Import-csv and New-ADUser issue

Question

Hi there,
I am fairly new to PS (and this site) and I don't understand what I am doing wrong. (I changed some domain settings where applicable to not the reflect the real-world scenario, just an example)
CSV content:
Firstname,Lastname,Maildomain,SAM,OU,Password,Description
User,Test01,contoso.com,utest01,OU=Standard Users,OU=Users,DC=domain,DC=loc,P@ssw0rd,Test User
PS script:
$Users = Import-Csv -Delimiter "," -Path "C:\Userlist-sn.csv"
foreach ($User in $Users)
$Displayname = $User.Firstname + " " + $User.Lastname
$UserFirstname = $User.Firstname
$UserLastname = $User.Lastname
$OU = "$User.OU"
$SAM = $User.SAM
$UPN = $User.Firstname + "." + $User.Lastname + "@" + $User.Maildomain
$Description = $User.Description
$Password = $User.Password
New-ADUser -Name "$Displayname" -DisplayName "$Displayname" -SamAccountName $SAM -UserPrincipalName $UPN -GivenName "$UserFirstname" -Surname "$UserLastname" -Description "$Description" -AccountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString $Password -AsPlainText -Force) -Enabled $true -Path "$OU" -ChangePasswordAtLogon $false –PasswordNeverExpires $true -server domain.loc
I am getting the following error:
New-ADUser : The object name has bad syntax
At C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\import-test.ps1:12 char:15
+ New-ADUser <<<< -Name "$Displayname" -DisplayName "$Displayname" -SamAccountName $SAM -UserPrincipalName $UPN -GivenName "$UserFirstname" -Surname "$UserLastname" -Description "$Description" -AccountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString $Password -AsPlainText -Force) -Enabled $true -Path "$OU" -ChangePasswordAtLogon $false –PasswordNeverExpires $true -server domain.loc
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (CN=User Test01...t Test User}.OU:String) [New-ADUser], ADException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : The object name has bad syntax,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.NewADUser
Now that I am writing this question it kind of dawned on me whether or not the problem is with the csv, as delimiter is "," and the OU value has commas in it and it destroys syntax. If this is so then my question would be, how to save the input
so the values are retained correctly? Is the New-ADUser command itself ok?
Thank you all.

Answer 1

Hi,
Now that I am writing this question it kind of dawned on me whether or not the problem is with the csv, as delimiter is "," and the OU value has commas in it and it destroys syntax.
Are the OUs quoted inside of the CSV? If so, the commas inside should be fine.
Here's an easy test to see if your problem is with the input:
Quoted OU path:
PS C:\Scripts\PowerShell Scripts\Misc Testing\5-21-2014> Import-Csv .\Userlist-sn.csv
Firstname : User
Lastname : Test01
Maildomain : contoso.com
SAM : utest01
OU : OU=Standard Users,OU=Users,DC=domain,DC=loc
Password : P@ssw0rd
Description : Test User
Unquoted OU Path:
PS C:\Scripts\PowerShell Scripts\Misc Testing\5-21-2014> Import-Csv .\Userlist-sn2.csv
Firstname : User
Lastname : Test01
Maildomain : contoso.com
SAM : utest01
OU : OU=Standard Users
Password : OU=Users
Description : DC=domain
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