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Mastering SharePoint Online Management with PowerShell

Jonathan Rhodes

Jonathan Rhodes

• 2 min read
Mastering SharePoint Online Management with PowerShell

SharePoint Online is an integral part of Microsoft 365, offering robust collaboration tools that can significantly enhance productivity within an organization. While the SharePoint Online interface provides a user-friendly way to manage your sites, PowerShell offers a level of automation and control that can streamline administration tasks, especially for bulk operations or complex configurations. Here's how you can effectively manage SharePoint Online using PowerShell:

1. Setting Up Your Environment
Before diving into PowerShell commands, you need to ensure your environment is set up correctly:

  • Permissions: Ensure you have the necessary permissions. You need to be a SharePoint Online Administrator to perform most operations.

PnP PowerShell: For more extensive management capabilities, the Patterns and Practices (PnP) PowerShell module can be invaluable. Install it via:

Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline -Force

Install SharePoint Online Management Shell: Download and install the SharePoint Online Management Shell from the Microsoft website or use PowerShell to install it directly:

Install-Module -Name Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell

2. Connecting to SharePoint Online
To start managing SharePoint Online with PowerShell:

Or With PnP PowerShell:

Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/your-site-name" -Credentials (Get-Credential)

If your organization uses Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), use -UseWebLogin with PnP or consider using Azure AD Application permissions for automated scripts.

Connect Using SharePoint Online Management Shell:

$admin = "admin@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com"
$orgname = "yourtenant"
$userCred = Get-Credential -UserName $admin -Message "Type the password."
Connect-SPOService -Url https://$orgname-admin.sharepoint.com -Credential $userCred

3. Common Management Tasks.
Site Management

List All Sites:

Get-SPOSite -Limit All | Select Url, Title, Owner

Create a New Site Collection:

New-SPOSite -Url https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/new-site -Owner admin@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com -StorageQuota 1000 -Title "New Site" -Template STS#3

b. User and Permission Management

Set Site Permissions:
To create a custom permission level or manage existing ones, you might use PnP PowerShell for more granularity:

# Add a custom permission level
$PermToClone = Get-PnPRoleDefinition -Identity "Read"
Add-PnPRoleDefinition -RoleName "myCustomPermLevel" -Description "Custom Permissions" -BasePermissions $PermToClone.BasePermissions

Add User to Site:

Add-SPOUser -Site "https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/your-site" -LoginName "user@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com" -Group "Visitors"

c. Report Generation

Export Site Permissions:

Get-SPOSite -Limit All | ForEach-Object {Get-SPOUser -Site $_.Url} | Select-Object SiteUrl, LoginName, @{Name='Role';Expression={$_.Groups}} | Export-CSV -Path "C:\UsersPermissions.csv" -NoTypeInformation

d. File and Folder Management

List Files Over a Certain Size:

$items = Get-PnPListItem -List "Documents" -Fields "FileLeafRef", "FileRef", "SMTotalFileStreamSize"
$items | Where-Object {[int]$_.["SMTotalFileStreamSize"] -gt 50000000} | Select-Object FileLeafRef, FileRef, @{Label="SizeMB";Expression={[math]::Round($_.["SMTotalFileStreamSize"] / 1MB, 2)}}

Upload a File:

Add-PnPFile -Path "C:\LocalFile.docx" -Folder "/Shared Documents"

4. Best Practices

  • Automation: Leverage PowerShell for scheduling regular maintenance tasks or reports via Windows Task Scheduler or Azure Automation.
  • Documentation: Document your scripts thoroughly with comments for future reference or team collaboration.
  • Version Control: Use tools like Git for managing and versioning your PowerShell scripts.

Error Handling: Incorporate proper error handling in scripts:

Try {
    # Your PowerShell cmdlets here
}
Catch {
    Write-Error "Error occurred: $_"
}

5. Keeping Up to Date

Stay updated with the latest cmdlets by regularly checking the SharePoint blog or Microsoft documentation, and update your PowerShell modules:

Update-Module -Name Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell

Conclusion
PowerShell provides a powerful toolkit for SharePoint Online administrators to automate, manage, and report on their environments efficiently. By mastering these scripts, you not only save time but also gain the ability to perform complex operations that the UI might not easily accommodate. Always test in a non-production environment first, and remember that with great power comes great responsibility; manage your SharePoint Online with care and precision.

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