How do I input the SamAccountName from get-aduser? - powershell

Question

I've been scrambling around looking for examples of how -inputobject is used, and I cannot seem to find any. I've never touched powershell before, but when I recently started this job, and was told that this is a script we used, I couldn't help but start messing around with it! Pipes are fascinating, but I can't seem to get past this latest issue I have.
I have this huge list of data that comes out when looking up users in AD, and I was wondering if I could also snag the SamAccountName from the same code block!
$User = Get-ADUser -Filter "EmployeeID -eq '$NameID' -or SamAccountName -eq '$NameID' -or DisplayName -eq '$NameID' -or UserPrincipalName -eq '$NameID'" -Properties
Enabled,LockedOut,Mail,Created,passwordlastset,Description,PasswordExpired,LastLogonDate,EmployeeID,DisplayName,"msRTCSIP-UserEnabled",
"msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed","extensionAttribute7",telephonenumber,targetaddress,distinguishedName |
Select-Object #{Expression={$_.Name};Label='User Name';},
#{Expression={$_.UserPrincipalName};Label='Logon Name';},
#{Expression={$_.DisplayName};Label='Display Name';},
#{Expression={$_.Created};Label='Date Created';},
#{Expression={$_.SamAccountName};Label='SamAccountName';} -InputObject $Name,
Description,
Enabled,
#{Expression={$_.LockedOut};Label='Locked';},
#{Expression={$_.Mail}; Label='Email Address';},
#{Expression={$_.passwordlastset};Label='PW Last Reset';},
#{Expression={[datetime]::FromFileTime($_."msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed")};Label='Password Expiry';},
#{Expression={$_.LastLogonDate};Label='Last Logon';},
#{Expression={$_.PasswordExpired};Label='Password Expired';},
#{Expression={$_.extensionAttribute7};Label='Contract Expires On';},
#{Expression={$_.EmployeeID};Label='Employee ID';},
#{Expression={$_."msRTCSIP-UserEnabled"};Label='Skype Enabled';},
#{Expression={$_.telephonenumber};Label='Phone Number';},
#{Expression={$_.targetaddress};Label='Email Forwarded To';},
#{Expression={$_.distinguishedName};Label='Distinguished Name';} | Select-Object SamAccountName -InputObject $Name | Format-list | Out-String
The above is what I use to get most of the interesting information to display nicely in the script, but going forward, I have to call it again with my limited knowledge to simply input a user's SamAccountName into a $Name var(To gather their managers and the like.) It looks something like this:
$Name = (getad-user -Filter "EmployeeID -eq '$NameID' -or SamAccountName -eq '$NameID' -or DisplayName -eq '$NameID' -or UserPrincipalName -eq '$NameID'").SamAccountName
I was just wondering if I could compress it all down into one Get-ADUser, and what the best practice that would be!
Thanks in advance all

Answer 1

You have a pretty convoluted way to get what you want. To minimize the number of Get-ADUser calls just use a variable. You already assign a variable in the beginning but for whatever reason you "trash" the object.
Within your code Select-Object SamAccountName -InputObject $Name doesn't seem to make sense. You never show what you assign to $Name and with what you do before it, it look strange. As such I removed it in the below code.
$user = Get-ADUser -Filter "EmployeeID -eq '$NameID' -or SamAccountName -eq '$NameID' -or DisplayName -eq '$NameID' -or UserPrincipalName -eq '$NameID'" -Properties
Enabled,LockedOut,Mail,Created,passwordlastset,Description,PasswordExpired,LastLogonDate,EmployeeID,DisplayName,"msRTCSIP-UserEnabled",
"msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed","extensionAttribute7",telephonenumber,targetaddress,distinguishedName
$niceDisplay = $user |
Select-Object #{Expression={$_.Name};Label='User Name';},
#{Expression={$_.UserPrincipalName};Label='Logon Name';},
#{Expression={$_.DisplayName};Label='Display Name';},
#{Expression={$_.Created};Label='Date Created';},
#{Expression={$_.SamAccountName};Label='SamAccountName';} -InputObject $Name,
Description,
Enabled,
#{Expression={$_.LockedOut};Label='Locked';},
#{Expression={$_.Mail}; Label='Email Address';},
#{Expression={$_.passwordlastset};Label='PW Last Reset';},
#{Expression={[datetime]::FromFileTime($_."msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed")};Label='Password Expiry';},
#{Expression={$_.LastLogonDate};Label='Last Logon';},
#{Expression={$_.PasswordExpired};Label='Password Expired';},
#{Expression={$_.extensionAttribute7};Label='Contract Expires On';},
#{Expression={$_.EmployeeID};Label='Employee ID';},
#{Expression={$_."msRTCSIP-UserEnabled"};Label='Skype Enabled';},
#{Expression={$_.telephonenumber};Label='Phone Number';},
#{Expression={$_.targetaddress};Label='Email Forwarded To';},
#{Expression={$_.distinguishedName};Label='Distinguished Name';} | Format-list | Out-String
$name = $User.SamAccountName

Answer 2

The best practise would be to turn any piece of code into a resuable function and then combine multiple functions into modules. Since you are beginning with powershell you could start with a simple function like this:
Function Get-ADUserInfo {
param([string]$NameID)
Get-ADUser -Filter "SamAccountName -eq '$NameID'" -Properties Enabled,LockedOut,Mail,Created,passwordlastset,Description,PasswordExpired,LastLogonDate,EmployeeID,DisplayName,Manager,"msRTCSIP-UserEnabled","msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed","extensionAttribute7",telephonenumber,targetaddress,distinguishedName |
Select-Object #{Expression={$_.Name};Label='User Name'},
SamAccountName
}
# call the function with different nameid values like so
$Name = Get-ADUserInfo -NameID someuser1
$Name = Get-ADUserInfo -NameID someuser2
managers info
Get-ADuser -Identity $Name.Manager
Inputobject as the name suggests is used to pass an object as an input to a function. The property samaccountname is already present in the output so there is no need to do anything else other than to just specify it as shown in the code above.
also why choose to display "Name" as "user name"? wouldn't it be easier to format the headers in excel?
Here are some links that could be helpful:
functions
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_functions?view=powershell-5.1