Using PowerShell to search Active Directory and see who a missed call is from… maybe I should just pick up the phone… nah, geek away…<\/p>\n
\u2014 Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) February 21, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I could have just called them back (actually, I did!) but the geek in me had the bit between the teeth… could I script up some kind of reverse lookup for phone numbers? And, in true Barack Obama (or Bob the Builder if you’re on this side of the Atlantic) style, the answer turns out to be:<\/p>\n “Yes, we can!”<\/p>\n So, if you use a Windows PC and you like scripting, read on. If you don’t, probably best just call the number back and see who answers!<\/p>\n The first hurdle was that, in order to query Active Directory from PowerShell, I needed to have the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) component installed on my Windows 7 workstation in order to do this, but it’s actually a two-step installation process.<\/p>\n Once the RSATs were installed and the Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell was enabled, I could fire up Windows PowerShell and issue the command to load the Active Directory management cmdlets<\/a>:<\/p>\n Next up, I needed to know which properties are available for an Active Directory User object. I used my own email address as a filter to Get-User<\/a>, which retrieved the details for the given AD User object, then selected all properties and piped the resulting output into Get-Member<\/a> (which gets the properties and methods of objects):<\/p>\n Building up confidence, I started to play around and query individual attributes for the selected object:<\/p>\n I found that each of these returned the information I would expect for my own user account in Active Directory.<\/p>\n The next step was to search the whole directory<\/a> but this time to filter the properties returned and to pipe through This returns the office phone number for everyone whose user name contains the string This time, the resulting output was exactly what I was after – a single entry matching the partial phone number I’d asked it to match ( Finally, I wrapped the whole thing up in a script and, as long as I’ve done the usual Getting ready to query Active Directory with PowerShell<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/rsat-ad-psh.png?resize=257%2C225&ssl=1\")
In Control Panel, Programs, Programs and Features, Turn Windows features on or off, make sure that the Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell is available under Role Administration Tools, AD DS and AD LDS Tools.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nImport-Module ActiveDirectory<\/code><\/p>\nFinding the available attributes to search against<\/h3>\n
Get-ADUser -Filter {EmailAddress -like \"user@domain.com\"} -Properties * |
\n<\/code>Get-Member -MemberType\u00a0property<\/code><\/p>\n$user = Get-ADUser -Filter {EmailAddress -like \"user@domain.com\"} -Properties *
\n$user.Title
\n$user.OfficePhone
\n$user.SAMAccountName<\/code><\/p>\nConstructing the query<\/h3>\n
Where-Object<\/code> to match certain criteria<\/a>, then\u00a0pipe the resulting output from that query into a table:<\/p>\nGet-AdUser -Filter * -Properties OfficePhone |
\nWhere-Object {$_.UserPrincipalName -match \"Wilson\"} |
\nFormat-Table OfficePhone,UserPrincipalName<\/code><\/p>\nWilson<\/code>. \u00a0That tested the principle but was not the query I was trying to create, so I edited the query to match a number against a number of phone number properties (making sure that all the properties that need to be displayed are in the filter) and also prompted for the search string<\/a>, storing it in a variable:<\/p>\n$Search = Read-Host 'What number would you like to search for?'
\nGet-AdUser -Filter * -Properties OfficePhone,MobilePhone,TelephoneNumber |
\nWhere-Object {$_.OfficePhone -match $Search -or $_.MobilePhone -match
\n$Search -or $_.TelephoneNumber -match $Search} |
\nFormat-Table GivenName,Surname,OfficePhone,MobilePhone,TelephoneNumber<\/code><\/p>\n824753<\/code> in the example below):<\/p>\nGivenName Surname OfficePhone MobilePhone TelephoneNumber\r\n--------- ------- ----------- ----------- ---------------\r\nMark Wilson 73824753 +447xxx824753 73824753<\/pre>\n
Set-ExecutionPolicy remotesigned<\/code> stuff<\/a>, I can perform reverse lookups on phone numbers to my heart’s content… now, if only I could have an iPhone app to do this for me when the calls come in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"