CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
Itchydon
Itchydon

Reputation: 2596

How to create a group with special characters using Powershell

I have been tasked with creating a number of active directory groups using PowerShell. The problem is all the group names contain double colons "::" (the naming standard was created long before I joined!).

When running the following command:

NEW-ADGroup –name "XX123::Test_Group_Creation" –groupscope Global –path "OU=TestOU,DC=TestDomain,DC=local"

The following error is received:

NEW-ADGroup : The name provided is not a properly formed account name At line:1 char:1 + NEW-ADGroup –name "XX123::Test_Group_Creation" –groupscope Global –path "OU=Test ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (CN=XX123::Test_...Domain,DC=local:String) [New-ADGroup], ADException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : The server is unwilling to process the request,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.NewADGroup

If you create the group manually (in the gui) you get the following warning but you are still able to create it:

enter image description here

How can I get around this issue. F.Y.I. I have tried to escape the colons with a back tick and also a forward slash, none of which have worked

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1986

Answers (1)

Bill_Stewart
Bill_Stewart

Reputation: 24535

The : character is not valid for the sAMAccountName attribute, so you need to replace : with another character (the GUI uses _) when creating the group. You can use the -replace operator to do this pretty easily in PowerShell.

Upvotes: 1

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