Microsoft Entra version 2 cmdlets for group management

This article contains examples of how to use PowerShell to manage your groups in Microsoft Entra ID, part of Microsoft Entra. It also tells you how to get set up with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module. First, you must download the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module.

Install the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module

To install the MgGroup PowerShell module, use the following commands:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Install-module Microsoft.Graph

To verify that the module is ready to use, use the following command:

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-Module -Name "*graph*"

ModuleType Version    PreRelease Name                                ExportedCommands
---------- -------    ---------- ----                                ----------------
Script     1.27.0                Microsoft.Graph.Authentication      {Add-MgEnvironment, Connect-MgGraph, Disconnect-MgGraph, Get-MgContext…}
Script     1.27.0                Microsoft.Graph.Groups              {Add-MgGroupDriveListContentTypeCopy, Add-MgGroupDriveListContentTypeCopyF…

Now you can start using the cmdlets in the module. For a full description of the cmdlets in the Microsoft Graph module, refer to the online reference documentation for Microsoft Graph PowerShell.

Connect to the directory

Before you can start managing groups using Microsoft Graph PowerShell cmdlets, you must connect your PowerShell session to the directory you want to manage. Use the following command:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Group.ReadWrite.All"

The cmdlet prompts you for the credentials you want to use to access your directory. In this example, we're using karen@drumkit.onmicrosoft.com to access the demonstration directory. The cmdlet returns a confirmation to show the session was connected successfully to your directory:

    Welcome To Microsoft Graph!

Now you can start using the MgGraph cmdlets to manage groups in your directory.

Retrieve groups

To retrieve existing groups from your directory, use the Get-MgGroups cmdlet.

To retrieve all groups in the directory, use the cmdlet without parameters:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-MgGroup -All

The cmdlet returns all groups in the connected directory.

You can use the -GroupId parameter to retrieve a specific group for which you specify the group’s objectID:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-MgGroup -GroupId 5e3eba05-6c2b-4555-9909-c08e997aab18 | fl

The cmdlet now returns the group whose objectID matches the value of the parameter you entered:

AcceptedSenders               :
AllowExternalSenders          :
AppRoleAssignments            :
AssignedLabels                :
AssignedLicenses              :
AutoSubscribeNewMembers       :
Calendar                      : Microsoft.Graph.PowerShell.Models.MicrosoftGraphCalendar
CalendarView                  :
Classification                :
Conversations                 :
CreatedDateTime               : 14-07-2023 14:25:49
CreatedOnBehalfOf             : Microsoft.Graph.PowerShell.Models.MicrosoftGraphDirectoryObject
DeletedDateTime               :
Description                   : Sales and Marketing
DisplayName                   : Sales and Marketing
Id                            : f76cbbb8-0581-4e01-a0d4-133d3ce9197f
IsArchived                    :
IsAssignableToRole            :
IsSubscribedByMail            :
LicenseProcessingState        : Microsoft.Graph.PowerShell.Models.MicrosoftGraphLicenseProcessingState
Mail                          : SalesAndMarketing@M365x64647001.onmicrosoft.com
MailEnabled                   : True
MailNickname                  : SalesAndMarketing
RejectedSenders               :
RenewedDateTime               : 14-07-2023 14:25:49
SecurityEnabled               : True

You can search for a specific group using the -filter parameter. This parameter takes an ODATA filter clause and returns all groups that match the filter, as in the following example:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-MgGroup -Filter "DisplayName eq 'Intune Administrators'"


    DeletionTimeStamp            :
    ObjectId                     : aaaaaaaa-0000-1111-2222-bbbbbbbbbbbb
    ObjectType                   : Group
    Description                  : Intune Administrators
    DirSyncEnabled               :
    DisplayName                  : Intune Administrators
    LastDirSyncTime              :
    Mail                         :
    MailEnabled                  : False
    MailNickName                 : 4dd067a0-6515-4f23-968a-cc2ffc2eff5c
    OnPremisesSecurityIdentifier :
    ProvisioningErrors           : {}
    ProxyAddresses               : {}
    SecurityEnabled              : True

Here you have an example that shows how to pull all groups that don't have an expiration policy applied

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes 'Group.Read.All'
Get-MgGroup -ConsistencyLevel eventual -Count groupCount -Filter "NOT (expirationDateTime+ge+1900-01-01T00:00:00Z)" | Format-List Id

This example does the same as the previous one, but the script also exports the results to CSV.

