Adding email users in bulk

Firstly, I would like to add the users from a file.

Trivial. Virtualmin has a batch add users facility found on the Mail and FTP Users page (click "Batch create users."). Click the Help.. link on that page for docs on the expected format, and options.

If you need to create users from a file that is not (or cannot be massage into) the required format, you can instead use a shell script with the create-user command.

Something like:

virtualmin create-user --domain domain.tld --user newuser --pass password

Which could be wrapped in a for loop to operate on a whole file (left as an exercise for the reader, since I don't know what format you're dealing with). I've pretty much always been able to massage batch data into the right format for the form, though, so I don't think I've ever used the command line tools for batch adding users.

Secondly, I would like to force a change of password the first time a user picks up email which might be by POP or webmail.

Impossible. POP has no conception of changing passwords.

Is the batch add users facility only available in the Pro version ? I can't find it in the GPL. Or am I looking in the wrong place.

I wasn't aware of it, if it is. It shouldn't be a Pro only feature. I can't think of why it would be, anyway. But, looks like maybe it is.

Sometimes Jamie's choices for what goes into Pro vs. GPL don't make sense to me. ;-)

PS I know that there is a lot of work going on with the VM site etc. but sure wish I could access the comparison between GPL & Pro page. :o(

Just for you, I've put back the old version on its original URL.

http://www.virtualmin.com/compare.html

It is not as complete as we'd like (it doesn't, for example, know about the missing batch feature...since I didn't know about the missing batch feature), but it covers a few of the high points.

I'm going to see about checking in a change to make batch user adds part of GPL in version 3.70.

I'll offer that in the meantime, even though the batch create users may be Pro-only, you can accomplish a similar task using the command line tools (in either version).

If you run:

virtualmin create-user

You'll see the following help output:

Adds a new mailbox user to an existing Virtualmin domain.
 
virtualmin create-user --domain domain.name
                       --user new-username
                       --pass password-for-new-user |
                       --encpass encrypted-password |
                       --random-pass
                      [--quota quota-in-blocks]
                      [--real real-name-for-new-user]
                      [--ftp]
                      [--shell /path/to/shell]
                      [--noemail]
                      [--extra email.address@some.domain]
                      [--mysql db] ...
                      [--group name] ...
                      [--web]
                      [--no-check-spam]
                      [--no-creation-mail]

So you could writeup a small script to take all the users you want to add, and use the above to add them in within your script. -Eric

you can have the system generate passwords, thats what I do anyway.

This can be done also when importing emailusers with the --random-pass. They can then change it themselves in usermin if they wish.

Edit: on the other hand, in usermin module configuration there is the option: Prompt users with empty password to choose one at first login?

per haps this can be used?

that serial page is actually working for me. Per haps it needs to be added manually for you, I don't know.