How to delete the Organizational Unit (OU) from the active directory using PowerShell?

To delete the OU from the Active Directory using PowerShell, we need to use the command Remove-ADOrganizationUnit

Remove-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity "OU=LabUsers,DC=Labdomain,DC=Local"

If the OU is protected from the accidental delete, you will receive an Access is Denied error as shown below.

Remove-ADOrganizationalUnit : Access is denied At line:1 char:1 + Remove-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity "OU=LabUsers,DC=Labdomain,DC=Lo ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : PermissionDenied: (OU=LabUsers,DC=Labdomain,DC=Local:ADOrganizationalUnit) [Remove-ADOrgan izationalUnit], UnauthorizedAccessException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ActiveDirectoryCmdlet:System.UnauthorizedAccessException,Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Managem
ent.Commands.RemoveADOrganizationalUnit

So for that, first you need to disable the protected mode using the Set-ADOrganizationalUnit command and then need to run the remove command as shown below.

$ou = "OU=LabUsers,DC=Labdomain,DC=Local" Set-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity $ou -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion $false Remove-ADOrganizationalUnit -Identity $ou -Confirm:$false -Verbose

You need to make sure that there are no child objects that exist otherwise, OU won’t get deleted.