CODEWITHSUNDEEP
active-directoryldap
Cyberherbalist
Cyberherbalist

Reputation: 12309

How do I build this LDAP connection string?

I'm trying to retrieve user information in Active Directory, but am finding some things to be poorly documented. For example, the LDAP connection strings I have seen contain some keywords that I don't know the meaning of. Here's a sample:

LDAP://ofmdcoly302.ofm.wa.lcl/ou=employees,dc=ofm,dc=wa

What are the keywords "ou" and "dc" supposed to signify? In our case "ou=employees" seems to identify a particular AD node. However when I try to do a .FindAll() on the above directory entry, I get "A referral was returned from the server". I guess that means it couldn't find what I was looking for, but it might be available somewhere else? In one place I read "A referral is AD's way of saying, 'this object probably exists in another domain'".

What are "ou" and "dc" supposed to mean? And if I had this A/D structure, how would I code the LDAP connetion string to retrieve information in the "AR" node:

enter image description here

Upvotes: 5

Views: 51105

Answers (2)

BartekB
BartekB

Reputation: 8650

This entry has two mistakes: it's not using root (dc=lcl), you also skipped one ou, should be ou=employees,ou=Users - OFMGOV,dc=ofm,dc=wa,dc=lcl

TBH if your really want to understand this notation I would suggest using ADSI Edit instead of ADUC that you probably use ATM - it will show you path the same way, so it will be easier to translate. It will also prevent you from shooting yourself in a foot with special containers like 'CN=Users' and 'CN=Computers':

Looking at LDAP Paths in ADSI Edit

For the OU you have highlighted it would most likely be:

ou=AR,ou=Citrix,ou=Users - OFMGOV,dc=ofm,dc=wa,dc=lcl

Upvotes: 4

Terry Gardner
Terry Gardner

Reputation: 11134

ou and dc are not keywords, they are attributes, "organizational unit" and "domain component", respectively. Attributes are defined in the directory server schema. Attributes are gathered together into entries, of which the distinguished name is the primary key.

Taken in this context, ou and dc are "distinguished name components", together comprising a "distinguished name", which is the aforementioned primary key of an LDAP entry. ou=employees,dc=ofm,dc=wa is a distinguished name composed of the various relative distinguished name components.

Upvotes: 7

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