PowerShell.nu

Starting of, we need to set up a couple of OrganizationalUnits in our test environment. Following the structure set up in Part 1.1.0:

Organizational Unit Structure

• ou = Series
• l = Location
• Description = Starship
• Child OU: Computers
• Child OU: Groups
• Child OU: Users

The first step in scripting up a OU structure from based on the StarTrek Csv file is to collect the information through PowerShell. Since the Csv file contains 68 rows of information and 10 different columns, we want to retrieve only information that we need to create a Csv Structure. The columns of interest are: Series, Starship and Location. Using Import-Csv in combination With Select-Object gets all entries matching this.

PS > Import-Csv StarTrek.csv | Select-Object Series, Starship, Location


Series                         Starship                    Location
------                         --------                    --------
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant

Now we,ve managed to retrieve the specified columns and rows. Next we need to narrrow the list down to only unique entries. We can achieve this through the -Unique SwitchParameter.

PS > Import-Csv .StarTrek.csv | Select-Object Series, Starship, Location -Unique


Series                         Starship                    Location
------                         --------                    --------
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine     Deep Space Nine             Alpha Quadrant
Star Trek: Voyager             USS Voyager (NCC-74656)     Delta Quadrant
Star Trek: Enterprise          Enterprise (NX-01)          Alpha Quadrant

Now that we’ve narrowed down our list, we can start creating the OU structure.

The OU:s Name should be “Series”, so the structure that we’re looking for is:

• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Star Trek: Voyager
• Star Trek: Enterprise

But how do we know that these OU:s dont already exist in our Environment ? We have to check this in some way so we need a checker that makes sure that the OU doesn’t exist. This is an excellent oppurtunity to use the Get-AD.ps1 script that I wrote. The checker is rather simple, it consists of a function that sets a variable to $True if the OU does not exist.

function Check-distinguishedName ([string]$Domain, [string]$OU) {

	trap {  $Script:distinguishedNameDoesntExist = $True ; continue }
	.\Get-AD.ps1 -Domain $Domain -OU $OU -Filter distinguishedName | Out-Null
}

The Variable $Script:distinguishedNameDoesntExist is set to $True if we test the function on a non existing OU. Here’s an example on how it works:

PS > Check-distinguishedName -Domain powershell.nu -OU "OU=Domain Controllers,DC=powershell,DC=nu"
PS > $distinguishedNameDoesntExist

Since Domain Controllers Exist, the variable $distinguishedNameDoesntExist is not set to anything. Running the same function on a OU that does not exist:

PS > Check-distinguishedName -Domain powershell.nu -OU "OU=Non Existing OU,DC=powershell,DC=nu"
PS > $distinguishedNameDoesntExist

True


PS > $distinguishedNameDoesntExist = $Null

This time the variable $distinguishedNameDoesntExist was set to True, which means that the OU does not exist and it’s available for creation. I also set the Variable to $Null so that i can reuse the function.

Moving on. If the $distinguishedNameDoesntExist equals $True we can start building up the OU Structure. In the script, there’s a paramter called -Domain which takes the domain name as an argument. In my examples I’m going to use the powershell.nu domain. Setting this as an argument is similar to creating a Variable holding the domain name:

PS > $Domain = "powershell.nu
PS > $Domain

powershell.nu

With this information we can create a Connection string that we can use when connecting to Active-Directory. We can make use of the methods() withing System.String to alter the string as we want it. I’m using Replace() and Insert() to get the result I want:

PS > $Connection = ($Domain.Replace(".",",DC=")).Insert(0,"LDAP://DC=")

PS > $AD = [adsi] $Connection
PS > $AD


distinguishedName
-----------------
{DC=powershell,DC=nu}

Now that we’ve set up a connection we can start creating an OU. It’s pretty straight forward, nothing fancy here:

PS > $OU = $AD.Create("OrganizationalUnit", "ou=$Series")
PS > $OU.SetInfo()

PS > $OU.put("l", $Location)
PS > $OU.put("Description", $Starship)
PS > $OU.setinfo()

When creating Child OU:s, we need to alter the Connection string so that we connect to the OU that we’ve just created, here’s an example on doing that:

$NewConnection = "LDAP://OU=" + $Series + ($Domain.Replace(".",",DC=")).Insert(0,",DC=")
$NewOU = [adsi]$NewConnection

Now we can start creating Child OU:s that are structured after our purpose:

$Users = $NewOU.Create("OrganizationalUnit", "ou=Users")
$Users.SetInfo()

$Users.put("l", $Location)
$Users.put("Description", $Starship)
$Users.setinfo()

This describes the steps that I’ve set up in the Script. Running the script in the test environment would look like this:

If i repeat the script, the Check function finds that the top OU:s already exists and the following is returned to the host:

Finally, taking a peek in dsa.msc.

Click Here to Download the Complete Script.

The Get-AD.ps1 script is also required.

Click here to download the Csv File