# Bulk user validation in AD

**URL:** <https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038>\
**Category:** PowerShell Help\
**Created:** [July 25, 2018, 1:23pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038 "2018-07-25T13:23:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff-taylor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/jeff-taylor/32/1015_2.png) [@jeff-taylor](https://forums.powershell.org/u/jeff-taylor)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 1:23pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/1 "2018-07-25T13:23:39Z")

</div>

I put together a script that imports a csv of samAccountNames and want to simply find out if they exist or now. Would alos like a count of each for on screen display only. Export is not ncessary

I have this:

```
#check if the service Accounts (allsvc07032018) exists
$Data1 = Import-Csv Service_Accounts.csv 

foreach ($user in $data1){
$Name1 = $user.user
$check = $(try {get-aduser -filter "samAccountName -eq '$Name1'"} catch {$null})
if ($check -ne $null) { }
else { "$Name1 Doesn't Exist" }
}
```

…but my output all says “Doesn’t Exist” even though I know some do. I’d like to see the samAccountNames and count of those that do exist and samAccountName and count of those that don’t.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rob-simmers](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/rob-simmers/32/1010_2.png) [@rob-simmers](https://forums.powershell.org/u/rob-simmers)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/2 "2018-07-25T14:01:45Z")

</div>

```
$Data1 = Import-Csv Service_Accounts.csv 

$data1 | Select *,
                @{Name="ExistsInAd";Expression={$user=$_.User;@(Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $user}).Count -gt 0 }}
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff-taylor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/jeff-taylor/32/1015_2.png) [@jeff-taylor](https://forums.powershell.org/u/jeff-taylor)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 2:24pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/3 "2018-07-25T14:24:29Z")

</div>

```
samaccountname ExistsInAd                                                                                          
-------------- ----------                                                                                          
rpt_user
```

…yet I show it does exist:

```
Get-ADUser rpt_user | select name

name                                                                                                                                                                                                     
----                                                                                                                                                                                                     
rpt_user
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![postanote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@postanote](https://forums.powershell.org/u/postanote)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 10:08pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/4 "2018-07-25T22:08:09Z")

</div>

> I'd like to see the samAccountNames and count of those that do exist and samAccountName and count of those that don't.

You can’t pull data on a non-existent object. 8^} Well, not any way that I know of. 8^}

How about just this.

```
$UserData = 'Administrator','Guest','allsvc07032018'
$FoundCounter = 0
$NotFoundCounter = 0
$UserData | %{
    try
    { 
        (Get-ADUser -Identity $_).SamAccountName
        $FoundCounter ++
    }
    catch 
    { 
        Write-Warning -Message "$_ was not found" 
        $NotFoundCounter ++
    }
}
"Total found accounts: $FoundCounter"
"Total not found accounts: $NotFoundCounter"

# Results
Administrator
Guest
WARNING: (Cannot find an object with identity: 'allsvc07032018' under: 'DC=contoso,DC=com'. was not found

Total found accounts: 2
Total not found accounts: 1
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rob-simmers](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/rob-simmers/32/1010_2.png) [@rob-simmers](https://forums.powershell.org/u/rob-simmers)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 8:20am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/5 "2018-07-26T08:20:04Z")

</div>

I tested the code I posted, but it assumed that there was a column in the CSV named “User”. The results you showed had a “SamAccountName” column. This code indicates the column that is passed to Get-ADUser:

```
$user=$_.User
```

so if it were samaccountname:

```
$user=$_.samaccountname
```

this is how I tested emulating a CSV:

```
$data1 = @()
$data1 += [pscustomobject]@{User="User1"}
$data1 += [pscustomobject]@{User="User2"}

$data1 | Select *,
                @{Name="ExistsInAd";Expression={$user=$_.User;@(Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $user}).Count -gt 0 }}
```

also, if you did want counts, then it would be something like this:

```
$data1 = @()
$data1 += [pscustomobject]@{User="User1"}
$data1 += [pscustomobject]@{User="User2"}

