Add AD Group to SharePoint Online Group using PowerShell

Requirement: Add Active Directory security group to SharePoint Online Group using PowerShell.

How to Add AD Group to SharePoint Online Groups?

Adding an Active Directory (AD) group to SharePoint Online is a great way to manage user permissions. By adding AD groups, you can give users access to SharePoint sites, libraries, lists, and items without having to individually add each user to the site. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the steps on how to add an AD group to SharePoint Online.

1. Log in to the SharePoint Online site as an administrator.
2. Click on Settings Gear >> Site Permissions >> Share Site.
3. Enter the name of the Active Directory group that you want to add. Set the Permissions for the group.
4. Finally, click on the “Add” button to save your changes.

   

The group will now be added to your site, and you can begin managing permissions for the group as needed. You can also go to Advanced permission settings and add the AD group to the relevant SharePoint Online site group.

On Group connected sites, You can click on “Add Members” and then choose the “Share site only” option to grant access to the Active Directory Group to the Sharepoint Online site. The “Add Members to Group” won’t work, as the Office 365 group cannot contain AD security groups.

PowerShell to Add Active Directory Group to SharePoint Online Group

Let’s look at how to add an Active Directory security group to SharePoint Online using PowerShell. In just a few quick steps, you can add the security group and grant them the permissions they need. By adding the AD security group to your SharePoint Online site, you can give members of that group permission to access the site and its contents. Here is the PowerShell add AD group to SharePoint group in SharePoint Online:

#Load SharePoint Online Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"

Function Add-ADGroupToSP($SiteURL,$ADGroupName,$SPGroupName)
{
    #Setup Credentials to connect
    $Cred = Get-Credential
    $Cred = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.UserName,$Cred.Password)
 
    Try {
        #Setup the context
        $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
        $Ctx.Credentials = $Cred
     
        #Get the Web and SharePoint Group
        $Web = $Ctx.Web
        $Group= $Web.SiteGroups.GetByName($SPGroupName)
 
        #Resolve the AD Security Group
        $ADGroup = $web.EnsureUser($ADGroupName)
 
        #sharepoint online powershell add AD group to sharepoint group
        $Result = $Group.Users.AddUser($ADGroup)
        $Ctx.Load($Result)
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
 
        write-host  -f Green "Active Directory Group '$ADGroupName' has been added to '$SPGroupName'"
    }
    Catch {
        write-host -f Red "Error:" $_.Exception.Message
    }
}

#Variables for Processing
$SiteURL = "https://Crescent.sharepoint.com/Sales"
$ADGroupName = "Marketing Managers"
$SPGroupName="Sales Portal Members"

#Call the function to add AD group to SharePoint Group
Add-ADGroupToSP -SiteURL $SiteURL -ADGroupName $ADGroupName -SPGroupName $SPGroupName

This adds a given Active directory security group into the SharePoint Online group as a SharePoint user. You can also use AD Group’s Login ID (E.g. c:0t.c|tenant|915xnusf-fbb3-7da1-k252-33e0de69f19″) to Add AD Group to SharePoint Online Group.

SharePoint Online: PnP PowerShell to Add Security Group to Site

Adding a security group to SharePoint Online can be done using PnP PowerShell as well. Here is the PnP PowerShell to add the Active Directory security group to the SharePoint Online group:

#Parameters
$SiteURL= "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/hr"
$AdGroupID = "c:0t.c|tenant|798cb3d4-7ca8-4567-adb5-916bc496d7cd"
$GroupName = "HR Owners"

#Connect to site
Connect-PnPOnline $SiteURL -Interactive

#SharePoint Online powershell add security group
Add-PnPGroupMember -LoginName $AdGroupID -Identity $GroupName

To get all security groups and their IDs, use:

#Connect to Azure AD
Connect-AzureAD

#Get All Security Groups
Get-AzureADGroup -Filter "SecurityEnabled eq true" | Select DisplayName,ObjectID

Getting the ID of Active Directory Groups is explained in my other post: How to Add AD Security Group as Site Collection Administrator in SharePoint Online?