asked on

Get all AD groups in one OU

Hi experts,

I'm trying to query Active directory using VB.Net on .Net Framework 3.5

I need to get all security groups in a specific OU.

I've got:

Dim searcher As New DirectorySearcher()
searcher.Filter = "(&(Objectcategory=group)(OU=ThisIsTheOUThatIWant,OU=Groups,OU=SecondLevel,OU=CompanyLevel))"

It's not working. I get 0 results. I tried variations but none works.

I have not written code at all in the last 5 years - only started again now in the last week.

Please help me to get this working.

Thanks

Will Szymkowski

If you are not opposed to use Powershell to get your results it can be done very easy. See below for syntax...

Import-module activedirectory
Get-ADGroup -Filter * -SearchBase "OU=testou,DC=domain,DC=com" | select Name, GroupCategory | ft -autosize

Open in new window

The command above will return all security/distribution groups in the "testou". For yours change the OU and also DC=yourdomain,DC=com.

Will.

PantoffelSlippers

ASKER

Thanks Will,

In my other post it worked.

In this case though, it forms part of a larger system/application so I need to incorporate it into a .Net application.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Robert Schutt

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PantoffelSlippers

ASKER

Thanks Robert - let me try that

PantoffelSlippers

ASKER

Robert,

I'm getting the following error:

A first chance exception of type 'System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryServicesCOMException' occurred in System.DirectoryServices.dll

on

Dim objSearchResultCollection As SearchResultCollection = searcher.FindAll

I'm trying to troubleshoot now....

PantoffelSlippers

ASKER

Robert,

Got it running - let me wrap my head around results.

Thanks

Robert Schutt

The whole block of looping through the results I constructed once because I was gettting some strange results, something to do with multi-valued fields and possibly typing although I've always only used strings. But something like Properties("name") just doesn't fly...

PantoffelSlippers

ASKER

It's what I wanted - and it works - thanks