Box Developer Documentation

Deprovision users and archive folders

Guides CLI CLI sample scripts Deprovision users and archive folders
Edit this page

Deprovision users and archive folders

This script allows you to deprovision and delete a list of users. It performs the following steps:

  1. Transfers the user content to the another user's root folder under specified in EmployeeArchiveFolderName parameter.
  2. Deletes the user.

Prerequisites

Windows

Install the latest version of dotnet core.

MacOS & Linux

Install PowerShell. Run the pwsh command to test the installation.

pwsh

Depending on the directory you are running the command in, the output may differ. For example:

PowerShell 7.2.5
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.

https://aka.ms/powershell
Type 'help' to get help.

PS /Users/user/repos/boxcli/examples>

If you encounter issues make sure you installed both dotnet core and PowerShell.

Box CLI

To use the script, you will need the Box CLI installed and configured. You can get this done by going through our quick start guide. The user you use to login with should be the main Box admin or co-admin.

Configure the script

  1. Clone the boxcli GitHub repository and cd into this example's folder or download the files from examples directory.

    git clone https://github.com/box/boxcli.git boxcli
    cd boxcli/examples/User\ Deprovisioning/
    
  2. Create the list of employees for deletion in .csv.

    The header row should look like as follows:

    name, email
    

    where:

    • name is the name of the user in Box.
    • email is the primary email address of the user in Box.

    For example:

    nameemail
    Managed User 1ManagedUser1@test.com
    Managed User 2ManagedUser2@test.com
    Managed User 3ManagedUser3@test.com

List of parameters

ParameterDescriptionRequiredDefault Value
EmployeeListPath to Employee List CSV with employees to be deleted.Yes-
SkipTransferContentSet this flag to skip transfer of user content before deletion when running the script. Otherwise user's content will be transferred.NoFalse
NewFilesOwnerIDThe ID of the user to transfer files to before deleting the user. If not specified, the script will prompt to input in the interactive mode, or use the current authenticated user ID to receive the content.NoIf not specified, the script will prompt to input in the interactive mode, or use the current authenticated user ID.
EmployeeArchiveFolderNameThe name of a folder, where users' content will be moved to if SkipTransferContent is set to False. If a folder with this name already exists in the user's NewFilesOwnerID root folder, it will be used. Otherwise, a new one will be created.YesEmployee Archive
DryRunA flag that determines the script should be run in a mode, where no delete/create/update calls will be made, only read ones.NoFalse

Define script parameters

You can the following options to pass parameters.

  • Use hardcoded value in script.

    To use this option, update all required parameters listed in the script parameters section before running.

  • Run script with parameters.

    You can specify parameters while providing the command. For example:

    PS > ./Users_Deprovision.ps1 -EmployeeList ./Employees_to_delete.csv `
    -NewFilesOwnerID  123456789
    -EmployeeArchiveFolderName "Employee Archive"
    

    or

    PS > ./Users_Deprovision.ps1 -EmployeeList ./Employees_to_delete.csv `
    -SkipTransferContent
    

    If you don't specify parameters, the script will prompt you to enter it.

    PS > ./Users_Deprovision.ps1
    Please enter the path to the employee list CSV file:
    ./Employees_to_delete.csv
    Please specify the user ID of the user who will own the files of the users being deprovisioned.
    Press Enter if you want to use the current user as the new owner.
    User ID: 1234567689
    Starting User Deprovisioning script...
    

Run the script

Now all you need to do is run the script.

  1. Run the Powershell command.

    pwsh
    
  2. Run the script:

    ./Users_Deprovision.ps1
    

    When all parameters are defined, you will see following output to confirm the script started:

    PS /home/rvb/box-cli/examples/User Deprovisioning> ./Users_Deprovision.ps1
    Starting User Deprovisioning script...
    

Logging

Logs are stored in a logs folder located in the main folder. You have access to these log files:

  • Users_Deprovision_all.txt that contains all log entries
  • Users_Deprovision_errors.txt that contains only errors.