SOLVED

Email layout for powershell script

Iron Contributor

Hi,

 

I'm creating my first powershell scripts, and a basic one I've created is just to check if in a time period (for example, last 7 days, any AD user was created with the "PasswordNeverExpires" set to true, which is something we need to control. 

Then I send out this information by email for analysis, but the email layout is not the best one. Screenshot attached.

So is there any quick way to have an email friendly layout so it's easier to read?
This is my code:

 

 

$When = (Get-Date).Date.AddDays(-30)
$Alerts = Get-ADUser -Filter {whenCreated -ge $When} -Properties whenCreated, PasswordNeverExpires | Select-Object samaccountname, Name, Enabled, PasswordNeverExpires
Write-Host $Alerts

$messagebody = @"
    These users have been created in the last 30 days:
    $($Alerts | Out-String)
"@
Send-MailMessage -SmtpServer smtp.office365.com -Port 587 -UseSsl -From Email address removed -To Email address removed -Subject 'Alert: Users < 30 dias & PasswordNEverExpires' -Body $messagebody -Credential $mycredentials

 

Thanks

9 Replies
best response confirmed by dmarquesgn (Iron Contributor)
Solution

@dmarquesgn Made a HTML table from it, looks like this on my testserver:

(Used the code from https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/core-infrastructure-and-security/script-to-send-email-alerts-... as example)

 

Harm_Veenstra_1-1647977641357.png

Script:

 

 

$When = (Get-Date).Date.AddDays(-30)
$Alerts = Get-ADUser -Filter { whenCreated -ge $When } -Properties whenCreated, PasswordNeverExpires | Select-Object samaccountname, Name, Enabled, PasswordNeverExpires
$style = @'
<style>body{font-family:`"Calibri`",`"sans-serif`"; font-size: 14px;}
@font-face
       {font-family:`"Cambria Math`";
       panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
       {font-family:Calibri;
       panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
       {font-family:Tahoma;
       panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
       table{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse:collapse; mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt;}
       th{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px; }
       td{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px; }
       .crtsn{font-weight: bold; color: blue; }
       .crtexp{font-weight: bold; color: red; }
       .crtcn{font-weight: bold; color: orange; }
       </style>
'@
$mailbody += '<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8">' + $style + '</head><body>'
$mailbody += '<p>'
$mailbody += 'These users have been created in the last 30 days ' + "<br />"
$mailbody += '</p>'
$mailbody += '<p><table>'
$mailbody += '<th>samaccountname</th><th>Name</th><th>Enabled</th><th>PasswordNeverExpires</th>'

foreach ($user in $Alerts) {
    $mailbody += "<tr><td>" + $user.samaccountname + "</td><td>" + $user.Name + "</td><td>" + $user.Enabled + "</td><td>" + $user.PasswordNeverExpires + "</td></tr>"
}

$mailbody += '</table></p>'
$mailbody += '</body>'
$mailbody += '</html>'

Send-MailMessage -SmtpServer mail.server.com -Port 587 -UseSsl -From mailfromaddress -To mailtoaddress -Subject 'Álert: Users < 30 dias & PasswordNEverExpires' -Body $mailbody -BodyAsHtml -Credential $mycredentials

 

 

 

Hi,

Thanks, that's exactly what I've been looking for.
Now I can use the code in other alerts as well.

Thanks
One thing I've just remembered.
Can I insert a signature of our area that we're using in all emails that we send to the users?
No problem, it's not my really my thing (Visuals/Formatting/Design) but I liked this one because it's simple/clean. Usually I just mail simple text outputs :D
Me neither as well, but some users already complained that without the regular signature they are used to see, they were not sure if this was real :D

If you can convert/extract the signature as HTML, you can insert it to the mailbody part just above the last </body> with a $mailbody += for every line

 

Just an observation, but am I missing something here?
The requirement from the original post is to check if any users were created without password expiries set in the last 30 days.

Sounds like a sensible governance check.

You should be able to do this from a single filter, and only return the users that the attribute is not set. Instead of all users that you currently have in the report. Extend the filter with an AND to include PasswordNeverExpires='true'.

You should be able to use a select command to trim the attributes for the object if needed and just export to CSV, call the CSV PasswordNeverExpires.csv and then email that. A CSV would have the same headers as you have in the HTML report.  The CSV name hopefully would explain the context of the file.

I'm just looking at this with my "keep it simple" head on and got a bit confused :)

'So is there any quick way to have an email friendly layout so it's easier to read?' that's what I answered, he wanted a report in the mail body and not an attachment. That's how I read it, but I understand what you mean
Yes, the main goal is achieved, but as this information in the end is to be read by some helpdesk operators, so everything that will be similar to what they are used to it's much better, due to internal cultural issues. But main issue is achieved.
1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by dmarquesgn (Iron Contributor)
Solution

@dmarquesgn Made a HTML table from it, looks like this on my testserver:

(Used the code from https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/core-infrastructure-and-security/script-to-send-email-alerts-... as example)

 

Harm_Veenstra_1-1647977641357.png

Script:

 

 

$When = (Get-Date).Date.AddDays(-30)
$Alerts = Get-ADUser -Filter { whenCreated -ge $When } -Properties whenCreated, PasswordNeverExpires | Select-Object samaccountname, Name, Enabled, PasswordNeverExpires
$style = @'
<style>body{font-family:`"Calibri`",`"sans-serif`"; font-size: 14px;}
@font-face
       {font-family:`"Cambria Math`";
       panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
       {font-family:Calibri;
       panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
       {font-family:Tahoma;
       panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
       table{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse:collapse; mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt;}
       th{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px; }
       td{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px; }
       .crtsn{font-weight: bold; color: blue; }
       .crtexp{font-weight: bold; color: red; }
       .crtcn{font-weight: bold; color: orange; }
       </style>
'@
$mailbody += '<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8">' + $style + '</head><body>'
$mailbody += '<p>'
$mailbody += 'These users have been created in the last 30 days ' + "<br />"
$mailbody += '</p>'
$mailbody += '<p><table>'
$mailbody += '<th>samaccountname</th><th>Name</th><th>Enabled</th><th>PasswordNeverExpires</th>'

foreach ($user in $Alerts) {
    $mailbody += "<tr><td>" + $user.samaccountname + "</td><td>" + $user.Name + "</td><td>" + $user.Enabled + "</td><td>" + $user.PasswordNeverExpires + "</td></tr>"
}

$mailbody += '</table></p>'
$mailbody += '</body>'
$mailbody += '</html>'

Send-MailMessage -SmtpServer mail.server.com -Port 587 -UseSsl -From mailfromaddress -To mailtoaddress -Subject 'Álert: Users < 30 dias & PasswordNEverExpires' -Body $mailbody -BodyAsHtml -Credential $mycredentials

 

 

 

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