Quick way to retrieve user information Active Directory

Question

How to query user information from Active Directory   I have code that works  but it s really slow  I m using C   This is the code I currently use       static void Main string   args                SearchResultCollection sResults   null           try                         modify this line to include your domain name             string path    LDAP   EXTECH                 init a directory entry             DirectoryEntry dEntry   new DirectoryEntry path                  init a directory searcher             DirectorySearcher dSearcher   new DirectorySearcher dEntry                  This line applies a filter to the search specifying a username to search for               modify this line to specify a user name  if you want to search for all               users who start with k - set SearchString to  k              dSearcher Filter      amp  objectClass user                    perform search on active directory             sResults   dSearcher FindAll                   loop through results of search             foreach  SearchResult searchResult in sResults                                if  searchResult Properties  CN   0  ToString       Adit                                             loop through the ad properties                       foreach  string propertyKey in                       searchResult Properties  st                                                       pull the collection of objects with this key name                         ResultPropertyValueCollection valueCollection                           searchResult Properties  manager                             foreach  Object propertyValue in valueCollection                                                           loop through the values that have a specific name                               an example of a property that would have multiple                               collections for the same name would be memberof                               Console WriteLine  Property Name      valueCollection  ToString                                 Console WriteLine  Property Value       string propertyValue ToString                                      sAMAccountName   0  ToString                                                                          Console WriteLine                                                         catch  InvalidOperationException iOe                                             catch  NotSupportedException nSe                                             finally                           dispose of objects used             if  sResults    null                  sResults Dispose                       Console ReadLine            What would faster code look like to get user information from AD

User · Accepted Answer

The reason why your code is slow is that your LDAP query retrieves every single user object in your domain even though you're only interested in one user with a common name of "Adit":

dSearcher.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user))";

So to optimize, you need to narrow your LDAP query to just the user you are interested in. Try something like:

dSearcher.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user)(cn=Adit))";

In addition, don't forget to dispose these objects when done:

DirectoryEntry dEntry
DirectorySearcher dSearcher

User · Answer

You can simplify this code to           DirectorySearcher searcher   new DirectorySearcher            searcher Filter      amp  objectCategory user  cn steve evans              SearchResultCollection results   searcher FindAll             if  results Count    1                          do what you want to do                   else if  results Count    0                          user does not exist                   else                         found more than one user               something is wrong             If you can narrow down where the user is you can set searcher SearchRoot to a specific OU that you know the user is under   You should also use objectCategory instead of objectClass since objectCategory is indexed by default   You should also consider searching on an attribute other than CN   For example it might make more sense to search on the username  sAMAccountName  since it s guaranteed to be unique

User · Answer

I m not sure how much of your  slowness  will be due to the loop you re doing to find entries with particular attribute values  but you can remove this loop by being more specific with your filter   Try this page for some guidance     Search Filter Syntax

User · Answer

Well  if you know where your user lives in the AD hierarchy  e g  quite possibly in the  Users  container  if it s a small network   you could also bind to the user account directly  instead of searching for it   DirectoryEntry deUser   new DirectoryEntry  LDAP   cn John Doe cn Users dc yourdomain dc com     if  deUser    null          do something with your user     And if you re on  NET 3 5 already  you could even use the vastly expanded System DirectorySrevices AccountManagement namespace with strongly typed classes for each of the most common AD objects      bind to your domain PrincipalContext pc   new PrincipalContext ContextType Domain   LDAP   dc yourdomain dc com        find the user by identity  or many other ways  UserPrincipal user   UserPrincipal FindByIdentity pc   cn John Doe      There s loads of information out there on System DirectoryServices AccountManagement - check out this excellent article on MSDN by Joe Kaplan and Ethan Wilansky on the topic

User · Answer

You can call UserPrincipal FindByIdentity inside System DirectoryServices AccountManagement   using System DirectoryServices AccountManagement   using  var pc   new PrincipalContext ContextType Domain   MyDomainName          var user   UserPrincipal FindByIdentity pc  IdentityType SamAccountName   MyDomainName      userName

User · Answer

Well  if you know where your user lives in the AD hierarchy  e g  quite possibly in the  Users  container  if it s a small network   you could also bind to the user account directly  instead of searching for it   DirectoryEntry deUser   new DirectoryEntry  LDAP   cn John Doe cn Users dc yourdomain dc com     if  deUser    null          do something with your user     And if you re on  NET 3 5 already  you could even use the vastly expanded System DirectorySrevices AccountManagement namespace with strongly typed classes for each of the most common AD objects      bind to your domain PrincipalContext pc   new PrincipalContext ContextType Domain   LDAP   dc yourdomain dc com        find the user by identity  or many other ways  UserPrincipal user   UserPrincipal FindByIdentity pc   cn John Doe      There s loads of information out there on System DirectoryServices AccountManagement - check out this excellent article on MSDN by Joe Kaplan and Ethan Wilansky on the topic

