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This article is for IT administrators who have limited time to provision 50,000+ user accounts.

For quick, large-scale account provisioning, you can use third-party solutions. For example, the free, downloadable, open-source Google Apps Manager (GAM) uses the Admin SDK Directory API to create and manage Google Workspace users and groups.

GAM interacts with many Google APIs, which you can use to also manage other account features and resources. For more information about integrations with third parties, visit the tutorials page at Solve with Google Cloud.

Important: Google Cloud Support doesn't support GAM or other third-party solutions. We support the Admin SDK Directory API those tools use. GAM is subject to the Apache 2.0 license, which provides the terms and conditions for your use, reproduction, and distribution of GAM.

Before you begin

Provisioning accounts on a large scale requires:

• Facility with command-line prompts
• A paid Google Workspace account that is:
  • No longer in a free trial. Learn more
  • Domain-verified. Learn more

Step 1: Avoid account conflicts

Some of your users might have a personal Google Account, such as a Gmail address, which could generate conflicts when you provision their new, managed Google Workspace or Cloud Identity account. To avoid such issues:

1. Read About conflicting accounts.
2. Learn how to Find and manage existing accounts.

Step 2: Create a simple, flat organizational structure

Avoid creating a complex organizational unit hierarchy with many levels. You can modify the hierarchy and move users later. Here are some tips on setting up a simplified organizational structure:

• Focus on the services and features the users you manage need to access.
• Restrict service and feature availability at the top-level organizational unit, granting access to child organizational units.

Read more about How the organizational structure works.

Step 3: Prepare a data source

Create a comma-separated value (CSV) file with the necessary data to proceed with user account creation. Required fields:

• FirstName
• LastName
• PrimaryEmail—The email the user will sign in with
• Password—Must be at least 8 characters

• OrgUnit—To create users in their respective organizational units, taking into account the recommendations above

  Note: Enter a / (forward slash) to place users in your top-level (root) organizational unit. Separate child organizational units with a forward slash—for example /Staff/Teachers.

Step 4: Set up GAM

If you decide to GAM, follow these recommended steps:

1. With GAM version 5.10 and above, before executing GAM for the first time, create a file named noshorturls.txt in the same folder as GAM. This turns off gam-shortn.appspot.com short URLs.
2. From the GAM website, download GAM.
3. Configure the tool.
4. During setup, when asked if you're "ready to authorize GAM to manage Google Workspace user data and settings," answer N (no) to skip Domain-Wide Delegation.

This command helps you confirm that GAM is associated with the right Google Workspace account:

gam info domain

Step 5: Create multiple users with GAM

To create the users, GAM reads from a comma-separated value (CSV) file and issues the relevant requests to the Admin SDK Directory API.

If you created a comma-separated value (CSV) file with the fields specified in Step 3 above, this command creates the users in the CSV:

gam csv users.csv gam create user ~PrimaryEmail firstname ~FirstName lastname ~LastName password ~Password org ~OrgUnit changepassword on

Make sure to:

1. Create a unique password for each user.
2. Use the optional parameter changepassword on to force the user to change their password after their first sign-in.

Alternative: What if your data source is missing some fields?

If your data source only has the first and last names and one password for each user, you can create usernames in the format first.last@example.com. For a user named Charlie Smith, use Charlie.Smith@example.com.

The command is:

gam csv users.csv gam create user ~~FirstName~~.~~LastName~~@example.com password ~Password changepassword on

This approach assumes that no users have:

• The same name
• First and last names with:
  • Spaces
  • Other disallowed characters

Go to the Name guidelines for users and groups.

Questions

Related topics

• Options for adding users
• About School Directory Sync