Rename Users in bulk?

[maniac]

Morning all,

 

The current school I work in has it's user names setup using a yeargroup prefix, i.e Year7 is 07, Year8 is 08, year9 is 09 etc. They have been renaming the accounts every year

 

I want to standardise this to the more commonly used year of entry prefix that I think most schools use, (all the ones I've worked in anyway) Is there anyway of doing this in bulk through RM CC3 or Active directory, or is it really a case of renaming each account seperately? If I were to do this in active directory, would RM CC3 pick up on the change, or does any account modification have to be done in CC3 its self?

 

Many thanks,

 

Mike.

[cromertech]

 

I want to standardise this to the more commonly used year of entry prefix that I think most schools use,

 

 

Just as an aside or maybe a suggestion we use the students admission no. for their logon prefixed with a q (eg q1234 etc).

 

I find this works quite well as this number moves with them through each year and I just have to put them in a corresponding OU thats reflects year of entry.

 

Other than that I'm not sure if it's possible to batch change the users although I batch import them with a script so it may be possible. I'll look into it and return later

[Geoff]

The VBS script discussed in this thread should be able to do what you want.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/scripts/16225-update-active-directory-user-attributes-csv-file.html

[cromertech]

I think it can be done using things from here

VBScript Tutorial create a user account. Example from Excel spreadsheet

and here Bulk rename of user accounts in Active Directory - Active Directory. I'm going to see if I can get something to work just for fun

[Heebeejeebee]

Does ADModify fit the bill?

 

HBJB

[maniac]

Just as an aside or maybe a suggestion we use the students admission no. for their logon prefixed with a q (eg q1234 etc).

 

I find this works quite well as this number moves with them through each year and I just have to put them in a corresponding OU thats reflects year of entry.

 

I think 'YearOfEntry,Surname,Firstname' is easier for this school, as I bet no students know their admission number, and getting this information out to all students at the beginning of next year would be difficult without annoying the staff too much, and as I've only been here 2 weeks, I don't want to start annoying them quite yet! I also know students will forget it too easily as well.

 

I don't think the change I want to make is going to go down well anyway, as apparently they've been doing it the same way for years so staff are accustomed to the way things are so the smaller the change is, the better really. Good suggestion thou.

 

Thanks for the options that people have suggested, ADmodify looks like it might just do the job, but anyone know if it will mess up CC3? I know I'm going to have to re-create all the profiles in their new names, and do a lot of messing around with home areas, but will CC3 complain about the username changing? I'm just aboout to try it anyway.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike.

[apeo]

You could also use admodify or Wisesoft Bulk Modify

[clareq]

I know CC4 maintains it's own database, so changing usernames in AD would break it. I'm not sure if the same would hold true for CC3. You could try creating a test account and change the username in AD and then test to ensure CC3 throws up no errors before changing anything in bulk.

How were the usernames changed annually previously?

[FishCustard]

I know CC4 maintains it's own database, so changing usernames in AD would break it. I'm not sure if the same would hold true for CC3. You could try creating a test account and change the username in AD and then test to ensure CC3 throws up no errors before changing anything in bulk.

How were the usernames changed annually previously?

 

It does indeed hold true for CC3 - making pretty much any change in AD save for resetting passwords runs a high risk of borking the CCx DB entry for that user.