Moving Users and Computers to a New Organizational Unit

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The PowerShell Move-ADObject cmdlet moves any object or set of objects (such as a user, a computer, a group or an OU) to a specified OU. The -Identity parameter specifies which Active Directory object or container to move. Note that you need to enter the full LDAP path or SID of the object; you cannot use its SamAccountName.

Here’s how to move the user “John Brown” to the “Districts” OU:

Move-ADObject -Identity "CN=John Brown,CN=Users,DC=enterprise,DC=com" `
  -TargetPath "OU=Districts,OU=IT,DC=Enterprise,DC=Com"

Use the same syntax to move computer objects. The following command will move the computer “R07GF” to the “Computers” container:

Move-ADObject -Identity "CN=R07GF,OU=CEO,DC=enterprise,DC=com" `
  -TargetPath "CN=Computers,DC=Enterprise,DC=Com"

If you have a predefined list of objects to move, you can save it as a CSV file and then import that file to Active Directory. The CSV list should be in the following format:

CSV Format
CSV Format254×189 2.34 KB

Use this PowerShell script to move AD user accounts listed in a CSV file:

# Specify target OU. This is where users will be moved.
$TargetOU = "OU=Districts,OU=IT,DC=enterprise,DC=com"

# Specify CSV path. Import CSV file and assign it to a variable.
$Imported_csv = Import-Csv -Path "C:\temp\MoveList.csv"

$Imported_csv | ForEach-Object {
  # Retrieve DN of user.
  $UserDN = (Get-ADUser -Identity $_.Name).distinguishedName

  # Move user to target OU.
  Move-ADObject -Identity $UserDN -TargetPath $TargetOU
}

To move AD computer accounts listed in a text file, use the following PowerShell script:

# Specify path to the text file with the computer account names.
$computers = Get-Content C:\Temp\Computers.txt

# Specify the path to the OU where computers will be moved.
$TargetOU = "OU=Districts,OU=IT,DC=enterprise,DC=com"

ForEach( $computer in $computers) {
  Get-ADComputer $computer |
    Move-ADObject -TargetPath $TargetOU
}
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