Moving Users to OU

PowerShell Help
1

Hi there!

I have a fresh installation of Server 2019 with a fresh installation of AD domain service.
I’ve created 2 users:
gilshw & testerb.

the user gilshw is under the ‘Testing’ OU.
the user testerb is under the ‘Users’ OU.

i’m trying to write a powershell script that moves the testerb user to the OU that holds the gilshw user:

function Move-UserToOU {
    param (
        [string]$exampleUser,
        [string]$UserName
    )

    try {
        # Get the DistinguishedName of the exampleUser
        $exampleDistinguishedName = (Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $exampleUser}).DistinguishedName
        Write-Host "Target OU DistinguishedName: $exampleDistinguishedName"

        # Get the DistinguishedName of the user to be moved
        $adUser = Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $UserName}

        if ($adUser) {
            Write-Host "User DistinguishedName: $($adUser.DistinguishedName)"
            # Move the user to the same OU as exampleUser
            Move-ADObject -Identity $adUser.DistinguishedName -TargetPath $exampleDistinguishedName
            
            Write-Host "Moved user '$UserName' to the same OU as '$exampleUser'."
        } else {
            Write-Host "User '$UserName' not found."
        }
    } catch {
        Write-Host "An error occurred: $_"
    }
}

$exampleUser = "gilshw"
$UserName = "testerb"

Move-UserToOU -exampleUser $exampleUser -UserName $UserName

This is the output:

Target OU DistinguishedName: CN=Gil Shwartz,OU=Testing,DC=home,DC=lab
User DistinguishedName: CN=Tester Booga,CN=Users,DC=home,DC=lab
An error occurred: The object cannot be added because the parent is not on the list of possible superiors

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

2

well, I figured it out:

function Move-UserToOU {
param (
[string]$exampleUser,
[string]$UserName
)

try {
    # Get the DistinguishedName of the exampleUser
    $exampleDistinguishedName = (Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $exampleUser}).DistinguishedName

    # Extract the OU from the DistinguishedName
    $exampleOU = ($exampleDistinguishedName -split ',', 2 | Select-Object -Last 1).Trim()

    # Get the DistinguishedName of the user to be moved
    $adUser = Get-ADUser -Filter {SamAccountName -eq $UserName}
    Write-Host "User DistinguishedName: $($adUser.DistinguishedName)"

    # Move the user to the same OU as exampleUser
    Move-ADObject -Identity $adUser.DistinguishedName -TargetPath $exampleOU
    Write-Host "Moved user '$UserName' to '$exampleOU'."

} catch {
    Write-Host "An error occurred: $_"
}

}

$exampleUser = “gilshw”
$UserName = “testerb”

Move-UserToOU -exampleUser $exampleUser -UserName $UserName

1 Like
3

Great you’ve found a solution yourself. :+1:t3: :love_you_gesture:t3:

Please be aware that this approach will fail if the Common Name of the user containes a comma. :smirk:

A little less error prone could be something like this:

$exampleOU = "OU=" + ($exampleDistinguishedName  -split ",OU=",2)[1]
1 Like
4

Thanks for the fix! :smiley: