Schedule user account closure with PowerShell

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Robert Pearman

Robert is a small business specialist from the UK and currently works as a system administrator. He was a Microsoft MVP for eight years and has worked as a technical reviewer for Microsoft Press. You can follow Robert on Twitter and in his blog.

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Whether the user had a company mobile device that needs to be wiped, passwords reset, documents moved, or email redirected, there will be actions you'll need to take in your organization, and more importantly, a time at which to carry out the actions.

For a small team of administrators, this can pose a potential problem. If you work for an external organization providing IT services, you may not have the ability to get in and follow all the steps in your account closure procedure because of other commitments. I am not here to judge; I am just here to explain how I do things.

My procedure uses two parts. One is built into a larger tool as a function, which I call ScheduleLeaver. The other is a standalone script called ProcessLeaver.

For the purpose of this article, I am splitting ScheduleLeaver into its own script.

First off, we need to gather some information about the user who is leaving and store that information for use at our scheduled time.

$scheduleCSV = "c:\scripts\scheduleLeaver.csv"
if(!(Test-Path $scheduleCSV))
{
    New-Item $scheduleCSV -ItemType File
    Add-Content $scheduleCSV "UserName,Date,Time,Email"
}

This section of code allows us to specify a filename to save our scheduled leavers in and if the file does not exist, create it along with the correct column headers.

Next, we use a series of "do" actions to collect some basic information about the user account.

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange* 
do{
    $userName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter UserName of User Account to Close"
    $checkUser = (Get-AdUser $userName).SamAccountName
    if(($checkUser) -ne $userName)
    {
        Write-Output "User Not Found"
    }
    else
    {
        $userAcct = 1
    }
} 
until ($userAcct -eq "1")

Here we have imported the ActiveDirectory and Exchange PowerShell tools and prompted for the username of the account we wish to close, and then checked for that username in Active Directory. If it is found, we move on; if not, we prompt to enter the username again.

Our next section is similar, except it concerns the account closure date.

do{
    $date = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter Date to Close Account"
    Write-Output "Close Account: $date"
    $confirm = Read-Host -Prompt "Confirm? Y/N"
    if(($confirm) -eq "y")
    {
        $dateAcct = 1
    }
}
until ($dateAcct -eq "1")

In this section, we prompt for a date to close the account and loop around if the date is not accepted.

The next code block is identical, except we prompt for the time to close the account.

do{
    $time = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter Time to Close Account"
    Write-Output "Close Account: $time"
    $confirm = Read-Host -Prompt "Confirm? Y/N"
    if(($confirm) -eq "y")
    {
        $timeAcct = 1
    }
}
until ($timeAcct -eq "1")

The next block is slightly more complex, as we ask if we need to forward the user's email, and confirm we have entered a valid recipient address.

do{
    $emailF = Read-Host -Prompt "Forward Email?"
    if(($emailF) -eq "y")
    {
        $recipient = Read-Host "Enter Recipient Address"
        $recipientCheck = Get-Mailbox $recipient
        if(($recipientCheck) -eq $null)
        {
            Write-Output "Address Not Found"
        }
        else
        {
            $emailAcct = 1
        }    
    }
    else
    {
        $emailAcct = 1
    }
}
until ($emailAcct -eq "1")

Next, we add on a small summary of what we have entered.

Write-Output "Summary"
Write-Output "Close Account : $userName"
Write-Output "Close Date    : $date"
Write-Output "Close Time    : $time"
Write-Output "Forward Email : $recipient"

We then confirm this information and enter it into our CSV File.

$confirmSum = Read-Host -Prompt "Confirm? Y/N"
if(($confirmSum) -eq "y")
{
    Add-Content $scheduleCSV "$userName,$date,$time,$recipient"
}

You should end up with a file that looks like this.

ScheduleLeaver CSV

In the next section, we build the second script, ProcessLeaver. This will actually take the required actions.

Our first task is to import our CSV File. We're then going to empty the contents of the file. You will see why in a moment.

Import-Module ActiveDirectory
Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.Exchange*
$scheduleLeaver = "c:\scripts\scheduleLeaver.csv"
$csv = Import-CSV $scheduleLeaver
Clear-Content $scheduleLeaver
Add-Content $scheduleLeaver "Username,Date,Time,Email"

At this point, the script stores everything in our CSV file in $scheduleLeaver and empties the file itself.

Why do we do that?

The next code block checks whether the current date is before or after the user’s scheduled leave date. If it is after, we can process the account closure. If it is still before the scheduled leave date, we can simply add the user back to the schedule file.

foreach ($leaver in $csv)
{
    $date = $leaver.Date
    $time = $leaver.Time
    $leaverDate = "$date $time"
    $checkDate = (Get-Date -format "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm").ToString()
    if(($leaverDate) -le $checkDate)
    {
    
    }
    else
    {
        $userName = $leaver.UserName
        $email = $leaver.Email
        Add-Content $scheduleLeaver "$userName,$date,$time,$email"
    }
}

The above section builds a $leaverDate string and compares it to a Get-Date string to determine whether we should process the leaver. If we should not, the script adds the user's information back to the CSV File.

Next, we can move onto the fun part.

