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Azure Group search needs wild cards

Steel Contributor

We only have 200 Azure groups, but unless the Admin knows the name of the group when they are searching for it they can't use search 

 

As an Azure Admin I need to be able to find groups to alter them even if I don't know the text the group name starts with. Azure group search currently only finds items that match my search terms and any following characters, but sometimes I only know a term within the Group name.

 

If you know how I can do this within the current interface please let me know. Thanks :)

 

Please update search so that it searches within the group name words.

 

Group search needs to have wildcard options
OR
Search needs to find search terms within group names, not just where the group name starts with the search terms.


e.g. search for Dunedin should return all 3 of the following groups but only returns the first one in this list:
Dunedin project
29137 Dunedin reorganisation
Management Dunedin

 

This applies to the following page within Azure Active Directory

Groups - All Groups
The following page
https://aad.portal.azure.com/#blade/Microsoft_AAD_IAM/GroupsManagementMenuBlade/AllGroups

4 Replies
The only solution I've found to this at present is to use the SharePoint online Modern search "Sites" vertical to find the Teams related SharePoint space, then from that get the actual team name. The URL for a Dunedin search follows this format https://YourTennantName.sharepoint.com/sites/YourIntranetSiteName/_layouts/15/search.aspx/sites?q=Du... Hope this helps some of you. I'm still interested in a Microsoft staffer's comment on how to do / use the Azure Groups search bar in this Use Case. Dorje
best response confirmed by Dorje McKinnon (Steel Contributor)
Solution

Searching/filtering in the Graph API is very limited, and it doesn't look like we're getting any meaningful improvements there for the foreseeable future. I would suggest avoid using anything that relies on the Graph (AAD portal, AAD PowerShell) and use alternatives where possible (MSOnline module, Exchange admin center or PowerShell).

Hi @Vasil Michev ,

 

Thank you for your quick response. I couldn't get the 

It took me a while to figure out the syntax for filtering the list of Unified Groups so Exchange Admin center web GUI to load so I tried to find some PowerShell code that would find my search term within the Team displayName property.

I couldn't get the -Filter -contains operator working with get-UnifiedGroup , but I did get the following working:

  1. Start the "Microsoft Exchange Online PowerShell Module"
  2. Login to exchange, you'll need security rights on your account to do this e.g. Exchange Admin Role assigned to your account
  3. Then run the following
    Get-UnifiedGroup -Filter {DisplayName -like "*dunedin*"} | Format-List DisplayName,EmailAddresses,Notes,ManagedBy,AccessType

The code runs quickly in my tenancy (almost a thousand groups) so this works for me.

Does anyone at Microsoft have a comment on why search in the Admin screens doesn't do a :

- Like "*searchTerm*" search
rather than the current

- Like "searchTerm*" search ????


@Dorje McKinnonI bet that searching uses oData queries but not all of them. It probably doesn't have "contains" option, only "startswith". Azure table storage doesn't have even that. Why Microsoft are not willing to give us normal searching is beyond my grasp.

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Dorje McKinnon (Steel Contributor)
Solution

Searching/filtering in the Graph API is very limited, and it doesn't look like we're getting any meaningful improvements there for the foreseeable future. I would suggest avoid using anything that relies on the Graph (AAD portal, AAD PowerShell) and use alternatives where possible (MSOnline module, Exchange admin center or PowerShell).

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