Using Perl to create Windows NT/2000 user accounts

kabeldag has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Creating Windows accounts is never fun when doing it via a user manager GUI. It is obviously mundane and slow. Especially when you may need to add multiple amounts of users at a time.

What needs to happen in this case is to read in each user_id and the account parameters, then go ahead and create them in a batch process. At our organisation we use a text file to replicate the accounts to a Novell system from a Windows domain controller via a simple comma ',' delimited text file using DirXML. Now that part of the process is not what I seek answers for. But what I do seek answers for is the interfacing of Perl to Windows user accounts.

So I have the obvious choice of Windows Script, which takes for ever to read in user account Objects and is quite frankly not really how I want to approach this because of speed and functionality. Batch files are also out of the question I think. And the user manager apps are just out of the question...

I want to use Perl because I know it can do everything and , does the job efficiently, gives a good array of functionality and is a joy to work with.

I am probably going to use Win32API::Net within a TK interface that prompts for all required/possible account paramaters from one main Window.

Just fishing for ideas :)

Here is a wacky Windows Script which I just knocked up which adds one user at a time. Im really just looking for an example or two of some interfacing from Perl to Windows accounts.

Here comes the Wscript :P (/me cannot believe he is posting a Windows Script on a Perl board ...)

<job id="add_user">
<script language=vbscript>

' Script name : addusers.wsf
' Description : A lame example of user creation using Wscript
msgbox("This script will create the username under the windows domain 
+'"&domain&"' with the information you specify. " _
    & VbCrLf & "Please wait while I build a list of user objects on th
+e domain/computer ...")

domain = "some_windows_domain"
Set domainObj = GetObject("WinNT://"&domain)

add_users = 1

Do While add_users = 1 
    Dim domain
    Dim user_exists_check
    Dim user_id
    Dim user_fullname
    Dim user_location
    Dim user_password
    Dim add_users
    user_id=inputbox("Username:","Enter the userid/username")
    user_fullname=inputbox("Full Name of user:","Enter the user's full
+ name")
    user_location=inputbox("User's location:","Branch/Location of user
+")
    user_password=inputbox("Password:","Enter user's password")
    If user_id = "" or user_fullname = "" or user_location = "" or use
+r_password = "" Then
        msgbox("NULL user paramater specified. Please make sure you en
+ter a value for each paramater!")
    Else
        ListUsers
        If user_exists_check = "EXISTS" Then
            msgbox("User '"&user_id&"' already exists ... USER NOT ADD
+ED")
            user_exists_check = ""
            Else
            Add_user 
        End If
    End If
    keep_adding=msgbox("Add another user ?",VbOkCancel)
    If keep_adding <> 1 Then
        add_users = 0
    End If
Loop

Sub ListUsers
       domainObj.Filter = Array( "User" )
       For Each objUser In domainObj
           existingUser=objUser.Name
           If existingUser = user_id Then
               user_exists_check="EXISTS"
               Exit Sub
           End If
       Next
End Sub

Sub Add_user 
    Set oUser = domainObj.Create ("user", user_id)
    oUser.SetInfo
    oUser.Fullname = user_fullname
    oUser.SetPassword user_password
    oUser.Description = user_location & " blah blah user"
    oUser.AccountDisabled = False
    oUser.IsAccountLocked = False 
    oUser.SetInfo
    ListUsers
    If user_exists_check = "EXISTS" Then
        msgbox("Added user '"&user_id&"' ...OK")
    Else
        msgbox("User not added!")
    End If
End Sub

</script>
</job>
[download]

Show us your code ;)

Comment on Using Perl to create Windows NT/2000 user accounts Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Using Perl to create Windows NT/2000 user accounts by jdtoronto (Prior) on Jul 05, 2006 at 14:34 UTC
Using the reciped in "Win32 Perl Programming" (Roth, New Riders 2002) I use Win32::NetAdmin which installs with AS Perl on Win32. There are some other modules, particularly Win32::AdminMisc which can be found at http://www.roth.net/perl/adminmisc/. No guarantees, but they work for me. However, looking at the POD for Win32API::Net I might give it a look! jdtoronto Updated fixed link.	[reply]
Re^2: Using Perl to create Windows NT/2000 user accounts by Herkum (Parson) on Jul 05, 2006 at 16:38 UTC
Yeah, when I was learning Perl I was creating accounts via Win32::NetAdmin. Dave Roth, was the man! I don't know how I would been able to do anything administratively on Windows without his work.	[reply]
Re: Using Perl to create Windows NT/2000 user accounts by kabeldag (Hermit) on Jul 06, 2006 at 06:11 UTC
Looks good. Thanks guys :)	[reply]
Re: Using Perl to create Windows NT/2000 user accounts by bsdz (Friar) on Jul 11, 2006 at 16:33 UTC
No code as such but maybe a few pointers. You could use Active Directory for creating/manipulating user accounts. The Active Directory Cookbook has some excellent examples on this. You could also use Win32::GUI to build your application if you only plan to run it on Windows.	[reply]