Powershell problem with values comparison in ARS - false positive - powershell

Question

I am updating mass info about users. The script is getting data from a file, comparing with the current data in ARS and changing if necessary.
Unfortunately for two parameters - "st" and "postOfficeBox" - it is updating data all the time altho the data is the same in the file and in AD.
first one is empty, the second one is not
I have checked directly -
PS> $user.$parameters.postofficebox -eq $userQuery.$parameters.postofficebox
True
How can I handle this? It is not an error, but it is annoying and not efficient updating the same data all the time.
#Internal Accounts
$Parameters = #("SamAccountName", "co", "company", "department", "departmentNumber","physicalDeliveryOfficeName","streetAddress","l","st","postalCode","employeeType","manager", "division", "title", "edsvaEmployedByCountry", "extensionAttribute4", "EmployeeID", "postOfficeBox")
#import of users
$users = Import-csv -Path C:\ps\krbatch.csv -Delimiter "," -Encoding UTF8
Connect-QADService -Proxy
#Headers compliance
$fileHeaders = $users[0].psobject.Properties | foreach { $_.Name }
$c = Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $fileHeaders -DifferenceObject $Parameters -PassThru
if ($c -ne $null) {Write-Host "headers do not fit"
break}
#Check if account is enabled
foreach ($user in $users) {
$checkEnable = Get-ADUser $user.SamAccountName | select enabled
if (-not $checkEnable.enabled) {
Write-Host $user.SamAccountName -ForegroundColor Red
}
}
#Main loop
$result = #()
foreach ($user in $users) {
$userQuery = Get-QADUser $user.sAMaccountName -IncludedProperties $Parameters | select $Parameters
Write-Host "...updating $($user.samaccountname)..." -ForegroundColor white
foreach ($param in $Parameters) {
if ($user.$param -eq $userQuery.$param) {
Write-Host "$($user.samaccountname) has correct $param" -ForegroundColor Yellow
}
else {
try {
Write-Host "Updating $param for $($user.samaccountname)" -ForegroundColor Green
Set-QADUser -Identity $user.SamAccountName -ObjectAttributes #{$param=$user.$param} -ErrorVariable ProcessError -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
If ($ProcessError) {
Write-Host "cannot update $param for $($user.samaccountname) $($error[0])" -ForegroundColor Red
$problem = #{}
$problem.samaccountname = $($user.samaccountname)
$problem.param = $param
$problem.value = $($user.$param)
$problem.error = $($error[0])
$result +=[pscustomobject]$problem
}
}
catch { Write-Host "fail, check if the user account is enabled?" -ForegroundColor Red}
}
}
}
$result | Select samaccountname, param, value, error | Export-Csv -Path c:\ps\krfail.csv -NoTypeInformation -Encoding UTF8 -Append
And also any suggestions to my code, where I can make it better will be appreciated.

Answer 1

Similar to what Mathias R. Jessen was suggesting, the way you are testing the comparison doesn't look right. As debugging approaches either add the suggested Write-Host command or a break point such that you can test at run time.
Withstanding the comparison aspect of the question there's a loosely defined advisory request that I'll try to address.
Why are you you using QAD instead of the native AD module. QAD is awesome and still outshines the native tools in a few areas. But, (without a deep investigation) it looks like you can get by with the native tools here.
I'd point out there's an instance capability in AD cmdlets that allows for incremental updates even without comparison... ie you can run the Set-ADUser cmdlet and it will only write the attributes if they different.
Check out the help file for Set-ADUser
It would be inappropriate and time consuming for me to rewrite this. I'd suggest you check out those concepts for a rev 2.0 ... However, I can offer some advice bounded by the current approach.
The way the code is structured it'll run Set-QADUser for each attribute that needs updating rather than setting all the attributes at once on a per/user basis. Instead you could collect all the changes and apply in a single run of Set-QADUser per each user. That would be faster and likely have more compact logging etc...
When you're checking if the account is enabled you aren't doing anything other than Write-Host. If you wanted to skip that user, maybe move that logic into the main loop and add a Continue statement. That would also save you from looping twice.
Avoid using +=, you can use an [ArrayList] instead. Performance & scalability issues with += are well documented, so you can Google for more info. [ArrayList] might look something like:
$result = [Collections.ArrayList]#()
# ...
[Void]$result.Add( [PSCustomObject]$problem )
I'm also not sure how the catch block is supposed to fire if you've set -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue. You can probably remove If($ProcessError)... and and move population of $Result to the Catch{} block.