New-MgGroupOwnerByRef

What is New-MgGroupOwnerByRef?

The New-MgGroupOwnerByRef cmdlet in Microsoft Graph PowerShell is used to add one or more owners to an existing Microsoft 365 group. Owners have elevated permissions, such as managing group membership, settings, and overall group administration.

Why Use New-MgGroupOwnerByRef?

Adding owners to groups is essential for delegating administration, improving group governance, and ensuring redundancy if the primary owner is unavailable. With this cmdlet, administrators can automate the process of assigning ownership to multiple groups, streamlining operations in large tenants.

Prerequisites

Before running this cmdlet, install and connect to Microsoft Graph PowerShell with the required permissions:

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Group.ReadWrite.All"

How to Use New-MgGroupOwnerByRef?

The basic syntax is:

New-MgGroupOwnerByRef -GroupId  -BodyParameter <Hashtable>

The GroupId is the unique identifier of the group, while the BodyParameter specifies the owner’s reference using their unique user ID.

New-MgGroupOwnerByRef Examples

Example 1: Adding a Single Owner

$Owner = @{
    "@odata.id" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{UserId}"
}
New-MgGroupOwnerByRef -GroupId "5c67f5b3-b1c4-4c16-842d-11b453b6f270" -BodyParameter $Owner
                                        

This command adds a single owner to the specified group. Replace {UserId} with the actual ID of the user.

Example 2: Adding Multiple Owners

$Owners = @(
     @{
      "@odata.id" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directoryObjects/2017e571-90fd-4671-96bb-360c678f4d23"
      }
      @{
      "@odata.id" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directoryObjects/55bafc67-7ba0-4964-840a-53d480542ab8"
       }
)
                                        
foreach ($Owner in $Owners) {
    New-MgGroupOwnerByRef -GroupId "3a408d7b-d2d1-4ec6-812f-b9ad64187a13" -BodyParameter $Owner
}
                                        

This script adds multiple owners to a group by iterating through the owners list.

Example 3: Importing Owners from a CSV

$OwnersFromCSV = Import-Csv -Path "C:\Path\To\Owners.csv"
foreach ($Owner in $OwnersFromCSV) {
    $OwnerHash = @{
         "@odata.id" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/$($Owner.UserId)"
    }
    New-MgGroupOwnerByRef -GroupId "5c67f5b3-b1c4-4c16-842d-11b453b6f270" -BodyParameter $OwnerHash
}
                                        

This script imports owner details from a CSV and assigns each user as a group owner.

CSV File Format

UserId
12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890abcdef
23456789-0abc-def1-2345-67890abcdef1