Overview

Managing users within the Azure Portal can be a tiresome process if you have many users. Creating, inviting, or deleting users one at a time is not practical if you need to manage hundreds or thousands of them. Fortunately, Azure provides a way to manage users in bulk.

The Azure Portal allows you to upload a Comma-separated value (CSV) file with user information so that you can Create, Invite, or Delete many users at once.

In this article, I will show you how to use these bulk operations to create users. The process is nearly identical for inviting and deleting users. Only the CSV template file is different.

Step-By-Step Example: Bulk Create Users

To manage users in bulk, log onto the Azure Portal as an Administrator; then search for Azure Active Directory, as shown in Fig. 1.

Search For Azure Active Directory
Fig. 1

The "Overview" blade of Azure Active Directory displays, as shown in Fig. 2.

Azure Active Directory
Fig. 2

In the left menu, click the [Users] button (Fig. 3) to open the "Users" blade, as shown in Fig. 4.

Users Button
Fig. 3

Users Blade
Fig. 4

Click the [Bulk operations] button (Fig. 5) to expand it, revealing the Bulk Operations menu, as shown in Fig. 6.

Bulk Operations Button
Fig. 5

Bulk Operations Menu
Fig. 6

Click the [Bulk create] menu option to display the "Bulk create users" dialog, as shown in Fig. 7.

Bulk Users Create Dialog
Fig. 7

Azure provides a template that you can use as a starting point for the upload file. Click the [Download] button (Fig. 8) to download a copy of this file.

Download Template Button
Fig. 8

The template is a Comma-Separated-Value (CSV) file. Fig. 9 shows what it looks like when you open it in Excel. I find it useful to rename this document and store it in a well-known place.

User Create Template
Fig. 9

Row 1 indicates the version number of the template. As of this writing, only version 1.0 exists.

Row 2 holds column headings. These headings are self-describing and correspond to the on-screen fields in the Azure Portal when you create a new user. Required fields are identified with the word "Required".

Enter data in rows 3 and above, using the sample row as a guide. You must enter something into each of the required columns, but all other columns are optional.

Save this document as a CSV file. Fig. 10 shows what it looks like in Excel with a few rows added.

Completed Bulk Users File
Fig. 10

Back in the portal's "Bulk create users" dialog, click the "Select a file" icon (Fig. 11) and select the CSV file containing the users to create.

Upload File Icon
Fig. 11

Fig. 12 shows the "Bulk create users" dialog with a file selected.

Bulk Users Create Dialog
Fig. 12

Click the [Submit] button to begin the import.

You can click the confirmation message to view the status of your import, as shown in Fig. 13.

Upload Status
Fig. 13

To see more details, click the hyperlink under "#Success", "#Failure", or "Total requests". Fig. 14 shows the success details.

Status Details
Fig. 14

Conclusion

In this article, I walked you through the process of using a CSV template and the Bulk Create operation to create many users at once. This process is nearly identical for inviting and deleting users - only the template is different.