Script to change DN attribute in AD to be the same as sAMAccountName

Question

Recently I was asked to change the Display Name for all the users in AD in my organization.  I was asked to do so because the previous AD/Exchange Admin created all accounts using the default of "FirstName MiddleInitial LastName".  The
new staff wanted the Display Name to be "LastName, FirstName MiddleInitial".
I made this change using this script I found on the Internet:
# Pre-Users.ps1 - Change the name & display name of existing users.
# Created by - Amit Tank
$Users = Get-User -ResultSize unlimited | where {$_.RecipientTypeDetails -eq "UserMailbox"}
ForEach ($User in $Users)
$DName = $User.LastName + ", " + $User.FirstName + " " + $user.Initials
$DName = $Dname.Trim()
Set-User $User -Name $DName -DisplayName $DName
Get-User $User | FT Name, DisplayName
$DName = $Null
}When I made this change however it changed the DN of each user and the organization is using google sync and can no longer synchronize with google.I think if I had a script that would change the DN to the value of the user's sAMAccount name it would be fixed. I have setup a test OU where I can test this with just one user.I have found a few scripts that claim that they work and that it can be done, but all of them I try I get various errors. Here is one that I made based from other information I have found:# Get sAMAccountName and
then change DN to be the same.
Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase "OU=TEST,DC=MCCSC,DC=EDU"
ForEach ($User in $Users)
set-aduser -Identity "*" $_.distinguishedname -sAMAccountName
($_.samaccountname)
}When I try running this script I get the following error:Set-ADUser : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '$null'.I am a realitive PowerShell n00b so I really don't know what the heck it is saying there. I don't think I have any parameters not definded or set null, so I am not sure.If I can get a script that will reliably change just the DN to be the same as the sAMAccountName then I can test it and I think everything will be fine.Can anyone help me a bit with this please?Thanks,Nick

Answer 1

I am going to guess that the first script posted by the OP worked; it renamed the user object (changed the DN) and also assigned a value for displayName. But this is not what the OP wanted, so they want a script to fix the situation; a script that will make
the Common Name (the value of the cn attribute) of the user equal to the sAMAcccountName, and perhaps also assign the desired value for displayName. If so, the following script, which assumes the first script worked for the user, should do what is needed:
$Users
= Get-User -ResultSize unlimited |
where {$_.RecipientTypeDetails
-eq "UserMailbox"}
ForEach ($User
in $Users)
    If (($User.LastName
-ne $Null)
-and ($User.FirstName
-ne $Null))
        $DName
= $User.LastName
+ ", "
+ $User.FirstName
+ " "
+ $User.Initials
        $DName
= $Dname.Trim()
        $LName
= $User.sAMAccountName
        If (($User.Name
-ne $LName)
-and ($User.Name
-ne $DName))
            Set-User
$User -Name
$LName -DisplayName
$DName
        ElseIf ($User.Name
-ne $LName)
            Set-User
$User -Name
$LName
        ElseIf ($User.DisplayName
-ne $Dname)
            Set-User
$User -DisplayName
$DName
        Get-User
$User | FT Name, DisplayName
        $DName
= $Null
        $LName
= $Null
Richard Mueller - MVP Directory Services