PowerShell has several cmdlets like Get-MSolGroup, Get-AzureADGroup, Get-UnifiedGroup, Get-DistributionGroup, Get-MgGroup to get group information. Are you confused to pick the correct one? Fear not! We are here to help you. We have created an All-in-One PowerShell script to export groups and their membership details to CSV file. 

With the single script, you can generate multiple group reports with the help of advanced filtering options. Here are a few example reports, 

• All groups report 
• All groups membership report 
• Get group report for a single/list of groups (through CSV import) 
• Get group membership for a single/list of groups (through CVS import) 
• Microsoft 365 security group report 
• Microsoft 365 security group membership report 
• Distribution group report 
• Distribution group membership report 
• Mail enabled security group report 
• Mail-enabled security group membership report 
• Empty group report (Group without member report) 
• Group size report (Group report based on the member count report) 

Download Script: M365GroupReport

Additional Highlights of the Script: 

• The script uses Microsoft Graph PowerShell.
• The script can be executed with certificate-based authentication (CBA) too.
• Exports the report result to CSV. 
• You can get members count based on Member Type such as User, Group, Contact, etc. 
• The script is scheduler friendly.
• Above all, the script exports output to nicely formatted 2 CSV files. One with group information and another with detailed group membership information. 

Microsoft 365 Group Report PowerShell Script – Execution Steps: 

Method 1:  Execute the script with admin account

To view all the groups and their members’ info, run the script as follows: 

./M365GroupReport.ps1

After the script execution, both output files will be available in the execution directory. 

Method 2: Execute the PowerShell Script with Certificate

To run the script with certificate based authentication, use the below format

.\M365GroupReport.ps1 -TenantId <TenantId> -ClientId <ClientId> -CertificateThumbprint <Certthumbprint>

You can also use the above format to run the PowerShell script as scheduled task in Windows Task Scheduler.

Note: To use CBA, you must register app in Azure AD. To get more details on registering Azure app and certificates, you can refer the connect MS Graph PowerShell with certificate blog. You can follow the manual steps or automate the process (through ready-to-run script) based on your requirement.

Microsoft 365 Group Report: 

The Microsoft 365 Group report has the following columns: Group Name, Email Address, Group Type, Group Members Count, and Members Count by Type. 

The group report looks similar to the screenshot below: 

Microsoft 365 Group Membership Report: 

The Microsoft 365 group membership report has the following columns: Group Name, Group Email Address, Member Name, Member Email, and Member Type. Group member type is helpful in identifying type of a member such as user, group, and contact. 

The group members report looks similar to the screenshot below: 

More Use-cases of Microsoft 365 Group Report Script: 

As earlier said, the script supports advanced filtering params to get the report as per your requirement. 

Export all Microsoft 365 Groups and Membership to CSV: 

To export all the Microsoft 365 groups, execute the script as follows: 

./M365GroupReport.ps1

By referring to this report, admin can add or remove user from the group. 

The exported report contains all the group types such as Distribution lists, security groups, mail-enabled Security groups, and unified groups. If you need more detail, you can use our PowerShell scripts to export all M365 groups and their ownership and export the user’s direct group membership report, to ensure the right owner and member are assigned to the right groups.

Get Members for a Single/List of Groups: 

You can use –GroupIDsFile param to get the report for specific group(s) from the input list called “GroupId.txt” and exports all membership into CSV. 

To get group report and membership report for specific groups, pass an input file with a GUID of groups. 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -GroupIDsFile C:/GroupId.txt

The GroupIDsFile must follow the format below:  Group identity separated by new line without a header. 

Group Size Report: 

The report helps you to get the groups that have more than an ‘N’ number of members. To get this report, you can execute the script with –MinGroupMembersCount param. 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -MinGroupMembersCount 50

The above script exports all groups that have more than 50 members. 

Note: If you want to determine group membership (I.e., members count) based on certain conditions, you can use Dynamic Group membership report. 

