Create Active Directory OU using PowerShell

This script demonstrates how to recreate Organizational Unit structure from existing OU’s in AD

Suppose we have the below OU in AD domain

 domainname.local
 |_  DepartmentOU
   |_ SubDepartmentOU1
     |_ SubDepartmentOU1_USB
     |_ SubDepartmentOU1_Floppy
   |_ SubDepartmentOU2
     |_ SubDepartmentOU2_USB
   |_ SubDepartmentOU3 

DepartmentOU branch need to be duplicated with different name DepartmentOU_new

 domainname.local
 |_ DepartmentOU
   |_ SubDepartmentOU1
     |_ SubDepartmentOU1_USB
     |_ SubDepartmentOU1_Floppy
   |_ SubDepartmentOU2
     |_ SubDepartmentOU2_USB
   |_ SubDepartmentOU3
 |_ DepartmentOU_new
   |_ SubDepartmentOU1
     |_ SubDepartmentOU1_USB
     |_ SubDepartmentOU1_Floppy
   |_ SubDepartmentOU2
     |_ SubDepartmentOU2_USB
   |_ SubDepartmentOU3 

It can be done with the below script

$rootOUName = "DepartmentOU_new"
 $newRootDN = "OU=DepartmentOU_new,DC=domainname,DC=local"
 $oldRootDN = "OU=DepartmentOU,DC=domainname,DC=local"
 $rootOU_ParentDN = "DC=domainname,DC=local"
 We are reading the canonical name just as a place holder to keep the parent OU of the object
 $old_ChildOUs = Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter * -Properties *  | where {$_.DistinguishedName -like "*$oldRootDN" -and $_.DistinguishedName -ne "$oldRootDN" }
     | select Name, CanonicalName, DistinguishedName, Description
 To fetch the description form the existing root ou
 $oldRootDN_temp = Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter * -Properties *  | where {$_.DistinguishedName -eq "$oldRootDN" }
     | select Name, DistinguishedName, Description
 For each sub OU, the root has to be renamed to the desired name and base path has to be made
 $count = 0
 foreach($ou in $old_ChildOUs) {
     #renaming the OU with new name
     $ou.DistinguishedName = $ou.DistinguishedName.Replace($oldRootDN, $newRootDN)
 #building the base OU for each child OU #we split the DN with comma "," and rejoin the array from 2nd location to the last and save it into the same objects canonical name property $rootOU = ($ou.DistinguishedName.Split(",")) $rootOU = $rootOU[1..$rootOU.length] -join "," $old_ChildOUs[$count].CanonicalName = $rootOU $old_ChildOUs[$count].DistinguishedName = $ou.DistinguishedName $count++
 }
 Creating the parent OU
 New-ADOrganizationalUnit -Name $rootOUName -Path $rootOU_ParentDN -Description $oldRootDN_temp.Description
 "Created parent ou : " + $rootOUName + " under " + $rootOU_ParentDN
 creating all child OU's
 foreach($__newOU in $old_ChildOUs){
     New-ADOrganizationalUnit -Name $__newOU.Name -Path $__newOU.CanonicalName -Description $__newOU.Description
     "Created ou : " + $__newOU.Name + " under " + $__newOU.CanonicalName
 }

The script will generate the OU structure with default security permission inherited from the root.

Thank you reading my post. Hope this is helpful to you.