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes 'Group.Read.All'
Get-MgGroup -ConsistencyLevel eventual -Count groupCount -Filter "NOT (expirationDateTime+ge+1900-01-01T00:00:00Z)" | Format-List Id |Export-Csv -Path {path} -NoTypeInformation

This last example shows you how to retrieve only groups that belong to Teams

Get-MgGroup -ConsistencyLevel eventual -Count groupCount -Filter "NOT (expirationDateTime+ge+1900-01-01T00:00:00Z) and resourceProvisioningOptions/any(p:p eq 'Team')" | Format-List Id, expirationDateTime, resourceProvisioningOptions

Create groups

To create a new group in your directory, use the New-MgGroup cmdlet. This cmdlet creates a new security group called “Marketing":

$param = @{
 description="My Demo Group"
 displayName="DemoGroup"
 mailEnabled=$false
 securityEnabled=$true
 mailNickname="Demo"
}

New-MgGroup @param

Update groups

To update an existing group, use the Update-MgGroup cmdlet. In this example, we’re changing the DisplayName property of the group "Intune Administrators." First, we’re finding the group using the Get-MgGroup cmdlet and filter using the DisplayName attribute:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-MgGroup -Filter "DisplayName eq 'Intune Administrators'"


    DeletionTimeStamp            :
    ObjectId                     : aaaaaaaa-0000-1111-2222-bbbbbbbbbbbb
    ObjectType                   : Group
    Description                  : Intune Administrators
    DirSyncEnabled               :
    DisplayName                  : Intune Administrators
    LastDirSyncTime              :
    Mail                         :
    MailEnabled                  : False
    MailNickName                 : 4dd067a0-6515-4f23-968a-cc2ffc2eff5c
    OnPremisesSecurityIdentifier :
    ProvisioningErrors           : {}
    ProxyAddresses               : {}
    SecurityEnabled              : True

Next, we’re changing the Description property to the new value "Intune Device Administrators":

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Update-MgGroup -GroupId 958d212c-14b0-43d0-a052-d0c2bb555b8b -Description "Demo Group Updated"

Now, if we find the group again, we see the Description property is updated to reflect the new value:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-MgGroup -GroupId 958d212c-14b0-43d0-a052-d0c2bb555b8b | select displayname, description

    DisplayName Description
    ----------- -----------
    DemoGroup   Demo Group Updated

Delete groups

To delete groups from your directory, use the Remove-MgGroup cmdlet as follows:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Remove-MgGroup -GroupId 958d212c-14b0-43d0-a052-d0c2bb555b8b

Manage group membership

Add members

To add new members to a group, use the New-MgGroupMember cmdlet. This command adds a member to the Intune Administrators group we used in the previous example:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> New-MgGroupMember -GroupId f76cbbb8-0581-4e01-a0d4-133d3ce9197f -DirectoryObjectId a88762b7-ce17-40e9-b417-0add1848eb68

The -GroupId parameter is the group ObjectID. We need to specify the ObjectID of the group we are using. The -DirectoryObjectId is the ObjectID of the user we want to add as a group member.

Get members

To get the existing members of a group, use the Get-MgGroupMember cmdlet, as in this example:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-MgGroupMember -GroupId 2c52c779-8587-48c5-9d4a-c474f2a66cf4

Id                                   DeletedDateTime
--                                   ---------------
aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-1111-222222222222
bbbbbbbb-cccc-dddd-2222-333333333333

Remove members

To remove the member we previously added to the group, use the Remove-MgGroupMember cmdlet, as is shown here:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Remove-MgGroupMemberByRef -DirectoryObjectId 00aa00aa-bb11-cc22-dd33-44ee44ee44ee -GroupId 2c52c779-8587-48c5-9d4a-c474f2a66cf4

Verify members

To verify the group memberships of a user, use the Select-MgGroupIdsUserIsMemberOf cmdlet. This cmdlet takes as its parameters the ObjectId of the user for which to check the group memberships, and a list of groups for which to check the memberships. The list of groups must be provided in the form of a complex variable of type “Microsoft.Open.AzureAD.Model.GroupIdsForMembershipCheck”, so we first must create a variable with that type:

