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Dre45's avatar
Dre45
Copper Contributor
Oct 10, 2022
Solved

New PowerShell user question

Good afternoon everyone.

 

Doing a task for an assignment and I can get the below to answer if the Finance OU is created or not. How could I structure my next if/else statement to delete the OU if it's present with a message stating so and then recreate the OU saying it was created. Could I use a if/else/if else commands? Thank you.

 

if([bool] (Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter * | ? {$_.Name -eq $OUName} ))

{ Write-Host 'Finance OU exists' }

else { Write-Host 'Finance OU does not exists' }

Windows PowerShell
  • Harm_Veenstra's avatar
    Harm_Veenstra
    Oct 10, 2022

    Dre45 Just an example, if checks if the OU exists and if it does, it removes it and recreates it at the same location:

     

    $OUName = 'Finance'
#Check if $OUName exists and record location in $oulocation
try {
    $OUlocation = Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter 'Name -like $OUName' -Properties * -ErrorAction Stop
    Write-Host ("{0} OU does exist, receating..." -f $OUName) -ForegroundColor Green
}
#Exit script if it doesn't exist
catch {
    Write-Warning ("{0} OU does not exist" -f $OUName)
    break
}

#Remove Protected Setting from OU, remove OU, recreate in Original location
try {
    Set-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity $OUlocation.DistinguishedName -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion:$false -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction Stop
    Remove-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity $OUlocation.DistinguishedName -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction Stop
    New-ADOrganizationalUnit -Name $OUlocation.Name -DisplayName $OUlocation.DisplayName -Path ($oulocation.DistinguishedName -replace '^.+?,(CN|OU.+)', '$1') -ErrorAction Stop
    Write-Host ("Recreated the {0} OU" -f $OUName) -ForegroundColor Green
}
#Display warning if there was an error recreating OU
catch {
    Write-Warning ("Error creating {0}" -f $OUName)
}

2 Replies

  • Harm_Veenstra's avatar
    Harm_Veenstra
    MVP
    Oct 10, 2022

    Dre45 Just an example, if checks if the OU exists and if it does, it removes it and recreates it at the same location:

     

    $OUName = 'Finance'
#Check if $OUName exists and record location in $oulocation
try {
    $OUlocation = Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter 'Name -like $OUName' -Properties * -ErrorAction Stop
    Write-Host ("{0} OU does exist, receating..." -f $OUName) -ForegroundColor Green
}
#Exit script if it doesn't exist
catch {
    Write-Warning ("{0} OU does not exist" -f $OUName)
    break
}

#Remove Protected Setting from OU, remove OU, recreate in Original location
try {
    Set-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity $OUlocation.DistinguishedName -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion:$false -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction Stop
    Remove-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity $OUlocation.DistinguishedName -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction Stop
    New-ADOrganizationalUnit -Name $OUlocation.Name -DisplayName $OUlocation.DisplayName -Path ($oulocation.DistinguishedName -replace '^.+?,(CN|OU.+)', '$1') -ErrorAction Stop
    Write-Host ("Recreated the {0} OU" -f $OUName) -ForegroundColor Green
}
#Display warning if there was an error recreating OU
catch {
    Write-Warning ("Error creating {0}" -f $OUName)
}
    • LainRobertson's avatar
      LainRobertson
      Silver Contributor
      Oct 11, 2022

      Harm_Veenstra 

       

      That first try block will break a little too easily.

       

      An exception isn't thrown if no search results match. Instead, $null is returned, meaning you'd have to test for and handle that (you could, of course, just trigger your own throw). For now though, $OULocation being $null will cause knock-on issues in the second block.

       

      Similarly, if more than one organizationalUnit is returned, you'll end up with errors in the second block.

       

      The easiest way to deal with both -in this particular context - would be to use the "-is" operator with the type returned when it's a single result.

       

      Using the -is operator, in order from top to bottom, here's examples of:

       

      • Multiple matches;
      • No matches;
      • A single match.

       

       

      Cheers,

      Lain

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