User · Answer

You can simplify this code to           DirectorySearcher searcher   new DirectorySearcher            searcher Filter      amp  objectCategory user  cn steve evans              SearchResultCollection results   searcher FindAll             if  results Count    1                          do what you want to do                   else if  results Count    0                          user does not exist                   else                         found more than one user               something is wrong             If you can narrow down where the user is you can set searcher SearchRoot to a specific OU that you know the user is under   You should also use objectCategory instead of objectClass since objectCategory is indexed by default   You should also consider searching on an attribute other than CN   For example it might make more sense to search on the username  sAMAccountName  since it s guaranteed to be unique

User · Answer

You can simplify this code to           DirectorySearcher searcher   new DirectorySearcher            searcher Filter      amp  objectCategory user  cn steve evans              SearchResultCollection results   searcher FindAll             if  results Count    1                          do what you want to do                   else if  results Count    0                          user does not exist                   else                         found more than one user               something is wrong             If you can narrow down where the user is you can set searcher SearchRoot to a specific OU that you know the user is under   You should also use objectCategory instead of objectClass since objectCategory is indexed by default   You should also consider searching on an attribute other than CN   For example it might make more sense to search on the username  sAMAccountName  since it s guaranteed to be unique

User · Answer

Well  if you know where your user lives in the AD hierarchy  e g  quite possibly in the  Users  container  if it s a small network   you could also bind to the user account directly  instead of searching for it   DirectoryEntry deUser   new DirectoryEntry  LDAP   cn John Doe cn Users dc yourdomain dc com     if  deUser    null          do something with your user     And if you re on  NET 3 5 already  you could even use the vastly expanded System DirectorySrevices AccountManagement namespace with strongly typed classes for each of the most common AD objects      bind to your domain PrincipalContext pc   new PrincipalContext ContextType Domain   LDAP   dc yourdomain dc com        find the user by identity  or many other ways  UserPrincipal user   UserPrincipal FindByIdentity pc   cn John Doe      There s loads of information out there on System DirectoryServices AccountManagement - check out this excellent article on MSDN by Joe Kaplan and Ethan Wilansky on the topic

User · Answer

Well  if you know where your user lives in the AD hierarchy  e g  quite possibly in the  Users  container  if it s a small network   you could also bind to the user account directly  instead of searching for it   DirectoryEntry deUser   new DirectoryEntry  LDAP   cn John Doe cn Users dc yourdomain dc com     if  deUser    null          do something with your user     And if you re on  NET 3 5 already  you could even use the vastly expanded System DirectorySrevices AccountManagement namespace with strongly typed classes for each of the most common AD objects      bind to your domain PrincipalContext pc   new PrincipalContext ContextType Domain   LDAP   dc yourdomain dc com        find the user by identity  or many other ways  UserPrincipal user   UserPrincipal FindByIdentity pc   cn John Doe      There s loads of information out there on System DirectoryServices AccountManagement - check out this excellent article on MSDN by Joe Kaplan and Ethan Wilansky on the topic

User · Answer

I m not sure how much of your  slowness  will be due to the loop you re doing to find entries with particular attribute values  but you can remove this loop by being more specific with your filter   Try this page for some guidance     Search Filter Syntax

User · Answer

I m not sure how much of your  slowness  will be due to the loop you re doing to find entries with particular attribute values  but you can remove this loop by being more specific with your filter   Try this page for some guidance     Search Filter Syntax

User · Answer

You can call UserPrincipal FindByIdentity inside System DirectoryServices AccountManagement   using System DirectoryServices AccountManagement   using  var pc   new PrincipalContext ContextType Domain   MyDomainName          var user   UserPrincipal FindByIdentity pc  IdentityType SamAccountName   MyDomainName      userName

User · Answer

You can simplify this code to           DirectorySearcher searcher   new DirectorySearcher            searcher Filter      amp  objectCategory user  cn steve evans              SearchResultCollection results   searcher FindAll             if  results Count    1                          do what you want to do                   else if  results Count    0                          user does not exist                   else                         found more than one user               something is wrong             If you can narrow down where the user is you can set searcher SearchRoot to a specific OU that you know the user is under   You should also use objectCategory instead of objectClass since objectCategory is indexed by default   You should also consider searching on an attribute other than CN   For example it might make more sense to search on the username  sAMAccountName  since it s guaranteed to be unique

User · Answer

I m not sure how much of your  slowness  will be due to the loop you re doing to find entries with particular attribute values  but you can remove this loop by being more specific with your filter   Try this page for some guidance     Search Filter Syntax

[c#] Quick way to retrieve user information Active Directory

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