Get-MgUserMemberOf -UserId 00aa00aa-bb11-cc22-dd33-44ee44ee44ee

Id                                   DisplayName Description GroupTypes AccessType
--                                   ----------- ----------- ---------- ----------
5dc16449-3420-4ad5-9634-49cd04eceba0 demogroup   demogroup    {Unified}

The value returned is a list of groups of which this user is a member. You can also apply this method to check Contacts, Groups, or Service Principals membership for a given list of groups, using Select-MgGroupIdsContactIsMemberOf, Select-MgGroupIdsGroupIsMemberOf, or Select-MgGroupIdsServicePrincipalIsMemberOf

Disable group creation by your users

You can prevent standard users from creating security groups. The default behavior in Microsoft Online Directory Services (MSODS) is to allow standard users to create groups, whether or not self-service group management (SSGM) is also enabled. The SSGM setting controls behavior only in the My Groups portal.

To disable group creation for standard users:

1. Verify that standard users are allowed to create groups:

   PS C:\> Get-MgBetaDirectorySetting | select -ExpandProperty values
   
    Name                            Value
    ----                            -----
    NewUnifiedGroupWritebackDefault true
    EnableMIPLabels                 false
    CustomBlockedWordsList
    EnableMSStandardBlockedWords    false
    ClassificationDescriptions
    DefaultClassification
    PrefixSuffixNamingRequirement
    AllowGuestsToBeGroupOwner       false
    AllowGuestsToAccessGroups       true
    GuestUsageGuidelinesUrl
    GroupCreationAllowedGroupId
    AllowToAddGuests                true
    UsageGuidelinesUrl
    ClassificationList
    EnableGroupCreation             true
   

2. If it returns EnableGroupCreation : True, then standard users can create groups. To disable this feature:

    Install-Module Microsoft.Graph.Beta.Identity.DirectoryManagement
    Import-Module Microsoft.Graph.Beta.Identity.DirectoryManagement
    $params = @{
    TemplateId = "62375ab9-6b52-47ed-826b-58e47e0e304b"
    Values = @(		
    	@{
    		Name = "EnableGroupCreation"
    		Value = "false"
    	}		
    )
    }
    Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Directory.ReadWrite.All"
    New-MgBetaDirectorySetting -BodyParameter $params
   
   

Manage owners of groups

To add owners to a group, use the New-MgGroupOwner cmdlet:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> New-MgGroupOwner -GroupId 0e48dc96-3bff-4fe1-8939-4cd680163497 -DirectoryObjectId 92a0dad0-7c9e-472f-b2a3-0fe2c9a02867

The -GroupId parameter is the ObjectID of the group to which we want to add an owner. The -DirectoryObjectId is the ObjectID of the user or service principal we want to add as an owner.

To retrieve the owners of a group, use the Get-MgGroupOwner cmdlet:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-MgGroupOwner -GroupId 0e48dc96-3bff-4fe1-8939-4cd680163497

The cmdlet returns the list of owners (users and service principals) for the specified group:

    Id                                       DeletedDateTime
    --                                       ---------------
    8ee754e0-743e-4231-ace4-c28d20cf2841
    85b1df54-e5c0-4cfd-a20b-8bc1a2ca7865
    4451b332-2294-4dcf-a214-6cc805016c50

If you want to remove an owner from a group, use the Remove-MgGroupOwnerByRef cmdlet:

    PS C:\Windows\system32> Remove-MgGroupOwnerByRef -GroupId 0e48dc96-3bff-4fe1-8939-4cd680163497 -DirectoryObjectId 92a0dad0-7c9e-472f-b2a3-0fe2c9a02867

Reserved aliases

When you create a group, users specify a mailNickname or alias that the system uses as part of the email address of the group. The creation of groups with any of the highly privileged email aliases listed is limited to Microsoft Entra Global Administrators. 

• abuse
• admin
• administrator
• hostmaster
• majordomo
• postmaster
• root
• secure
• security
• ssl-admin
• webmaster

Group writeback to on-premises

Today, many groups are still managed in on-premises Active Directory. To answer requests to sync cloud groups back to on-premises, the groups writeback feature for Microsoft Entra ID using Microsoft Entra cloud sync is now available.

Next steps

You can find more Microsoft Entra ID PowerShell documentation at Microsoft Entra Cmdlets.

• Managing access to resources with Microsoft Entra groups
• Integrating your on-premises identities with Microsoft Entra ID