I posted a while back about a little HTA that I was working on to help automate the creation of groups in AD and the creation of Collections that are tied to those groups. I've added a few options to make it a bit more flexible.
- Collection to Limit To
- Parent Collection
- OU to create the groups in
- Group Description
- Group Notes
Here's a screenshot.
I'm not ready to post all of the code quite yet but if anyone wants to try it out, shoot me an e-mail (matt.broadstock@gmail.com) and I'll give you the code and explain what changes you will need to make to get it to work in your environment. There are a few variables that have to be updated in the code and you'll need to create a small XML file that has information on your OU structure and SMS Collection structure.
I'm not sure how many people are using AD groups to manage collection membership but it works great at my current client. Each department is able to manage their own groups in AD (therefore they can manage their collection members). But pretty much everything is SMS is managed centrally. Because we have separate collections (and groups) for each department, creating everything for each new package/advertisement is time consuming. At least it used to be. :)
Edit: you can download it on www.smsutils.com in the Community Downloads area.