Q&A: How to perform Bulk Actions on Accounts

Q:  We need to reenable nearly 20,000 Azure accounts in bulk and reset the last login date/time for them. Is there a quick way to do this? The account names can be imported from a spreadsheet.

A: Yes, using the Export Connections Provider.

The process will probably take a few hours for the activity to process since the Microsoft graph API is not particularly fast.

Assuming the spreadsheet has column headers and a column containing unique values to identify each account, the basic steps would be:

1. Go to Identity Panel / Settings / Providers
2. Locate and expand your (existing) Export Connections Provider strip (this is typically named Sync Actions)
3. Under Additional Systems select type Excel Provider and click +New
4. Assign a name (e.g. Bulk Updates), then expand the strip
5. Specify values for the following:
   1. Anchor Column (e.g. UPN, EmployeeID, CloudAnchor, etc.) depending on the unique key column name in your spreadsheet
      Notes:
      1. UPN makes a good choice for matching on Azure/Entra ID!
      2. The upload will run slightly faster if you have object Id.
      3. Start with a small subset of the users, e.g. 3-4 rows for testing it out, then build up to a full dataset.
   2. Worksheet (e.g. Sheet1)
   3. Object Type (e.g. person)
   4. (optional) enable the Create Silo checkbox if you want to be able to search the Time Traveler for items in your spreadsheet
   5. Leave all other fields with default values
6. Click save in the floating toolbar
7. Refresh the browser, then locate and expand the Sync Actions strip once more
8. Upload your spreadsheet
9. Go to Identity Panel / Test Panel / Suites, make sure Sync Actions export provider is selected in the Test Suites header section
10. Click +New to add a Test Suite
11. Assign a unique test suite name (e.g. Bulk updates), then expand the strip
12. Click +New under the Tests heading to add a new Test Case
13. Assign a unique test case name (e.g. Re-enable users), then expand the strip
14. In the Select Type drop-down list under the Actions heading, select Load Fixture and click +New
    
    
15. Assign a unique fixture name (e.g. Re-enable users), select Iterate from the System drop-down list, then expand the strip
16. Select the new Excel provider from the Iterate System drop-down list as the data source
17. Click +New under the Fixtures Sets heading, and assign a unique Fixture Name (e.g. Update Entra ID), then expand the strip
18. Select the Graph Update User fixture from the Select Type drop-down list and click +New
    
    
19. Assign a unique fixture name (e.g. Re-enable users), select your Azure Provider from the System drop-down list, then expand the strip
20. Set the following properties:
    1. Object Id = [UPN] (assuming UPN is a column name in the spreadsheet)
    2. Reset Password = <constant value> (or use a [RandomPassword()] function)
    3. Add attributes and settings for the following:
       1. accountEnabled = True.