Get Organizational Units with PowerShell

We like to get a list of all the Organizational Units (OUs) in Active Directory and export it with PowerShell. Why do we need that? We like to clean up not used OUs. This article will teach you how to display and export a list of Organizational Units with PowerShell.

Get a list of all Organizational Units with PowerShell

Run PowerShell as administrator. Get a list of all the OUs in Active Directory. We will make use of the Get-ADOrganizationalUnit cmdlet. Let’s sort on CanonicalName. This will show us an OU breakdown structure and is easier to read.

[PS] C:\>Get-ADOrganizationalUnit  -Properties CanonicalName -Filter * | Sort-Object CanonicalName | Format-Table CanonicalName, DistinguishedName

CanonicalName                                      DistinguishedName                                          
-------------                                      -----------------                                          
alitajran.local/AT Company                         OU=AT Company,DC=alitajran,DC=local                        
alitajran.local/AT Company/Groups                  OU=Groups,OU=AT Company,DC=alitajran,DC=local              
alitajran.local/AT Company/Servers                 OU=Servers,OU=AT Company,DC=alitajran,DC=local             
alitajran.local/AT Company/Servers/Exchange        OU=Exchange,OU=Servers,OU=AT Company,DC=alitajran,DC=local 
alitajran.local/AT Company/Users                   OU=Users,OU=AT Company,DC=alitajran,DC=local               
alitajran.local/AT Company/Users/HR                OU=HR,OU=Users,OU=AT Company,DC=alitajran,DC=local         
alitajran.local/AT Company/Users/IT                OU=IT,OU=Users,OU=AT Company,DC=alitajran,DC=local         
alitajran.local/Domain Controllers                 OU=Domain Controllers,DC=alitajran,DC=local                
alitajran.local/Microsoft Exchange Security Groups OU=Microsoft Exchange Security Groups,DC=alitajran,DC=local

The output with all the OUs in AD is a good list. But how do we know if there are users present in the OU?

Get a list of all Organizational Units including UserCount with PowerShell

We like to get a list of the OUs, including user count with PowerShell. This will show us if there are users present in the OU. Copy and paste the below code. Run it in PowerShell ISE.

Get-ADOrganizationalUnit  -Properties CanonicalName -Filter * | Sort-Object CanonicalName |
ForEach-Object {
    [pscustomobject]@{
        Name          = Split-Path $_.CanonicalName -Leaf
        CanonicalName = $_.CanonicalName
        UserCount     = @(Get-AdUser -Filter * -SearchBase $_.DistinguishedName -SearchScope OneLevel).Count
    }
}

It will show an output with a column UserCount. If the UserCount value is showing 0, it means that there are no users in the OU. Note: it will not show if there is a computer object in the OU. This will only check and show a count for users.

Name                               CanonicalName                                      UserCount
----                               -------------                                      ---------
AT Company                         alitajran.local/AT Company                                 0
Groups                             alitajran.local/AT Company/Groups                          0
Servers                            alitajran.local/AT Company/Servers                         0
Exchange                           alitajran.local/AT Company/Servers/Exchange                0
Users                              alitajran.local/AT Company/Users                           0
HR                                 alitajran.local/AT Company/Users/HR                        5
IT                                 alitajran.local/AT Company/Users/IT                       15
Domain Controllers                 alitajran.local/Domain Controllers                         0
Microsoft Exchange Security Groups alitajran.local/Microsoft Exchange Security Groups         0

Get a list of all Organizational Units including ComputerCount with PowerShell

We like to get a list of the OUs, including computer count with PowerShell.

Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Properties CanonicalName -Filter * | Sort-Object CanonicalName |
ForEach-Object {
    [pscustomobject]@{
        Name          = Split-Path $_.CanonicalName -Leaf
        CanonicalName = $_.CanonicalName
        UserCount     = @(Get-AdUser -Filter * -SearchBase $_.DistinguishedName -SearchScope OneLevel).Count
        ComputerCount = @(Get-AdComputer -Filter * -SearchBase $_.DistinguishedName -SearchScope OneLevel).Count
    }
}

The output will show a column ComputerCount.

Name                               CanonicalName                                      UserCount ComputerCount
----                               -------------                                      --------- -------------
AT Company                         alitajran.local/AT Company                                 0             0
Groups                             alitajran.local/AT Company/Groups                          0             0
Servers                            alitajran.local/AT Company/Servers                         0             3
Exchange                           alitajran.local/AT Company/Servers/Exchange                0             2
Users                              alitajran.local/AT Company/Users                           0             0
HR                                 alitajran.local/AT Company/Users/HR                        5             0
IT                                 alitajran.local/AT Company/Users/IT                       15             0
Domain Controllers                 alitajran.local/Domain Controllers                         0             2
Microsoft Exchange Security Groups alitajran.local/Microsoft Exchange Security Groups         0             0

Export OUs in AD to a text file or CSV file with PowerShell

Now that we have the list of OUs in AD shown, we like to export it to a file. The script will get the Organizational Units with PowerShell and export it to a text file.

$results = Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Properties CanonicalName -Filter * | Sort-Object CanonicalName |
ForEach-Object {
    [pscustomobject]@{
        Name          = Split-Path $_.CanonicalName -Leaf
        CanonicalName = $_.CanonicalName
        UserCount     = @(Get-AdUser -Filter * -SearchBase $_.DistinguishedName -SearchScope OneLevel).Count
    }
}
$results | Out-File C:\export_OUs.txt -Encoding UTF8

If you like to export to a CSV file, change the last line to:

$results | Export-Csv -Path C:\export_OUs.csv -NoTypeInformation -Encoding UTF8

After running the above command, find the exported file in the C:\ drive. I opened the text file export_OUs.txt.

Keep reading: Bulk move AD users to another OU with PowerShell »

Conclusion

To sum it up, you learned how to get Organizational Units with PowerShell. You also learned how to find empty OUs. As of last, you learned how to export OUs to a text file or CSV file with PowerShell.

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