Using SharePoint Online and MSOL/WAAD cmdlets in PowerShell with Office 365

This post is a companion post to Using CSOM in PowerShell scripts with Office 365. As I mention over in that article, broadly there are 3 different flavors to writing PowerShell for Office 365 – exactly what commands you need to run will dictate which you use, but it’s also conceivable that you might use all 3 in the same script. When you start with Office 365, I think it’s easy to get confused between them, or not fully appreciate that they all exist. What I’m thinking of here is:

Flavor	Notes	Examples	When installed you’ll have:
SharePoint Online (SPO) cmdlets	These are SharePoint Online specific, and can be identified by “SPO” in the noun part of the cmdlet.	Get-SPOSite (to list your site collections in Office 365) New-SPOSite (to create a new site collection)
MS Online (MSOL)/WAAD cmdlets	These are commands related to an Office 365 tenancy (but not necessarily specific to Exchange, Lync or SharePoint) and can be identified by “Msol” in the noun part of the cmdlet.	Get-MSolUser (to list users in your tenancy) Set-MsolUserPassword (to update a password)
Using SP CSOM in PS scripts	The main focus of my other post, Using CSOM in PowerShell scripts with Office 365	Activating a Feature in SharePoint Online Updating webs or lists in SharePoint Online	No install needed – you can run this type of scripts in a regular Windows PowerShell command prompt.

 

A note on MSOL/Windows Azure AD cmdlets

You might be wondering why the MSOL cmdlets show “Windows Azure Active Directory..” in the shortcut title (full name is “Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell”), despite everything else being labelled “MSOnline” or “MSOL”. The answer is that originally these cmdlets were known as the “Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell cmdlets”, but since that time Microsoft have introduced Windows Azure Active Directory as a formal service offering. Every Office 365 tenancy is backed by Windows Azure Active Directory (WAAD) – and since the MSOL cmdlets always were focused around directory stuff (managing users/groups, managing synchronization with your Active Directory and so on), these have now been absorbed into the WAAD offering.

Getting started

If you’re a developer or administrator who will be working with Office 365 regularly, I recommend installing the the ‘shells’ for both the SharePoint Online and Office 365 PowerShell commands – you’ll probably need them at some point.

1. Install PowerShell 3.0 if you don’t already have it. It’s included in the Windows Management Framework 3.0 - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34595
2. Install the SPO cmdlets - http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint-help/redir/XT102919083.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA102919087
3. Install the MSOL cmdlets - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj151815.aspx#bkmk_installmodule

Once installed, you’re ready to start thinking about the “top of script” stuff (e.g. authenticating to Office 365). You’ll find that it’s very similar for both the SPO and MSOL scripts, but a different cmdlet must be run to start the session:

• Connect-SPOService
• Connect-MsolService

Script examples – SPO scripts

Authenticating to SharePoint Online to run SPO cmdlets:

** N.B. My newer code samples do not show in RSS Readers - click here for full article **

List all site collections in SharePoint Online:

** N.B. My newer code samples do not show in RSS Readers - click here for full article **

Recreate a site collection in SharePoint Online:

** N.B. My newer code samples do not show in RSS Readers - click here for full article **

Script examples – MSOL/WAAD scripts

Authenticating to Office 365 to run MSOL/WAAD cmdlets:

** N.B. My newer code samples do not show in RSS Readers - click here for full article **

Getting all users in in the directory

A simple MSOL example, just for completeness:

** N.B. My newer code samples do not show in RSS Readers - click here for full article **

Further reading

• Manage Windows Azure AD using Windows PowerShell
• Windows PowerShell for SharePoint Online
• My related post - Using CSOM in PowerShell scripts with Office 365

Appendix – full lists of SPO and MSOL/WAAD cmdlets

To help you get a sense of the full range of commands in each family (in case you don’t already have them installed), I’m listing them below:

SPO cmdlets

Add-SPOUser                                       
Connect-SPOService                                
Disconnect-SPOService                             
Get-SPOAppErrors                                  
Get-SPOAppInfo                                    
Get-SPODeletedSite                                
Get-SPOExternalUser                               
Get-SPOSite                                       
Get-SPOSiteGroup                                  
Get-SPOTenant                                     
Get-SPOTenantLogEntry                             
Get-SPOTenantLogLastAvailableTimeInUtc            
Get-SPOUser                                       
Get-SPOWebTemplate                                
New-SPOSite                                       
New-SPOSiteGroup                                  
Remove-SPODeletedSite                             
Remove-SPOExternalUser                            
Remove-SPOSite                                    
Remove-SPOSiteGroup                               
Remove-SPOUser                                    
Repair-SPOSite                                    
Request-SPOUpgradeEvaluationSite                  
Restore-SPODeletedSite                            
Set-SPOSite                                       
Set-SPOSiteGroup                                  
Set-SPOTenant                                     
Set-SPOUser                                       
Test-SPOSite                                      
Upgrade-SPOSite          

MSOL/WAAD cmdlets

Add-MsolForeignGroupToRole   
Add-MsolGroupMember          
Add-MsolRoleMember           
Confirm-MsolDomain           
Confirm-MsolEmailVerifiedDomain   
Connect-MsolService          
Convert-MsolDomainToFederated     
Convert-MsolDomainToStandard      
Convert-MsolFederatedUser    
Get-MsolAccountSku           
Get-MsolCompanyInformation   
Get-MsolContact              
Get-MsolDomain               
Get-MsolDomainFederationSettings  
Get-MsolDomainVerificationDns     
Get-MsolFederationProperty   
Get-MsolGroup                
Get-MsolGroupMember          
Get-MsolPartnerContract      
Get-MsolPartnerInformation   
Get-MsolPasswordPolicy       
Get-MsolRole                 
Get-MsolRoleMember           
Get-MsolServicePrincipal     
Get-MsolServicePrincipalCredential   
Get-MsolSubscription         
Get-MsolUser                 
Get-MsolUserByStrongAuthentication
Get-MsolUserRole             
New-MsolDomain               
New-MsolFederatedDomain      
New-MsolGroup                
New-MsolLicenseOptions       
New-MsolServicePrincipal     
New-MsolServicePrincipalAddresses
New-MsolServicePrincipalCredential
New-MsolUser                 
New-MsolWellKnownGroup       
Redo-MsolProvisionContact    
Redo-MsolProvisionGroup      
Redo-MsolProvisionUser       
Remove-MsolApplicationPassword    
Remove-MsolContact           
Remove-MsolDomain            
Remove-MsolFederatedDomain   
Remove-MsolForeignGroupFromRole   
Remove-MsolGroup             
Remove-MsolGroupMember       
Remove-MsolRoleMember        
Remove-MsolServicePrincipal       
Remove-MsolServicePrincipalCredential  
Remove-MsolUser              
Reset-MsolStrongAuthenticationMethodByUpn
Restore-MsolUser             
Set-MsolADFSContext          
Set-MsolCompanyContactInformation
Set-MsolCompanySettings      
Set-MsolDirSyncEnabled       
Set-MsolDomain               
Set-MsolDomainAuthentication      
Set-MsolDomainFederationSettings  
Set-MsolGroup                
Set-MsolPartnerInformation   
Set-MsolPasswordPolicy       
Set-MsolServicePrincipal     
Set-MsolUser                 
Set-MsolUserLicense          
Set-MsolUserPassword         
Set-MsolUserPrincipalName    
Update-MsolFederatedDomain