Connecting to an Office 365 tenant with PowerShell is a reasonably simple task. All you need is PowerShell on your computer, which is included by default in any recent version of Windows and Windows Server.
There are three basic steps for connecting to Office 365 with PowerShell, and you’ll find these in official help documentation on TechNet as well as on many blogs. The steps are:
- Capture credentials
- Create a new PSSession
- Import the PSSession
You can streamline this process by adding a custom function to your PowerShell profile. Here are two functions you can use for connecting and disconnecting from Office 365.
Function Connect-O365 {
$URL = "https://ps.outlook.com/powershell"
$Credentials = Get-Credential -Message "Enter your Office 365 admin credentials"
$O365Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri $URL -Credential $Credentials -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection -Name "Office 365"
Import-PSSession $O365Session
}
Function Disconnect-O365 {
Remove-PSSession -Name "Office 365"
}
After adding the functions to your PowerShell profile open a new console session and run Connect-O365 to connect.
PS C:\Users\Paul> Connect-O365
A dialog will popup asking for your Office 365 admin credentials. After a short wait the connection will be established and you can run cmdlets such as Get-Mailbox to list the mailbox users in your Office 365 tenant.
PS C:\Users\Paul> Connect-O365
WARNING: Your connection has been redirected to the following URI:
"https://pod51055psh.outlook.com/powershell-liveid?PSVersion=4.0 "
WARNING: The names of some imported commands from the module 'tmp_g5b5ehu0.amo' include unapproved verbs that might
make them less discoverable. To find the commands with unapproved verbs, run the Import-Module command again with the
Verbose parameter. For a list of approved verbs, type Get-Verb.
ModuleType Version Name ExportedCommands
---------- ------- ---- ----------------
Script 1.0 tmp_g5b5ehu0.amo {Add-O365AvailabilityAddressSpace, Add-O365DistributionGro...
PS C:\Users\Paul> Get-Mailbox
Name Alias ServerName ProhibitSendQuota
---- ----- ---------- -----------------
Alan.Reid Alan.Reid sixpr04mb240 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Alannah.Shaw Alannah.Shaw sinpr04mb012 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Bernadette.Hemming Bernadette.Hemming hkxpr04mb360 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Bernadette.O'Connell Bernadette.O'Connell sixpr04mb240 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Debbie.Dalgliesh Debbie.Dalgliesh sinpr04mb121 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Debbie.Lisa Debbie.Lisa sinpr04mb364 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
DiscoverySearchMailbox... DiscoverySearchMa... sixpr04mb015 50 GB (53,687,091,200 bytes)
Ivana.Ferrary Ivana.Ferrary sixpr04mb191 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Jack.Hirschorn Jack.Hirschorn hkxpr04mb134 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Kathy.Abdullahi Kathy.Abdullahi sinpr04mb329 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Kavita.Sheikh Kavita.Sheikh sinpr04mb090 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Melanie.Thomas Melanie.Thomas sixpr04mb352 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Merle.Elam Merle.Elam sixpr04mb0382 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
admin admin sixpr04mb048 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Rowena.Khan Rowena.Khan hknpr04mb257 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Rupinder.Zaveri Rupinder.Zaveri sinpr04mb267 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Theresa.Bolt Theresa.Bolt hknpr04mb226 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
Tina.Miller Tina.Miller sixpr04mb189 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
To disconnect the session use the Disconnect-O365 function.
PS C:\Users\Paul> Disconnect-O365
As an additional tip, if you’re running a hybrid configuration and using an Exchange Management Shell session to connect to Office 365 you may run into issues due to the same cmdlets being available in both your on-premises Exchange and Exchange Online. In that situation you can use Jeff’s tip of adding a prefix to the Import-PSSession command.
For example:
Function Connect-O365 {
$URL = "https://ps.outlook.com/powershell"
$Credentials = Get-Credential -Message "Enter your Office 365 admin credentials"
$O365Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri $URL -Credential $Credentials -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
Import-PSSession $O365Session -Prefix O365
}
You might prefer to use a prefix of “Online” or “Cloud” instead. Really it is up to you. But when you do this the prefix is added to the cmdlets for your Office 365 session, so Get-Mailbox becomes Get-O365Mailbox instead.
PS C:\Users\Paul> Get-O365Mailbox Name Alias ServerName ProhibitSendQuota ---- ----- ---------- ----------------- Alan.Reid Alan.Reid sixpr04mb240 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Alannah.Shaw Alannah.Shaw sinpr04mb012 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Bernadette.Hemming Bernadette.Hemming hkxpr04mb360 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Bernadette.O'Connell Bernadette.O'Connell sixpr04mb240 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Debbie.Dalgliesh Debbie.Dalgliesh sinpr04mb121 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Debbie.Lisa Debbie.Lisa sinpr04mb364 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) DiscoverySearchMailbox... DiscoverySearchMa... sixpr04mb015 50 GB (53,687,091,200 bytes) Ivana.Ferrary Ivana.Ferrary sixpr04mb191 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Jack.Hirschorn Jack.Hirschorn hkxpr04mb134 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Kathy.Abdullahi Kathy.Abdullahi sinpr04mb329 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Kavita.Sheikh Kavita.Sheikh sinpr04mb090 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Melanie.Thomas Melanie.Thomas sixpr04mb352 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Merle.Elam Merle.Elam sixpr04mb0382 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) admin admin sixpr04mb048 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Rowena.Khan Rowena.Khan hknpr04mb257 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Rupinder.Zaveri Rupinder.Zaveri sinpr04mb267 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Theresa.Bolt Theresa.Bolt hknpr04mb226 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes) Tina.Miller Tina.Miller sixpr04mb189 49.5 GB (53,150,220,288 bytes)
This article PowerShell Function to Connect to Office 365 is © 2014 ExchangeServerPro.com
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