Microsoft 365 Security Group Report: 

Security groups are used for granting access to Microsoft 365 resources. To export security group report, you can run the script with –Security param.  

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -Security

By referring group membership report, you can view the users who has rights and access to SharePoint sites and CRM Online.  

Distribution List Report: 

Distribution lists are used for sending notifications to a group of people. To export distribution group and their membership, you can use –DistributionList param while executing the script. 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -DistributionList

The above script lists all the distribution groups and their members’ info.  

Note: The report lists Microsoft 365 groups (group mailboxes) as a Distribution List. 

You can also check our dedicated script on the Distribution Group membership report for a more detailed report. 

Mail-enabled Security Groups Report: 

This type of group works as regular security along with the ability to send mail to its members. To get a list of all the mail-enabled security groups, execute the script with –MailEnabledSecurity param. 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -MailEnabledSecurity

The script exports mail-enabled security groups info and membership to the CSV file. 

Get Empty Groups Report: 

To get an empty group report (i.e., groups without members), execute the script with –IsEmpty param. 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -IsEmpty

By referring to this report, you can delete unused/inactive groups in your tenant. 

Schedule Group Report to run Periodically: 

As said earlier, this script is scheduler friendly. You can pass the credential as a parameter. So, it will not prompt for username and password during execution. 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -UserName admin@contoso.com -Password XXX

You can use Windows Task Scheduler for PowerShell scheduled task. 

Get more Granular Group Report: 

To export a more granular group report, you can use multiple filters (i.e., params and switches). I have given few examples below. 

• To get empty distribution groups, 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -IsEmpty -DistributionList

• To view empty security groups, 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -IsEmpty -Security

• To list empty mail-enabled security groups, 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -IsEmpty -MailenabledSecurity

• To get large distribution groups, 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -DistributionList -MinGroupMembersCount 500

• To get security groups based on the members count, 

./M365GroupReport.ps1 -Security -MinGroupMembersCount 50

Microsoft 365 groups are helpful when you want to give access/ send information to multiple people. Adding people to the group automatically gives them the permission they need. Apart from the groups, you can also use shared mailbox membership when multiple people want to access the same mailbox. If you are new to PowerShell and face difficulty in understanding the script, you can simply go with Microsoft365DSC to export M365 configurations including all groups, members, and all. Gi

Get More Detailed  Group Reports:

To get more detailed group reports based on

• Group types
  • Security group
  • Distribution group
  • Mail-enabled security group
  • Microsoft 365 group
  • Dynamic distribution group
• Group membership
  • Direct members
  • Nested group members
  • Hidden membership
  • External members
• Group creation source
  • Groups created via Teams
  • Groups created via SharePoint Online
  • Groups created via Yammer
• Group member changes
• Groups usage
• Inactive groups based on Last activity date

you can take a look at AdminDroid Microsoft 365 reporting and auditing tool.

AdminDroid provides 1500+ pre-built reports and 20 smart visually appealing dashboards to know about your Office 365 environment at a glance. This tool provides reports on Office 365 reporting, auditing, analytics, usage statistics, security & compliance, etc.

Besides, AdminDroid provides over 100+ reports and dashboards completely for free. It includes reports on Users, Licenses, Groups, Group Members, Devices, Login Activities, Password Changes, License Changes, and more. The free edition doesn’t have any restrictions in reporting functionalities such as customization, scheduling, and exporting. Download Free Office 365 reporting tool by AdminDroid and see how it helps you.

I hope this blog will help you in managing group membership in your organization. 

The post Export Microsoft 365 Group Report to CSV Using PowerShell  appeared first on Office 365 Reports.

What if your group always up to date based on certain properties of the user account, yes this is called dynamic office 365 groups.

The group membership of the most of the groups we use in day to day basis always depends on some of the user properties like department, city, office-location, country, manager, job title, etc., These are the strong candidates to fit in the Dynamic Office 365 Groups.

