How to: Use PowerShell to Create and Manage Users and Groups in SharePoint

The PowerShell code below creates SharePoint groups mentioned in xml file within a site and assigns the relevant permissions level to each. It will also configure the groups to allow any member to edit the membership and show how to add users into the newly created groups. 

PowerShell Script

# Get Site and Web objects

  Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Sharepoint.Powershell

  $filePath="D:\XmlFilePath\Groups.xml"

  $site = Get-SPSite "https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/mysitecollection"

  $web = $site.RootWeb

  write-host "Site Collection URL: " $site.Url

  write-host "Xml file path: " $filePath

# Get XML file containing groups and associated users

 $groupsXML = [xml] (Get-Content ($filePath))

# Walk through each group node defined in the XML file

 $groupsXML.Groups.Group | ForEach-Object {

# Check to see if SharePoint group already exists in the site collection

 if ($web.SiteGroups[$_.name] -eq $null)

        {

             write-host "Creating Group - " $_.name

            

# If the SharePoint group doesn't exist already - create it from the name and description values at the node

$newGroup = $web.SiteGroups.Add($_.name, $web.CurrentUser, $null, $_.description)

        }

   # Get SharePoint group from the site collection

   $group = $web.SiteGroups[$_.name]

   # Add the users defined in the XML to the SharePoint group

   write-host "Adding Users to the Group" $group.Name

   $_.Users.User | ForEach-Object {

   $group.Users.Add($_, "", "", "")

        }

   # Create a new assignment (group and permission level pair) which will be added to the web object

   write-host "Creating new assignment for group" $group.Name

   $groupAssignment = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPRoleAssignment($group)

  # Get the permission levels to apply to the new group

  write-host "Permission Level" $_.permissionlevel

  $roleDefinition = $web.Site.RootWeb.RoleDefinitions[$_.permissionlevel]

  # Assign the appropriate permission level to group

  $groupAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add($roleDefinition)

  # Add the group with the permission level to the site

  $web.RoleAssignments.Add($groupAssignment)

  $web.Update()

  write-host "--------" $group.Name "Group Added to the site" "--------"

    }

 # Dispose of Web and Site objects

 $web.Dispose()

 $site.Dispose()

Xml File Format

<Groups>

        <Group description="New Group1" permissionlevel="Contribute" name="Group1">

             <Users>

                  <User> domain\UserId </User>

                   <User> domain\UserId </User>

             </Users>

          </Group>

          <Group description="New Group2" permissionlevel="Read" name="Group2">

             <Users>

                   <User> domain\UserId </User>

                   <User> domain\UserId </User>

             </Users>

          </Group>

</Groups>