# how to catch difference in samaccountName

**URL:** <https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-catch-difference-in-samaccountname/14340>\
**Category:** PowerShell Help\
**Created:** [May 7, 2020, 2:17am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-catch-difference-in-samaccountname/14340 "2020-05-07T02:17:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acer4605](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/13edae/32.png) [@acer4605](https://forums.powershell.org/u/acer4605)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 2:17am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-catch-difference-in-samaccountname/14340/1 "2020-05-07T02:17:15Z")

</div>

Hi

In AD by preference the Users Email address is SamAccountName + @mydomain.com.  
I recently noticed that there are differences here where the SamAccountName is not following this standard(don’t ask me why)

in my offboarding script it can happen that the $user.samAccountName returns an error because the standard convention as mentioned above has not been respected, or the user has asked to change his name From Paulus into Paul.

&nbsp;

my script looks as follows

in the CSV I have 2 headers SamAccountName and Email  
example  
SamAccountName, Email

[Paul,Paul@mydomain.com](mailto:Paul,Paul@mydomain.com)

userPrincipalName = [Paulus@mydomain.com](mailto:Paulus@mydomain.com)  
SamAccounName = Paulus

What I would like to achieve is that if $user.SamAccountName fails that I will take the required steps to Modify the samAccountName Based upon the $User.email

this code I use to capture the difference in samaccountName

[pre]

$users = import-csv c:\temp\toRemove.csv

$test = get-aduser -filter{EmailAddress -eq $email} -properties Emailaddress  
$Emailaddress = get-aduser -identity $user -properties Emailaddress

$UserPrincipalName = get-aduser $user -properties UserPrincipalName

If(!($UserPrincipalName.UserPrincipalName -eq $Emailaddress.EmailAddress)){  
write-host “$($EmailAddress.EmailAddress) is not equal to $($UserPrincipalName.UserPrincipalName)”  
$NewUser = $($UserPrincipalName.UserPrincipalName) -split(“@”)  
$newuser[0]

}

[/pre]

and would like to integrate this in the below for each I only don’t know what the best way is using the IF statement or a select case senario?

[pre]

$users = import-csv c:\temp\toRemove.csv

foreach($user in $users){

$testSamAccountName = get-aduser -Identity $user.SamAccountName # this fails  
if(!($testSamAccountName)){  
$TestEmail = Get-ADUser -filter{EmailAddress -eq $user.email} -properties EmailAddress

}  
}  
[/pre]

thanks for your input

Paul

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kvprasoon](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.powershell.org/kvprasoon/32/4449_2.png) [@kvprasoon](https://forums.powershell.org/u/kvprasoon)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-catch-difference-in-samaccountname/14340/2 "2020-05-07T05:57:51Z")

</div>

you may use Try catch block as it throws error and may be in catch block you can read the error continue based on the error.

```
Try{
    $testSamAccountName = get-aduser -Identity $user.SamAccountName -ErrorAction Stop
}
Catch{
    if($_ -match "the expectederror message"){
      $TestEmail = Get-ADUser -filter{EmailAddress -eq $user.email} -properties EmailAddress
    }
    else{
      Throw $_
    }
}
```

---

<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:** [May 7, 2020, 8:02am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-catch-difference-in-samaccountname/14340/3 "2020-05-07T08:02:10Z")

</div>

Another option is to just search for both values, but it would be possible to return more than one user:

```
$users = import-csv c:\temp\toRemove.csv

foreach ( $user in $users ){

       $samAccountName = $user.SamAccountName
       $email = $user.Email

       $adUser = Get-ADUser -Filter { (EmailAddress -eq $Email) -or (SamAccountName -eq $samAccountName) } -Properties EmailAddress

       if ($adUser) {
              'Found user with lookup {0} or {1}' -f $email,$samAccountName
              $adUser
       }
       else {
              'No user found with lookup {0} or {1}' -f $email,$samAccountName
       }

}
```

```
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acer4605](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/13edae/32.png) [@acer4605](https://forums.powershell.org/u/acer4605)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-catch-difference-in-samaccountname/14340/4 "2020-05-08T00:14:57Z")

</div>

Thanks for your reaction

&nbsp;

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acer4605](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/13edae/32.png) [@acer4605](https://forums.powershell.org/u/acer4605)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 1:07am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-catch-difference-in-samaccountname/14340/5 "2020-05-08T01:07:57Z")

</div>

I now face the following issue that when I want to update the SamAccountName with the New SamAccountName  
in this example it works [pre]

$users = import-csv c:\temp\toRemove.csv

foreach ( $user in $users ){

$samAccountName = $user.SamAccountName  
$email = $user.Email

$adUser = Get-ADUser -Filter { (EmailAddress -eq $Email) -or (SamAccountName -eq $samAccountName) } -Properties EmailAddress

if ($adUser) {

‘Found user with lookup {0} or {1}’ -f $email,$samAccountName  
$NewUser= $($adUser.UserPrincipalName) -split(“@”)  
$user = $NewUser[0]  
$user  
}  
else {  
‘No user found with lookup {0} or {1}’ -f $email,$samAccountName  
}

}  
[/pre]

error that I now get is

[pre]

Cannot find an object with identity: ‘Paul’ under: ‘DC=mydomain,DC=com’.

- CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (akir:ADUser) [Get-ADUser], ADIdentityNotFoundException
- FullyQualifiedErrorId : ActiveDirectoryCmdlet:Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.ADIdentityNotFoundException,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.GetAD  
User
- PSComputerName : [cfdc01.mydomain.com](http://cfdc01.mydomain.com)

[/pre]

How can I make sure that the $user.SamaccountName is populated with “Paulus” instead of the value found in the CSV file?  
Do I need to update the CSV file first or is there a different way other then what I tried above?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acer4605](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/13edae/32.png) [@acer4605](https://forums.powershell.org/u/acer4605)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-catch-difference-in-samaccountname/14340/6 "2020-05-10T02:35:35Z")

</div>

hi

I discovered that when I use Bob’s solution it works while directly working on the AD server with PSSession it’s not any suggestions?

Paul

---

<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, 8:30pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/how-to-catch-difference-in-samaccountname/14340/7 "2024-05-16T20:30:08Z")

</div>

Closed on May 16, 2024, 8:30pm UTC