToDistributionGroup. In this code, I prompt for a group name, and a user to add. The SysAdmin types in the first few parts of the name (I could have used samaccountname) and then I then loop through ADusers with that name asking the SysAdmin if that is the user they want to add.

function JBMURPHY-EXCHANGE-AddToDistributionGroup {
Param(	[parameter(Mandatory = $true)]$GroupName,
	[parameter(Mandatory = $true)]$UserToAdd)
JBM-EXCHANGE-StartPSSESSION
if (!($GroupName)) {write-host "you need to specify a group name"
break}
if (($UserToAdd)) {
 $UserToAdd=$UserToAdd+"*"
 Get-aduser -filter {(name -like $UserToAdd) -and (Enabled -eq $true)} | foreach-object {
  $UserName=$_.Name
  $message = "Add $UserName to the group: $GroupName"
  $yes = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription "&Yes","Yes add $UserName to the group $GroupName"
  $no = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription "&No","No, don't add $UserName to the group $GroupName?"
  $options = [System.Management.Automation.Host.ChoiceDescription[]]($yes, $no)
  $result = $host.ui.PromptForChoice($title, $message, $options, 0) 
  if ($result -eq 0){
   write-host "Adding $UserName"
   Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity $GroupName -Member $UserName
  }
 }
JBM-EXCHANGE-AddToDistributionGroup $GroupName
}
}

* Note, there is not any error checking to see if the group exists. I am mainly using this code to be called from a NewDistributionGroup script, where I know the name of the group. I may add a lookup to see if the group exists at some point.

** Now that I think about it, this is for any type group, not just distribution groups.

Unknown to me, in Exchange 2010 when you create a new distribution group in EMC, by default, the group will not receive email from external recipients – the setting “Require that senders are authenticated” is checked. We use distribution groups to communicate with clients, so unauthenticated senders need to email these groups.  This setting is on the Mail Flow Setting – Message Delivery restrictions page.  I wrote a simple wrapper script to create a new distribution group and turn off the “Require that senders are authenticated” setting:

function JBMURPHY-EXCHANGE-NewDistributionGroup {
Param([parameter(Mandatory = $true)]$GroupName)
Write-host "Creating group named $GroupName"
new-DistributionGroup -Name $GroupName -OrganizationalUnit 'site.name/OUName' -SamAccountName $GroupName -Alias $GroupName
Set-DistributionGroup $GroupName -RequireSenderAuthenticationEnabled $false
write-host "The $GroupName distribution group has been created."
}

Simple one. I know.

As I talked about in this previous post, I like to write wrapper scripts that collect input and pass it along to the actual provided functions. I call these wrapper scripts because they are not really doing anything ground breaking, they are just a series of conditionals and commands that I put together, with a common naming convention. Then, all we have to do is tab completion through the scripts that I have written.

I wanted to do the same for creating new distribution groups in Exchange 2010, but first ,I needed to make  the Exchange 2010 PowerShell functions available on our local machines. I wrote the following function that starts a PSSession on the exchange server. This function will be called at the beginning of every Exchange wrapper script, guaranteeing that we have a connection to the Exchange PowerShell functions.

Here is that function:

Function JBMURPHY-EXCHANGE-StartPSSESSION {
if(! (Get-PSSession | Where-Object { $_.ComputerName -like "servername.company.com" })){
Write-Host "Createing PSSession to SVNYEXCH01.SARDVERB.LOCAL" -ForegroundColor Green
Import-PSSession (New-PSSession -Configurationname Microsoft.Exchange –ConnectionUri http://servername.company.com/powershell) | out-null
}
}