What do you want to accomplish with your account closure?

In my example I am keeping things simple, with the following:

• Reset password
• Disable account
• Disable ActiveSync
• Hide from address list
• Forward email

You can of course get more creative if you wish. For example, you could add in an email notification to HR to say the account has been closed and include new login information, instructions on how to access the account's old email or documents, and so on. The possibilities are endless.

if(($leaverDate) -le $checkDate)
    {
        $userObj = Get-AdUser $leaver.UserName -properties EmailAddress
        $newPassword = "SomeRandomPassword357203875!!"
        $pwd = ConvertTo-SecureString $newPassword -AsPlainText -Force
        Set-AdAccountPassword $userobj.SamAccountName -NewPassword $pwd -Reset
        Disable-ADAccount $leaver.SamAccountName -confirm:$false
        Set-CasMailbox $userObj.EmailAddress -ActiveSyncEnabled $false
        Set-Mailbox $userObj.EmailAddress -HiddenFromAddressListEnabled $true
        if(($leaver.Email) -ne "")
        {
            Set-Mailbox $userObj.EmailAddress -forwardingSMTPAddress $leaver.Email -deliverToMailboxandForward $false
        }
}

All we need to do now is save both of these files with a ps1 extension and set up a scheduled task to execute the ProcessLeaver.ps1 file at a given time of the day. For me, this is at 6pm from Monday to Friday.

If you are using Office 365, you can still use this method. You just need to add in the code to connect up to Office 365 PowerShell. After that, your Get-Mailbox commands will run against your Exchange Online instance instead of a local on-premises Exchange organization.

Take a look at the comments below for some suggestions on adding logging and error recovery!

The full script is below.

$scheduleCSV = "c:\scripts\scheduleLeaver.csv"
if(!(Test-Path $scheduleCSV))
{
    New-Item $scheduleCSV -ItemType File
    Add-Content $scheduleCSV "UserName,Date,Time,Email"
}
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange*
do{
    $userName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter UserName of User Account to Close"
    $checkUser = (Get-AdUser $userName).SamAccountName
    if(($checkUser) -ne $userName)
    {
        Write-Output "User Not Found"
    }
    else
    {
        $userAcct = 1
    }
}
until ($userAcct -eq "1")
do{
    $date = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter Date to Close Account"
    Write-Output "Close Account: $date"
    $confirm = Read-Host -Prompt "Confirm? Y/N"
    if(($confirm) -eq "y")
    {
        $dateAcct = 1
    }
}
until ($dateAcct -eq "1")
do{
    $time = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter Time to Close Account"
    Write-Output "Close Account: $to,e"
    $confirm = Read-Host -Prompt "Confirm? Y/N"
    if(($confirm) -eq "y")
    {
        $timeAcct = 1
    }
}
until ($timeAcct -eq "1")
do{
    $emailF = Read-Host -Prompt "Forward Email?"
    if(($emailF) -eq "y")
    {
        $recipient = Read-Host "Enter Recipient Address"
        $recipientCheck = Get-Mailbox $recipient
        if(($recipientCheck) -eq $null)
        {
            Write-Output "Address Not Found"
        }
        else
        {
            $emailAcct = 1
        }    
    }
    else
    {
        $emailAcct = 1
    }
}
until ($emailAcct -eq "1")
Write-Output "Summary"
Write-Output "Close Account : $userName"
Write-Output "Close Date    : $date"
Write-Output "Close Time    : $time"
Write-Output "Forward Email : $recipient"
$confirmSum = Read-Host -Prompt "Confirm? Y/N"
if(($confirmSum) -eq "y")
{
    Add-Content $scheduleCSV "$userName,$date,$time,$recipient"
} 
ProcessLeaver.ps1
$scheduleLeaver = "c:\scripts\scheduleLeaver.csv"
$csv = Import-CSV $scheduleLeaver
Clear-Content $scheduleLeaver
Add-Content $scheduleLeaver "Username,Date,Time,Email"
foreach ($leaver in $csv)
{
    $date = $leaver.Date
    $time = $leaver.Time
    $leaverDate = "$date $time"
    $checkDate = (Get-Date -format "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm").ToString()
    if(($leaverDate) -le $checkDate)
    {
        $userObj = Get-AdUser $leaver.UserName -properties EmailAddress
        $newPassword = "SomeRandomPassword357203875!!"
        $pwd = ConvertTo-SecureString $newPassword -AsPlainText -Force
        Set-AdAccountPassword $userobj.SamAccountName -NewPassword $pwd -Reset
        Disable-ADAccount $leaver.SamAccountName -confirm:$false
        Set-CasMailbox $userObj.EmailAddress -ActiveSyncEnabled $false
        Set-Mailbox $userObj.EmailAddress -HiddenFromAddressListEnabled $true
        if(($leaver.Email) -ne "")
        {
            Set-Mailbox $userObj.EmailAddress -forwardingSMTPAddress $leaver.Email -deliverToMailboxandForward $false
        }
    }
    else
    {
        $userName = $leaver.UserName
        $email = $leaver.Email
        Add-Content $scheduleLeaver "$userName,$date,$time,$email"
    }
}