$results = $data1 | Select *,
                           @{Name="ExistsInAd";Expression={$user=$_.User;@(Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $user}).Count -gt 0 }}

"Found: {0}" -f @($results | Where{$_.ExistsInAd -eq $true}).Count
"Not Found: {0}" -f @($results | Where{$_.ExistsInAd -eq $false}).Count
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff-taylor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/jeff-taylor/32/1015_2.png) [@jeff-taylor](https://forums.powershell.org/u/jeff-taylor)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 5:26pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/6 "2018-07-26T17:26:44Z")

</div>

postanote, the only change I made to your script was:

```
$UserData = Import-Csv MyServiceAccounts.csv
```
 and there is a samAccountName header fyi.

…but nonetheless I get this output

```
WARNING: Cannot bind parameter 'Identity'. Cannot convert value "@{samaccountname=SvcASplunkTUwoPII}" to type "Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.ADUser"
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff-taylor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/jeff-taylor/32/1015_2.png) [@jeff-taylor](https://forums.powershell.org/u/jeff-taylor)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2018, 5:43pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/7 "2018-07-26T17:43:03Z")

</div>

Rob,

So, taking what I originally posted and adding yours I wager this (notice my adjustment of the $user you correctly observed earlier):

```
#check if the service Accounts exists in AD
$Data1 = Import-Csv .\Service_Accounts.csv 

$data1 = @()
$data1 += [pscustomobject]@{User="User1"}
$data1 += [pscustomobject]@{User="User2"}

..but I get no output

$results = $data1 | Select *,
                           @{Name="ExistsInAd";Expression={$user=$_. **samAccountName** ;@(Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $user}).Count -gt 0 }}

"Found: {0}" -f @($results | Where{$_.ExistsInAd -eq $true}).Count
"Not Found: {0}" -f @($results | Where{$_.ExistsInAd -eq $false}).Count
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rob-simmers](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/rob-simmers/32/1010_2.png) [@rob-simmers](https://forums.powershell.org/u/rob-simmers)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 8:11am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/8 "2018-07-27T08:11:37Z")

</div>

$data1 is a variable. The initial post indicated you were using $_.User, which meant you were referencing a column named “User”. When you do an Import-CSV, it creates a PSObject, with properties like User. I used a custom object to emulate the CSV with a column named user. In a later post, you were referencing samaccountname. $_ is the current object, so $\_.User is the user property in the current object. In the code you posted, you import the CSV as $data1 and then overwrite that variable with the $data1 custom object, which contains User, not SamAccountName:

@{Name=“ExistsInAd”;Expression={ **$user=$\_.samAccountName** ;@(Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $user}).Count -gt 0 }}

So, lets stick with the CSV. Assuming there is a column in the CSV that is SamAccountName that has the names that you want to lookup, your code would be:

```
#Get the data from the CSV that has a column "SamAccountName"
$Data1 = Import-Csv .\Service_Accounts.csv 

#Pass the $data1 object to a Select and use a calculated property to create a new column called ExistsInAD.
#We then set a variable called $user to the current row to the property samAccountName and perform a AD search.
$results = $data1 | Select *,
                           @{Name="ExistsInAd";Expression={$user=$_.samAccountName;@(Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $user}).Count -gt 0 }}

"Found: {0}" -f @($results | Where{$_.ExistsInAd -eq $true}).Count
"Not Found: {0}" -f @($results | Where{$_.ExistsInAd -eq $false}).Count
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff-taylor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/jeff-taylor/32/1015_2.png) [@jeff-taylor](https://forums.powershell.org/u/jeff-taylor)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 11:23am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/9 "2018-07-27T11:23:28Z")

</div>

Rob,

works great. Thank you for the code and the lesson, it is really appreciated.

~Jeff

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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, 8:34pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/bulk-user-validation-in-ad/11038/10 "2024-05-16T20:34:40Z")

</div>