How to retrieve SAMAccountName from Active Directory

Question

I implemented a method that returns a list of Active Directory users, I would like to retrieve SAMAccountName like this Domain\Administrator.

This is the method I use:

public Collection<software_user> GetUsersFromAD(String adConnectionString)
{
    var users = new Collection<software_user>();

    using (var directoryEntry = new DirectoryEntry(adConnectionString))
    {
        var directorySearcher = new DirectorySearcher(directoryEntry);
        directorySearcher.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user))";
        var propertiesToLoad = new[] 
        { 
           "SAMAccountName", 
           "displayName", 
           "givenName", 
           "sn", 
           "mail", 
           "userAccountControl", 
           "objectSid" 
        };
        directorySearcher.PropertiesToLoad.AddRange(propertiesToLoad);

        foreach (SearchResult searchEntry in directorySearcher.FindAll())
        {
            var userEntry = searchEntry.GetDirectoryEntry();
            var ldapUser = new software_user();
            ldapUser.User_name = NullHandler.GetString(userEntry.Properties["displayName"].Value);

            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(ldapUser.User_name))
               continue;
            ldapUser.User_name = NullHandler.GetString(userEntry.Properties["SAMAccountName"].Value);
            ldapUser.email = NullHandler.GetString(userEntry.Properties["mail"].Value);
            ldapUser.user_shortname = NullHandler.GetString(userEntry.Properties["givenName"].Value);
            var userAccountControl = (int)userEntry.Properties["userAccountControl"].Value;
            //ldapUser.IsActive = (userAccountControl & UF_ACCOUNTDISABLE) != UF_ACCOUNTDISABLE;
            var sid = new SecurityIdentifier((byte[])userEntry.Properties["objectSid"][0], 0).Value;
            //ldapUser.SId = sid;
            users.Add(ldapUser);
         }
    }
    return users;
}

Answer 1

First off: Domain\Administrator is NOT a SAM account name! The SAM account name is a unique (over the whole domain) name of up to 20 characters in length - typically it's your "Windows user name" (e.g. Administrator) - but it does NOT include the domain name. That value made up of domain\username is NOT stored in Active Directory anywhere!

---

If you're on .NET 3.5 and up, you should check out the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement (S.DS.AM) namespace. Read all about it here:

• Managing Directory Security Principals in the .NET Framework 3.5
• MSDN docs on System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement

Basically, you can define a domain context and easily find users and/or groups in AD:

// set up domain context
PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain);

// find a user
UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, "SomeUserName");

if(user != null)
{
   // do something here....     
   string samAccountName = user.SamAccountName;
}

The new S.DS.AM makes it really easy to play around with users and groups in AD!

If you want to search for a whole group of users (or groups or computers), you can use a PrincipalSearcher and a "query-by-example" principal to do your searching:

// create your domain context
PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain);

// define a "query-by-example" principal - here, we search for a UserPrincipal 
// and with the last name (Surname) of "Miller"
UserPrincipal qbeUser = new UserPrincipal(ctx);
qbeUser.Surname = "Miller";

// create your principal searcher passing in the QBE principal    
PrincipalSearcher srch = new PrincipalSearcher(qbeUser);

// find all matches
foreach(var found in srch.FindAll())
{
    // do whatever here - "found" is of type "Principal" - it could be user, group, computer.....          
}

Answer 2

You can translate a user as a Distinguished name to DOMAIN\SAMaccount form using the Object's SID, and the System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier.Translate command.

public Collection<software_user> GetUsersFromAD(String adConnectionString)
    {
            var users = new Collection<software_user>();

            using (var directoryEntry = new DirectoryEntry(adConnectionString))
            {
                    var directorySearcher = new DirectorySearcher(directoryEntry);
                    directorySearcher.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user))";
                    var propertiesToLoad = new[] 
                    { 
                         "SAMAccountName", 
                         "displayName", 
                         "givenName", 
                         "sn", 
                         "mail", 
                         "userAccountControl", 
                         "objectSid" 
                    };
                    directorySearcher.PropertiesToLoad.AddRange(propertiesToLoad);

                    foreach (SearchResult searchEntry in directorySearcher.FindAll())
                    {
                            var userEntry = searchEntry.GetDirectoryEntry();
                            var ldapUser = new software_user();
                            ldapUser.User_name = NullHandler.GetString(userEntry.Properties["displayName"].Value);

                            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(ldapUser.User_name))
                                 continue;
                            ldapUser.User_name = NullHandler.GetString(userEntry.Properties["SAMAccountName"].Value);
                            ldapUser.email = NullHandler.GetString(userEntry.Properties["mail"].Value);
                            ldapUser.user_shortname = NullHandler.GetString(userEntry.Properties["givenName"].Value);
                            var userAccountControl = (int)userEntry.Properties["userAccountControl"].Value;

                            //ldapUser.IsActive = (userAccountControl & UF_ACCOUNTDISABLE) != UF_ACCOUNTDISABLE;
                            SecurityIdentifier sid = new SecurityIdentifier((byte[])userEntry.Properties["objectSid"][0], 0).Value;
    -->                     NTAccount account = (NTAccount) sid.Translate(typeof(NTAccount));
    -->                     ldapUser.User_name = account.ToString();

                            //ldapUser.SId = sid;
                            users.Add(ldapUser);
                     }
            }
            return users;
    }