# AD User account cleanup **URL:** \ **Category:** PowerShell Help\ **Created:** [December 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/ad-user-account-cleanup/1239 "2011-12-31T18:30:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![archives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archives](https://forums.powershell.org/u/archives)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/ad-user-account-cleanup/1239/1 "2011-12-31T18:30:00Z")
by thedietz at 2012-10-02 07:22:05 > Let me start by saying thanks and that I am very very new to scripting/powershell/all of the above. I have been tasked with cleaning up our AD environment a little bit. My tasks are to 1. Find AD user accounts that have been inactive for 6 months or longer and pipe that info to a file. 2. Set those accounts to "disabled". 3. Move those "disabled: accounts to a "disabled accounts" OU in AD. I have came up with 3 seperate cmdlets to do each one as follows. > > 1. search-adaccount -usersonly -accountinactive -timespan "180" -searchbase "ou=users,dc=test,dc=org" | export-csv e:\test\test.txt > 2. search-adaccount -usersonly -accountinactive -timespan "180" -searchbase "ou=users,dc=test,dc=org" | disable-adaccount > 3. Search-ADAccount –AccountDisabled –UsersOnly –SearchBase “OU=users,dc=test,dc=org” | Move-ADObject –TargetPath “OU=Disabled Users,dc=test,dc=org” > > Running each of these one at a time gives the correct results. I am confused with Piping though. I though I could run all 3 with one command such as this… > > search-adaccount -usersonly -accountinactive -timespan "180" -searchbase "ou=users,dc=test,dc=org" | export-csv e:\test\test.csv | disable-adaccount | Move-ADObject –TargetPath “OU=Disabled Users,dc=test,dc=org” > > this only performs the first pipe though and exports the data to CSV file. It does not disable or move accounts. I am wrong thinking I can run my first cmdlet and then pipe those results to do these 3 specfic tasks? > > Thanks for the help, and i hope i explained what i am attemping well enough. by jonhtyler at 2012-10-02 07:34:00 > The reason that you are having this problem is that the Export-CSV does not pass the objects through to the next statement. I think if you re-arrange your statement, it might work better for you. Try this: > > `search-adaccount -usersonly -accountinactive -timespan "180" -searchbase "ou=users,dc=test,dc=org" | disable-adaccount -passthru | Move-ADObject –TargetPath “OU=Disabled Users,dc=test,dc=org” -passthru | export-csv e]Notice the use of the -Passthru parameter on the two AD cmdlets.` by thedietz at 2012-10-02 08:44:55 > nice…worked perfectly. Should I always use the -passthru parameter if i want to send the results to the next cmdlet? by jonhtyler at 2012-10-02 08:52:17 > Usually, yes, but there is not always a -Passthru parameter available. You can find out what options there are for a cmdlet by using the Get-Help cmdlet with the -detailed or -full parameters. So, for instance, if you want to see what is available for Export-CSV, you would type: > > `Get-Help Export-CSV -detailed` > > and it will tell you how the cmdlet works and how to use the different parameters to get what you want out of it. You can even use Get-Help on the Get-Help cmdlet as there are some other helpful parameters you can use there as well. There is a lot you can learn just by interrogating the cmdlets with the online help system. by Steve at 2012-10-02 11:11:25 > Something else you can use is Tee-Object. That allows the object(s) to move in two paths. > > `search-adaccount -usersonly -accountinactive -timespan "180" -searchbase "ou=users,dc=test,dc=org" | Tee-Object export-csv e:\test\test.txt | disable-adaccount ` by RichardSiddaway at 2012-10-06 01:58:48 > Tee-Object splits the pipeline but one path has to go to a file or variable. Unfortunately it isn’t a complete split of the pipeline to make two new pipelines by thedietz at 2012-10-08 06:49:24 > one more question on this project. the way our AD is set up under our domain we have OU’s representing different departments in the organization. Under each department OU is a USERS OU for that department. Is there a way I can use the "-searchbase "ou=users,ou=billing,dc=test,dc=org" " to point to several locations. For example to have it searchbase ou=users,ou=billing,dc=test,dc=org AND ALSO ou=users,ou=accounting,dc=test,dc=org …and do this all in one command? Or will It need to be a seperate command for each department such as… > > search-adaccount -usersonly -accountinactive -timespan "180" -searchbase "ou=users,ou=billing,dc=test,dc=org" | disable-adaccount -passthru | Move-ADObject –TargetPath “OU=Disabled Users,dc=test,dc=org” -passthru | export-csv e:\test\test.csv > > and also run > > search-adaccount -usersonly -accountinactive -timespan "180" -searchbase "ou=users,ou=accounting,dc=test,dc=org" | disable-adaccount -passthru | Move-ADObject –TargetPath “OU=Disabled Users,dc=test,dc=org” -passthru | export-csv e:\test\test.csv > > there are about 7 different departments so that is why it would be easiest to get this all into one command rather than running it 7 times and exporting 7 CSV’s. > > > If i have to run a seperate command for each department then so be it…but I would rather run one command to target all the different departments with users in them if possible. Thanks guys. ---
**Author:** ![dotnVo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@dotnVo](https://forums.powershell.org/u/dotnVo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/ad-user-account-cleanup/1239/2 "2024-05-16T21:03:30Z")