How long will it take to update the Dynamic Office 365 Group?

Microsoft confirmed that the dynamic group membership is usually updated within a minute.

This one-minute latency won’t be an issue because if we want to add the user to a group manually then it will take more than a minute of our time.

How easy is it to create Dynamic Membership for Groups?

Most of the time to access the advanced features always one need to use the PowerShell, but Microsoft provides nice GUI for creating dynamic membership for a group; with one condition, you need to have Azure AD Premium License to access this feature!.

Just in three easy steps.

• Go to Azure classic Portal, Select Active Directory from the LHS, and then open your org’s directory.
• Click on the Groups tab, and then select the desired group.
• Now head to Configure tab, just turn on the ‘Enable Dynamic Membership’ switch, now you can define your simple membership condition easily.

Note:Microsoft has not provided GUI to view dynamic O365 groups’ membership. You can use the export dynamic distribution group membership to CSV PowerShell script to list available dynamic O365 group with its members and other necessary information.

Can I create a Dynamic Membership with complex rules.

Yes, you can.

Microsoft offers Advanced Rule option right under where you defined your dynamic membership condition. Currently, no GUI is available for framing the advanced rule, so one need to construct the rule manually with lots of commitment.

I always wonder why Microsoft releases half-baked features when it will just take few days of work to build a GUI for constructing the Advanced Rule.

To know more about how to create an ‘Advanced Rule, ‘ you can check out this Microsoft article.

What should I consider before switching to use new Dynamic O365 Groups?

There is no doubt it is the most needed feature for admin which will save you tons of hour which you can concentrate on more productive works.

But the single most important thing which you need to consider is the PRICING.

You need to have Azure Active Directory Premium license to use this cool feature. This license currently costs you 6$/user/month. Wel, the Azure Premium comes with some more cool features,  but if dynamic membership is the only thing you are going to use means you have to reconsider this option.

Tony Redmond has shared his thought about the big cost on dynamic distribution group here. I suggest you check out the link for more detail.

Note: Currently this feature in the preview.

The post Everything You Want to Know About Dynamic Office 365 Groups appeared first on Office 365 Reports.

• Distribution lists : Allows you to send email to all members of the list. You can even allow people outside your organization send email to a list.
• Security groups : Allows you to control access to OneDrive and SharePoint and are used for Mobile Device Management for Office 365.
• Mail-enabled security group : Security groups with mailing option.
• Office 365 groups :  This is  a great way for teams to collaborate by giving them a group email and a shared workspace for conversations, files, and calendar events.

1. Every Office 365 Group has a shared mailbox with a searchable history of email conversations within the group, so new members have access to all of the content and context that predates their membership

• With a Distribution Group, new members only see discussions starting from when they joined

2. By default, Office 365 Groups are ‘public,’ i.e., discoverable for users within your Office 365 tenant. That makes it easy for people in your organization to search for a topic name and/or description and join any related groups.

• Distribution Groups are often searchable by name only

3. Office 365 Groups provide a convenient self-service option for an organization’s users to create new groups, as well as join or depart groups

• Creating Distribution Groups, as well as adding and removing members, is usually done by the organization’s Exchange administrators on behalf of the users.

4. Group members also have access to a shared calendar, document library, OneNote notebook, etc. for collaboration needs beyond email

• Distribution Groups are designed for collaborating via email. Separate sets of manual steps are required to set up and use addition collaboration tools such as a shared calendar or a OneNote notebook.

It’s a Time for Upgrading your Distribution Groups

 If you are impressed with Office 365 Groups over Distribution Groups then it’s a time to upgrade your Distribution Groups to new shiny Office 365 Groups.

You can do this in Exchange Admin Center as shown above or you can do this bulk using powershell. You can get more information about upgrade in this Microsoft article.

Limitations

The post Advantage of Office 365 Groups over Traditional Distribution Groups appeared first on Office 365 Reports.