SharePoint alerts not working when added through powershell

Question

SharePoint alerts not working when added through PowerShell,

$url = "https://example.com/delete1"
$listName1 = "Discussion1"
$spWeb = Get-SPWeb $url -ErrorVariable err -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($err)
{
    Write-Host "createing web..."
    $spWeb = New-SPWeb -url $url -Template "STS#1" -Name "AlertsTest1" -Description "AlertsTest1"
}

$list = $spWeb.Lists.TryGetList($listName1)
if($list -eq $null)
{
    Write-Host "createing list..."
    $listTemplate = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListTemplateType]::DiscussionBoard
    $list = $spWeb.Lists.Add($listName1, $listName1, [int]$listTemplate)
}

$SPuser = $spWeb.EnsureUser('domain\user_SCAdmin')
$SPnewAlert = $SPuser.Alerts.Add()
$SPnewAlert.Title = "Powershell Alerts"
$SPnewAlert.AlertType=[Microsoft.SharePoint.SPAlertType]::List
$SPnewAlert.List = $list
$SPnewAlert.DeliveryChannels = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPAlertDeliveryChannels]::Email
$SPnewAlert.EventType = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPEventType]::All
$SPnewAlert.AlertFrequency = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPAlertFrequency]::Immediate
$SPnewAlert.Update()


$spWeb.Dispose()

It works when I go to site and add a alert myself using User interface...

Also no alerts are displayed at weburl + /_layouts/15/MySubs.aspx...

Answer 1

The key to understand here is that you should NOT be passing in the user name in the format domain\username when you are using a claims-based web application. If you are only using Windows claims on the zone then the call will likely succeed when you pass in domain\username.

 $claim = New-SPClaimsPrincipal -Identity corp\servero -IdentityType WindowsSamAccountName
 $web.EnsureUser($claim.ToEncodedString());

The ToEncodedString() method returns a value like this: i:0#.w|domain\username