4 min readMigrate your Active Directory Organizational Units(OUs) across tenants

Many organisations use Hybrid environments to store their information. With the help of Azure AD Sync (also known as Azure AD Connect), they synchronize their user accounts, groups, and credentials from an on-premises Active Directory (AD) instance to Azure AD.

In current world, with the verge of mergers and acquisitions around the corner, it is vital to frame a mechanism to provision these on-premises Active Directory entities to the Target Environment.

Apps4.Pro Migration Manager which has been a key player in Migration of the Microsoft Workloads has figured a way to get the Key Active Directory entities(Users, Groups & Organizational units) provisioned via PowerShell scripts without the need of a TRUSTED NETWORK relationship.

In this BLOG we will find how to migrate the Active Directory Source Organizational Units from one on-premises environment to another in a jiffy with 2 simple steps.

Step 1 : Export the Active Directory Organizational Units from your Source Tenant

Step 2 : Import them to the Target Tenant

The Script exports the the below OU(Organizational unit) details

   🠊   OU Name
   🠊   Description
   🠊   Display Name
   🠊   Distinguished Name
   🠊   Domain Name
   🠊   OU Level
   🠊   Managed By
   🠊   Property : protectedFromAccidentalDeletion
   🠊   Street Address
   🠊   City
   🠊   State
   🠊   Country
   🠊   Postal Code

Let’s get started !

Pre-requisites : Please install the Microsoft Graph PowerShell and the required modules before running this script.

All you need to do is :

1. Execute the below scripts by feeding in
   • Path to the CSV to import / export the Organizational Units
   • Fully qualified Domain Name
2. Sign-in as Domain Admin / Enterprise Admin

Script to Export Active Directory Organizational Units

You can download the PowerShell script from location : https://cdn.apps4.pro/scripts/export-active-directory-ou.ps1

function Export-OrganizationalUnits
{  
    param(  
           $csvPath
          )
    Import-Module ActiveDirectory    
    $DCName = (Get-ADDomain).Name
    $domainDN = (Get-ADDomain).DistinguishedName
    $ObjectList = @()
    $sourceOU = Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter * -Properties *

    foreach($ou in $sourceOU)
    {
        $ouLevel = ($ou.DistinguishedName -split 'OU=').Count -1
        $ouObjects = [PSCustomObject]@{
           domainName = $domainDN
           oulevel = $ouLevel
           c = $ou.c
           city = $ou.City
           country = $ou.Country
           description = $ou.Description
           displayName = $ou.DisplayName
           distinguishedName = $ou.DistinguishedName
           managedBy = $ou.ManagedBy
           name = $ou.Name
           ou = $ou.ou
           postalCode = $ou.PostalCode
           protectedFromAccidentalDeletion = $ou.ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion
           state = $ou.State
           streetAddress = $ou.StreetAddress
           #Write-Host $ou
        }

        $ObjectList += $ouObjects 

    }

    $ObjectList | Export-Csv -Path $csvPath -NoTypeInformation
}
Export-OrganizationalUnits -csvPath "Path of the CSV to Export OUs"

# For example
# Export-OrganizationalUnits -csvPath "C:\Users\admin\OUs_exported.csv"

Snippet of the exported data

Script to Import Active Directory Organizational Units

You can download the PowerShell script from location : https://cdn.apps4.pro/scripts/import-active-directory-ou.ps1

function Import-OrganizationalUnits
{  
    param(  
           $csvPath
           )
    Import-Module ActiveDirectory    
    $sourceOU = Import-Csv $csvPath
    $targetDN = (Get-ADDomain).DistinguishedName
    $allTargetOU = Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter * -Properties *
    #$sortedOUs = $sourceOU | Sort-Object {($_.DistinguishedName -split ",").Count}
    $sortedOUs = $sourceOU | Sort-Object {$_.oulevel}
    foreach($ou in $sortedOUs)
    {    
        $targetDisName = $ou.DistinguishedName -replace $ou.domainName, $targetDN
        $targetOU = $allTargetOU | Where-Object {$_.DistinguishedName -like $targetDisName}
        if(!$targetOU)
        {
           Write-Host "Creating New OU" $ou.Name
           $split = $ou.distinguishedName -split ','                
           $parentDN = (($split | Select-Object -Skip 1) -join ",") -replace $ou.domainName, $targetDN  
           $accDeletion = $null
           if($ou.protectedFromAccidentalDeletion -eq "TRUE"){
                $accDeletion = $true
           }
           else{
                $accDeletion = $false
           }
           $ouParams = @{
               Country = $ou.country
               City = $ou.city
               Description = $ou.description
               DisplayName = $ou.displayName
               #DistinguishedName = $ou.distinguishedName
               #ManagedBy = $ou.managedBy
               Name = $ou.name
               #ou = $ou.ou
               PostalCode = $ou.postalCode
               ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion = $accDeletion
               State = $ou.state
               streetAddress = $ou.streetAddress
               
           }
                New-ADOrganizationalUnit @ouParams -Path $parentDN
                Set-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity $targetDisName -Replace @{c=$ou.c} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue 
                if($ou.ManagedBy)
                {
                    Set-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity $targetDisName -Add @{ManagedBy=$ou.managedBy} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
                }
                
               # New-ADOrganizationalUnit -City $ou.City -Country $ou.Country -Description $ou.Description -PostalCode $ou.PostalCode -Name $ou.Name -State $ou.State -StreetAddress $ou.StreetAddress -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion $accDeletion -Path $parentDN
        }   
        else{
            Write-Host $ou.Name "OU Already Exist"

        }

    }

}
Import-OrganizationalUnits -csvPath "Path of the exported CSV"

# For example
# Import-OrganizationalUnits -csvPath "C:\Users\admin\OUs_exported.csv

Please refer our other BLOGs for the handy scripts to migrate the Active Directory Users and Groups

https://blog.apps4.pro/migrate-your-active-directory-users-across-tenants
https://blog.apps4.pro/migrate-your-active-directory-groups-across-tenants