Creation of Mailboxes via a shell script

[LHammonds]

Has anyone created a shell script similar to what is described below?

Scenario: An automated windows script creates a comma-delimited list of current users in Active Directory and places it on the Samba share of an Ubuntu / Zimbra server on a daily basis. A cron job runs every hour looking for the file in the samba share.

Pseudo code for the Ubuntu script:

If /srv/samba/share/adlist.csv Exists
{
  Move /srv/samba/share/adlist.csv To /temp/adlist.csv
  While Not End of File (/temp/adlist.csv)
  {
    If Not Exist File.UserID in Zimbra
    {
      Create Zimbra Mailbox (File.UserID, File.FirstName, File.LastName, File.Password, DistributionList.Everyone)
      If successful mailbox creation
      {
        Write "Creation of UserID success!" To LogFile
      }
      Else if not successful mailbox creation
      {
        Write "Creation of UserID failed due to error such-n-so" To LogFile
      }
    }
    Read Next Line
  }  
  Delete /temp/adlist.csv
  If LogFile Exists
  {
    Email LogFile to Administrators
  }
}

Sample adlist.csv

UserID, FirstName, LastName, Password
JDoe, John, Doe, abc123
MJane, Mary, Jane, xyz321
ArnoldS, Arnold, Swartzensomething, gun4u

I have found the zmprov command-line documentation to "getAccount" and "createAccount" but I'm not well-versed in unix scripting and file manipulation. Any pointers, examples and whatnot would be appreciated.

EDIT: In case anyone wants to know, I did get AD Authentication and AD GAL working but it just works better if everything is controlled on the Zimbra side. Therefore, I'm avoiding the direct AD integration and opt'ing for a semi-automated sync.

Thanks,
LHammonds

[Krishopper]

Found this post where someone did something similar: Zimbra Active Directory Sync

Also, I believe Zimbra 8 will include an AD sync mechanism built into it.

[LHammonds]

Thanks for the link. I saw that one already. I would prefer to keep Linux and Active Directory separate...hence working with a flat file. It will be the responsibility of the Windows administrators for providing a cleaned up file such as not including service accounts or users that are not supposed to have mailboxes.

Including all the "logic" for AD user selection on the Linux side would just be a headache I'd rather avoid. It will also make it that much easier if we later decide to swap out Active Directory with another service such as OpenLDAP, Mandriva Directory Server, Fedora Directory Server, OpenDS or Apache Directory Server, etc. (which would still be administered on a different box).

LHammonds

[LHammonds]

I documented the solution for this script here --> Bash Script

LHammonds