User names blank after upgrade

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.active_directory (More info?)

hbchrist wrote:

> I just upgraded an NT 4 server (sp6) to W2K3 Standard and installed AD.
> The NT4 server was the PDC of an NT network, so the upgraded server
> because the first domain of a child domain. Everything went fine (except
> XP clients started randomly falling off the network), but the wierdest
> part is the loss of user names.
>
> The user accounts all moved over without a hitch, and users can log in.
> However, if you look at their properties in the AD Users and Computers
> snap-in, there is no information in their First Name and Last Name text
> boxes.
>
> Is this normal? Did I miss something in the upgrade process? Does anyone
> have any suggestions about how to fix this (besides just typing the
> names in for all 600 users)?

Hi,

I don't remember NT having properties for user first and last name. The NT
attribute "FullName" corresponds to the LDAP attribute "displayName". If
your first and last names are in the "displayName" attribute, you may need
to write a script to parse this for first and last names, then populate the
"sn" and "givenName" attributes in AD. The code to parse would depend on how
the names are constructed, as there are many possibilities.

Best would be to export all user names to a text file. You would export
distinguishedName (to identify each user, so you can bind to the user
object) and displayName. I think you can do this with dsquery, or it can be
done with a VBScript program. Then import into a spreadsheet where you can
use formulas to construct first and last names for each user from the
displayName. Then export to a text file and either write a script to update
sn and givenName for all users from the text file, or use a command line
utility like dsmod.

--
Richard
Microsoft MVP Scripting and ADSI
Hilltop Lab web site - http://www.rlmueller.net
--