New-ADUser -path variable breaks script

PowerShell Help
1

Hello,

I have New-ADUser in a ForEach-Object loop. It works great until I try to set the -path using variables. The variable values come from a CSV I am importing…

$newStaff | ForEach-Object {

    New-ADUser  -Name ($_.FirstName + ' ' + $_.LastName) `
                -Surname $_.LastName `
                -DisplayName $_.DisplayName `
                -GivenName $_.FirstName `
                -EmailAddress $_.EmailAddress `
                -SamAccountName $_.UserLogonName `
                -UserPrincipalName ($_.UserLogonName + '@domain.com') `
                -Title ($_.PositionTitle) `
                -HomeDrive "H" `
                -HomeDirectory ($_.HomeServer + '\home\' + $_.UserLogonName) `
                -Path "OU=TS,OU=STAFF,OU=User Accounts,DC=mydomain,DC=mydomain" `
                -AccountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString "temppassword" -AsPlainText -force) `
                -ChangePasswordAtLogon $true `
                -Enabled $true `

                }

The above works. The below does not. Only difference is in the -path statement…

-Path "OU=$_.LocationOU,OU=$_.ElemOrSecOU,OU=$_.CertOU,OU=User Accounts,DC=rqs,DC=C2"

$_.LocationOU is a column in $newStaff. The new users will be going to different nested OU’s.

I have tried loading $_.LocationOU into $location, and using -path "OU=$location, etc. but I get the error…

New-ADUser : The object name has bad syntax

The error is on the -Name property.

Any advice appreciated. Thank you!

2

  1. Look into splitting ;). It’ll make that a lot more readable and let you get rid of the back ticks.

  2. As the first thing in your ForEach loop, construct a variable $path with whatever you want the path to be. Then, Write-Host $path before running New-ADUser. I’m looking to see what that variable actually ends up containing.

3

Oh, LOL. Never mind. I just figured it out. Needed to stare an extra minute.

You can’t do “$.Something". If you do the $path suggestion I just posted, you’ll see why. You need "$($.Something)” instead - using a subexpression is the only way to refer to a property of $_ within a double-quoted string. The way you’re doing it, the period signals the end of the variable name, and “.LocationOU” is being taken as a literal string.

4

The sub-expression did it =). I was hot on the trail, but it appears the variable was basically being ‘quoted out’?

Yes, .LocationOU was being taken as the literal string. Good catch. I set it up in $path and that is what it showed.

Using $($_.LocationOU) worked.

Thank you!