Introduction

In this article, you will learn how to bulk suspend users by Google Groups or Organizational Units (OU) in Google Workspace. As a Google Workspace administrator, you may find yourself needing to bulk suspend users by groups or OU, whenever any department has been closed, or any contractors complete their short term contract project as a group. 

Since natively suspending google groups users in bulk can be a tedious job, xFanatical Foresight can bulk suspend users by groups or OU in Google Workspace within some clicks, while maintaining data integrity and security.
Illustration of how to bulk suspend users by group or OU with xFanatical Foresight AutomationIllustration of bulk suspending users by group or OU with xFanatical Foresight Automation

Introducing xFanatical Foresight Automation

xFanatical Foresight is an enterprise-grade platform which helps automate and streamlines the Google Workspace workflows. In today’s fast paced business environment, efficiency is the key. xFanatical Foresight automation permits administrators and users to create intricate business workflows, which consumes a lot more time doing it natively. It simplifies the process of suspending users by group or OU in Google Workspace, so you can take care of more important tasks.

Automation Setup Instructions

Here we divided this blog in two separate sections to distinguish between Group member suspension and OU member suspension. You can take the look as per your organization needs, Set up automation for Group User Suspension and Set up automation for OU user suspension.

Suspend User by Group

Suspend Users by Group

Supported plans: xFanatical Foresight Elite and Professional (Legacy).

In this workflow, admins first find out the users in a Google Group, and then suspend the users in the list by bulk with xFanatical Foresight.

Set up Automation

The workflow needs 2 rules.

  • Rule 1 lists and exports members by google group to a CSV file, including the Member email, Group email and Member type. Using this rule, admins can keep only the rows they want to suspend members in the CSV file, and delete the rest.
  • Rule 2 takes the extracted and edited CSV file from Rule 1 as input, and bulk suspends the members listed in the file.
Rule 1: Export group members
  1. Sign into xFanatical Foresight with your Google Admin account. 
  2. Go to the Rules page, and click the new rule button button.
  3. In the Select a trigger screen, select Manual Trigger.
    Xfanatical's "Manual trigger" to trigger rules manually
  4. Click Next.
  5. In the Select an action screen, select the List group members action.
    Click Next. On the Select an action screen, click the List group members action.
  6. In the Edit actions > List group members screen,
    1. If you’re using this action for the first time, you will see Sign in with Google button. Click on it, and authorize xFanatical Foresight the necessary permissions to automate on behalf of your Google account.
      Sign in with google button on list group members edit action screen
    2. In the Group email field, select the group, from which users will be suspended.
      Configuring group email field with respective group email on edit action screen
    3. Click Review.
  7. In the Review screen,
    1. Customize the Rule name.
      Configuring export group member rule name
    2. Click Create.
  8. The first automation rule is created.
    Export group members rule on xFanatical Foresight rules page
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for exporting group members in Google Workspace.
Rule 2: Bulk suspend users by group

Before moving to the automation setup, download the Sample CSV file for the bulk suspend users by group automation rule creation process. Learn more about editing a CSV File in Google Sheets.
Sample CSV for bulk suspend users by group

  1. Go to the Rules page, and click the new rule button button.
  2. In the Select a trigger screen, select the Data uploaded trigger.
    The data uploaded trigger to trigger a rule by uploading a CSV file in xFanatical Foresight
  3. In the Edit trigger > Data uploaded screen,
    1. Click Choose a CSV file or drop it here to get started.
    2. Select the downloaded CSV file.
      Sample CSV for bulk suspend users by group
    3. Wait for the CSV file to be analyzed.
    4. Click Next.
  4. In the Select an action screen, select the Suspend user action.
    Suspend user action
  5. In Edit actions > Suspend user screen,
    1. If you’re using this action for the first time, you will see Sign in with Google button. Click on it, and authorize xFanatical Foresight the necessary permissions to automate on behalf of your Google account.
      Sign in with google button on suspend user edit action screen
    2. In the Primary email field, select the Member email variable from the Data uploaded trigger.
      Configuring Primary email field with member email variable
    3. Click Review.
  6. In the Review screen,
    1. Customize the Rule name.
      Confguring bulk suspend user by group rule name on rule review screen
    2. Click Create.
  7. The second automation rule is created.
    Bulk suspend users by group rule on xFanatical Foresight rules page
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for bulk suspending users by group in Google Workspace.

Verify Automation

To ensure that your rule setup automates as expected, it’s essential to conduct a simple test. The following instructions demonstrate how to bulk suspend users by groups using xFanatical Foresight in Google Workspace.

Before moving to verification, let’s check the group members in Google Admin Console groups page. All the group members are active.
Group members before suspension on Google admin console
Group settings page on Google Admin Console showing group members.
User settings page showing user is active
User settings page on Google Admin Console showing the user is active.

  1. Go to the Rules page.
  2. Find the Rule 1: Export group members, and click the Play buttonbutton.
    Play icon on export group members rule on xFanatical Foresight rules page
  3. Wait momentarily, and you will get a notification on the top right of xFanatical Foresight. In the notification message, click View log.
    Notification of successful execution of export group members rule
  4. In the Logs > Log details screen, click here to download the CSV file.
    Log screen of successful execution of export group members rule with CSV download link
  5. Verify the group members in the CSV file using Google Sheets.
    Group member CSV file
  6. Go back to the Rules page.
  7. Find the Rule 2: Bulk suspend users by group, and click the upload-button. button.
    Bulk suspend users by group rule with upload icon on xFanatical Foresight rules page
  8. Select the CSV file downloaded in Step 4.
  9. Wait momentarily, and you will get a notification on the top right of xFanatical Foresight. In the notification message, click View log.
    Notification of Bulk suspend users by group rule execution with view log button
  10. In the Logs > Log details screen, confirm the CSV file name, group email, and suspended member email.
    Success log of bulk suspend users by group rule
  11. Go back to the user’s settings page, and confirm that the user has been suspended.
    User setting screen on Google Admin console after user suspension
Suspend User by Organizational Unit

Suspend Users by Organizational Unit

Supported plans: xFanatical Foresight Elite and Professional (Legacy).

In this workflow, admins first find out the users in an organizational unit, and then suspend the users in the list by bulk with xFanatical Foresight.

Set up Automation

The workflow needs 2 rules.

  • Rule 1 lists and exports members by organisational unit to a CSV file, including the Email, First name and Last name. Admins can keep only the rows they want to suspend members in the CSV file, and delete the rest.
  • Rule 2 takes the extracted and edited CSV file from Rule 1 as input, and bulk suspends the members listed in the file.
Rule 1: Export users in an organizational unit
  1. Sign into xFanatical Foresight with your Google Admin account. 
  2. Go to the Rules page, and click the new rule button button.
  3. In the Select a trigger screen, select Manual Trigger.
    Manual-trigger
  4. Click Next.
  5. In the Select an action screen, select List users action.
    On the Select an action screen, click the List users action
  6. In the Edit actions > List users screen,
    1. If you’re using this action for the first time, you will see Sign in with Google button. Click on it, and authorize xFanatical Foresight the necessary permissions to automate on behalf of your Google account.
      sign in with google button on list users edit action screen
    2. In the Organizational unit, select the organizational unit, from which users will be suspended.
      Configuring organization unit field on list user edit action screen
    3. Click Review.
  7. In the Review screen,
    1. Customize the Rule name.
      Confuguring export organization unit member rule review screen
    2. Click Create.
  8. The first automation rule is created.
    Export organization unit members rule on xFanatical Foresight rules page
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for exporting organization unit members in Google Workspace.
Rule 2: Bulk suspend users by Organizational Unit

Before moving to the automation setup, download the Sample CSV file for the bulk suspend users by organizational unit automation rule creation process. Learn more about editing a CSV File in Google Sheets.
Sample CSV file for suspend user by OU rule

  1. Go to the Rules page, and click the new rule button button.
  2. In the Select a trigger screen, select the Data uploaded trigger.
    The data uploaded trigger to trigger a rule by uploading a CSV file in xFanatical Foresight
  1. In the Edit trigger > Data uploaded screen,
    1. Click Choose a CSV file or drop it here to get started.
    2. Select the downloaded CSV file.
      Sample CSV file for suspend user by OU rule
    3. Wait for the CSV file to be analyzed.
    4. Click Next.
  2. In the Select an action screen, select the Suspend user action.
    The Suspend user action to create the rule
  3. In Edit actions > Suspend user screen,
    1. If you’re using this action for the first time, you will see Sign in with Google button. Click on it, and authorize xFanatical Foresight the necessary permissions to automate on behalf of your Google account.
      Sign in with google button on suspend user edit action screen
    2. In the Primary email field, select the Email variable from the Data uploaded trigger.
      Configuring Primary email field with member email variable
    3. Click Review.
  4. In the Review screen,
    1. Customize the Rule name.
      Configuring Bulk suspend users by OU rule name on rule review screen
    2. Click Create.
  5. The second automation rule is created.
    Bulk suspend users b OU rule on xFanatical Foresight rules page
    xFanatical Foresight workflow for bulk suspending users by organization unit in Google Workspace.

Verify Automation

To ensure that your rule setup automates as expected, it’s essential to conduct a simple test. The following instructions demonstrate how to bulk suspend users by OU using xFanatical Foresight in Google Workspace.

Before moving to verification, let’s check the OU member in Google Admin Console. Go to the user settings page, who belongs to the specified OU. Confirms that the user is active.
User settings page before user suspension Neeraj Nanvani Neeraj Nanvani 5:03 PM Apr 9 File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i9UKDRs6Unx9plOaacU0pxMru9BUl3WA/view?usp=sharing Turn on screen reader supportTo enable screen reader support, press Ctrl+Alt+Z To learn about keyboard shortcuts, press Ctrl+slash

  1. Go to the Rules page.
  2. Find the Export organizational unit members rule, and click the button.
    Export Organization Unit members rule with play button on xFanatical Foresight rules page
  1. Wait momentarily, and you will get a notification on the top right of xFanatical Foresight. In the notification message, click View log.
    Notification of successful execution of export organizational unit members rule
  1. In the Logs > Log details screen, click here to download the CSV file.
    Log of successful execution of export organizational unit members
  2. Go back to the Rules page.
  3. Find the Bulk suspend users by OU rule, and click the upload-button. button.
    Bulk suspend users by OU rule with upload icon on xFanatical Foresight rules page
  4. Select the CSV file downloaded in Step 4. Learn more about Editing CSV Files in Google Sheets.
    Suspending user CSV file downloaded from log screen
  5. Wait momentarily, and you will get a notification on the top right of xFanatical Foresight. In the notification message, click View log.
    Notification of successful execution of bulk suspend users by OU rule
  6. In the log screen, confirm the CSV file name, and user email.
    Log of successful execution of bulk suspend users by OU rule
  7. Go back to the user’s settings page, and confirm that the user has been suspended.
    User setting screen on Google admin console showing user is suspended

Conclusion

xFanatical Foresight streamlines the process of suspending users by group or OU in Google Workspace. A step-by-step guide is available to ensure data integrity and security are maintained during the suspension process. Using xFanatical Foresight, you can effortlessly manage and organize your group members, and invest valuable time for more important tasks.

If you have yet to install xFanatical Foresight, check out this quick start.

Try a 14-day free trial with xFanatical Foresight and manage your tasks.

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