How to generate a list of Active Directory users having empty attributes
The following is a comparison between the steps required for generating a report on AD users having empty attributes with the Get-ADUser cmdlet of Windows PowerShell and ADManager Plus.
Windows PowerShell
Steps to obtain a list of AD users with empty attributes using PowerShell:
- Choose which domain you want to generate the report for.
- Select the LDAP filters that you'll use as parameters for generating the report.
- Within the Properties parameter, specify additional user object properties that should appear in the report.
- Establish the format in which you want to export the report.
- Double-check that you've adhered to the appropriate syntax when writing the script.
- Use Windows PowerShell to compile and execute the script.
- To generate the report in a different format, or to add additional properties to the reports, modify the script accordingly.
Sample script:
Copied
Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter '(!(telephoneNumber=*))'| Select sAMAccountName, givenName | export-csv -path c:\Scripts\Emptyattrib.csv
Click to copy entire script
ADManager Plus
Steps to obtain the report:
- Select the Users with Empty Attributes Reports from the General Reports column of the User Reports section.
- Select the Domain and OU. Select the attributes that you want to check and click Generate.
- Use Add/Remove columns to add additional properties of the users in the reports. Use the Export As option to export the report in any of the following formats-CSV, PDF, XLSX, HTML or CSVDE.
Screenshot
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In Active Directory (AD), the Get-ADUser cmdlet performs a domain-wide search of the AD database using filters to retrieve users having empty attributes. However, using Get-ADUser cmdlet to generate a list of AD users with empty attributes can prove to be a difficult task because:
- Minute syntax errors or typographical errors can lead to execution failures.
- Adding even minor details to the report—such as adding additional attributes —require scripts to be modified and executed again, which is time-consuming.
- Exporting a report in a specific format requires a script to be modified accordingly, which increases the complexity of the script.
- Troubleshooting these scripts require extensive AD and scripting expertise.
- These scripts can only be executed from computers which have Active Directory Domain Services role.
Therefore, a better and easier way to generate AD reports is by using ADManager Plus, an Active Directory management and reporting tool.
ADManager Plus is a web-based solution for all your AD, Exchange, Skype for Business, Google Workspace, and Office 365 management needs. It simplifies several routine tasks such as provisioning users, cleaning up dormant accounts, managing NTFS and share permissions, and more. Besides reporting, you can also build a custom workflow structure that will assist you in ticketing and compliance, automate routine AD tasks such as user provisioning and de-provisioning, and more. Download a free trial today to explore all these features.
Highlights of using ADManager Plus to generate AD reports
ADManager Plus simplifies the process of AD reporting by:
- Providing script-free reporting.
- Offering over 150 pre-packaged AD reports that cover the most important information about all AD objects.
- Allowing you to create your own report using the custom reports feature.
- Letting you automatically generate reports using the report scheduler. You can also choose to email these reports or store them at a specific location.
- Enabling on-the-fly management tasks to be performed from within those reports. For instance, perform actions like delete, disable, move, etc, on inactive users generated from the inactive users reports.
