Start sync of Active Directory using SDK or API

Question

I'm trying to centralize all onboarding-related account creation into a single app. When it comes to the on prem AD server and Office 365, I notice an admin was using a powershell script that does something like this:

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $server -ScriptBlock {
    Import-Module adsync
    Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta
}

Is there a way to do the same thing via a C# SDK or a REST API? I can keep the Powershell script if needed, but if there's a set of classes or APIs available I'd prefer that.

Answer 1

• Yes, you can surely invoke a powershell script through a C# SDK by calling the ‘System.Management.Automation.Powershell’ class in the C# script. To do so, you will have to add this class to the C# program that provides several methods to add commands, parameters, and scripts to the pipeline. You can also invoke the pipeline synchronously by calling an overload of the System.Management.Automation.Powershell.Invoke* method, or asynchronously by calling an overload of the System.Management.Automation.Powershell.Begininvoke* and then the System.Management.Automation.Powershell.Endinvoke* method.

Thus, you can create a script of the said powershell commands in a .ps1 file and ensure that the script is executed by calling the above class. To do so, refer the below example of the C# command to be inserted in the C# program pipeline.

  PowerShell ps = PowerShell.Create();
  ps.AddScript(File.ReadAllText(@"D:\PSScripts\MyScript.ps1")).Invoke();

• Also, please find the below sample C# program to execute the powershell script through it using the above cmdlets to invoke a powershell program. The below C# script invokes the pipeline synchronously by calling the overload of the System.Management.Automation.Powershell.Invoke* method.

      using System;
      using System.Collections.Generic;
      using System.Linq;
      using System.Text;
      using System.Management.Automation;

      namespace HostPS1e
     {
      class HostPS1e
    {
      static void Main(string[] args)
    {
         // Using the PowerShell.Create and AddCommand
         // methods, create a command pipeline.
            PowerShell ps = PowerShell.Create();
      ps.AddScript(File.ReadAllText(@"D:\PSScripts\MyScript.ps1")).Invoke();

  // Using the PowerShell.Invoke method, run the command
  // pipeline using the supplied input.
  foreach (PSObject result in ps.Invoke(new int[] { 3, 1, 6, 2, 5, 4 }))
  {
      Console.WriteLine("{0}", result);
      } // End foreach.
    } // End Main.
 } // End HostPS1e.
}

For more information regarding the above C# class and options regarding invoking a powershell script through a C# program, refer the below Microsoft documentation: -

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/developer/hosting/adding-and-invoking-commands?view=powershell-7.2