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LDAP question

I am trying to retrieve all the entries from LDAP where Organizational unit is "Test Unit"

Here is the code I use:

Try
Dim sPath As String = "LDAP://server1/DC=domain1,DC=com"

Dim sDir As New DirectoryEntry(sPath, "admin", "temp")
Dim sSearcher As New DirectorySearcher(sDir)
Dim sSearchResultColl As SearchResultCollection
Dim sSearchResult As SearchResult

'Build LDAP query

sSearcher.Filter = ("(&(ou=" & key & "))")

sSearchResultColl = sSearcher.FindAll()

Then if I check sSearchResultColl.Count, I get 1 even though there are at least 4 entruies wher OU is "Test Unit"

What am I doing wrong?

ihenry

You mean the SearchResultCollection object returns 1 result even though there are 4 entries of OU with that name in the domain?

What happens if you use a query filter like:

sSearcher.Filter = String.Format( "ou={0}", key )

YZlat

ASKER

Nope, still returning 1.

I have the following entries in my LDAP

LDAP://server1/CN=ENT2,OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com
LDAP://server1/CN=ENT3,OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com
LDAP://server1/CN=ENT4,OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com
LDAP://server1/CN=ENT1,OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com

and it returns

LDAP://server1/OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com

YZlat

ASKER

I think I see where the problem is:

LDAP://server1/CN=ENT2,OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com
LDAP://server1/CN=ENT3,OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com
LDAP://server1/CN=ENT4,OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com
LDAP://server1/CN=ENT1,OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com

All the entries above are the same, except CN value. I think my code somehow reads each entry starting from OU=Test Unit, so all the 4 entries seem the same. Is there a workaround, to read each entry completely?

ihenry

Apparently, the full DNS names are not showing that the objects are OU (OrganizationalUnit). That could be user objects, group objects, or other AD object types. The objectClass or objectCategory attribute have the information to determine type of AD object. From there, you can construct the correct query filter and use it in your LDAP search.

YZlat

ASKER

I've tried

sSearcher.Filter = ("(&(objectClass=organizationalUnit)(ou=Test Unit))")

but got the same result

ihenry

This "OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com" is an organizationalUnit.

and this "CN=ENT2,OU=Test Unit,DC=domain1,DC=com" is *not* an organizationalUnit object.

You can use a LDAP utility to look into the objectClass or objectCategory attribute of the object and see what is the value inside.

YZlat

ASKER

so how would I filter the results on an Organizational unit "Test Unit" or on user "Test User"?

What I want is for my function to return a collection of objects from AD, depending on Organizational Unit or on the User that are passed to the function

ihenry

I might not have explained it to you clearly. I'm under impression that the structure of the OU is like this

-- Test Unit (OrganizationalUnit)
|-- ENT1 (User or Group or other object type)
|-- ENT2 (User or Group or other object type)
|-- ENT3 (User or Group or other object type)
|-- ENT4 (User or Group or other object type)

To find all objects under an OU you can just point the DirectoryEntry object to the OU's fully DN name, e.g.
Dim sDir As New DirectoryEntry("LDAP://domain.com/ou=test unit,dc=domain,dc=com"/, "admin", "temp")
with this filter: (cn=*)

To find all user objects under an OU, you can use this filter
(&(objectClass=user)(objectCategory=person))

To find all group objects under an OU, you can use this filter
(objectClass=group)

YZlat

ASKER

but the question I have is
how do I find all objects that belong to a particular OU?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

ihenry

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