Set 1 AD field to 1st initial last name

lwlackey · 2018-09-07T14:59:05.000Z

Typical Newb just starting off with PS. I have been browsing around, and have gotten some hints, but haven’t been able to put it together. My goal is for each AD user to set their description (or potentially a different field if description is a bad idea) to the users 1st initial + last name. Example:

John Doe

jdoe

We will then be using this to pull into different software, in which we can choose which field it’s pulling from in AD. Any help is appreciated!

Neally · 2018-09-07T15:05:56.000Z

What have you tried so far? where are you stuck? any error messages?

If you post code, please use the ‘Insert Code’ button. Please and thank you!

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING! Read if you're new to the PowerShell forum! Programming & Development

Hi, and welcome to the PowerShell forum! Don’t apologize for being a “noob” or “newbie” or “n00b.” There’s just no need – nobody will think you’re stupid, and the forums are all about asking questions. Just ask! Use a descriptive subject. Don’t say “Need help” or “PowerShell Help”, actually summarize what the problem is. It helps the rest of us keep track of which problem is which. Don’t post massive scripts. We’re all volunteers and we don’t have time to read all that, nor will we copy…

DoctorDNS · 2018-09-07T15:34:19.000Z

Rather than use this description (and use the complexities of developing a script that handles things like duplicates!), why not just use the SamAccountName property. That name is already unique!

Another benefit would be to make it easier to track back to the actual user. If you use jdoe - how can receiving system’s know this is john doe, not jane doe?

jonasnimmo · 2018-09-07T16:21:52.000Z

%1g%s will give you your jdoe. g = given name and s = surname. The 1 represents how many letters to use from the left.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to use this as an identifier.

Open a box of command or PS and type “echo %username%” and you have the current user’s username. There are plenty of other OS variables to do with a user that you could use. Their AD user GUID would be a good one. It can always be looked up to a username later in script and can never be confused amongst multiple similarly named users in future.

lwlackey · 2018-09-07T16:51:51.000Z

Thanks for your questions and comments! The company is pretty small thus far, and there are no repeats of first initial + last name, but that could become an issue in the future. They have a different company creating webpages for them, and they are using first initial + last name in the url thus far. Their signatures then generate a button that directs people to their webpage. We will probably just add a step to manually enter that field when setting up a new user since with the company size it’d likely be more work to get a script up and running that can check for duplicates (as mentioned in comments) than to just go through the existing users and add that info.

stephanosconstantinou · 2018-09-08T05:34:10.000Z

Hello,

You can try the following

Thanks

Stephanos

Import-Module ActiveDirectory
$Users = Get-ADUser -Properties GivenName,Surname
foreach ($User in $Users){
    [string]$FirstName = $Users.GivenName
    [string]$Initial = $FirstName.Substring(0,1)
    [string]$LastName = $User.Surname
    $CustomAttribute1 = $Initial + $LastName
    Set-ADUser $User -Description $CustomAttribute1}