How to connect to Active Directory with Principal Context?

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I've been at this for a while and I'm always getting:

System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.PrincipalServerDownException

Which I think means my connection setup(connection string) is wrong.

When I write "dsquery server" on cmd on the computer where the Active Directory is I get:

"CN=DCESTAGIO,CN=SERVERS,CN=Default-First-Site-Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=estagioit,DC=local"

I've tried the following connecting in the following ways:

1:

PrincipalContext thisPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "192.168.56.101", "DC=estagioit,DC=local");

2:

PrincipalContext thisPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "192.168.56.101/DC=estagioit,DC=local");

3:

PrincipalContext thisPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "192.168.56.101/CN=DCESTAGIO,DC=estagioit,DC=local");

4:

PrincipalContext thisPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "192.168.56.101/CN=DCESTAGIO,CN=SERVERS,CN=Default-First-Site-Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=estagioit,DC=local");

5:

PrincipalContext thisPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "LDAP://192.168.56.101/CN=Users,DC=estagioit,DC=local");

And some other ways...

Any ideas on what's wrong and how I can make this connection work?

PS: The ip is correct seen as I've used it to ping and it's working.

PSS: I really, really need this working ASAP if you have any suggestions at all they're all welcome.

Posted 13-Apr-15 4:53am

varmartins

Updated 13-Apr-15 4:55am

v2

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Comments

Richard Deeming 13-Apr-15 11:46am

Is the computer where this code is running part of the domain? If so, try the constructor with the name and container parameters:
var thisPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain);

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varmartins · Answer 1 · 2015-04-13T06:59:00

The problem is how the "Principal Context" is written... it should be:

PrincipalContext thisPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "DCESTAGIO");

in this case.

If you look at the documentation for the

PrincipalContext

constructors, it should be quite clear:

public PrincipalContext(ContextType contextType, string name)

or

public PrincipalContext(ContextType contextType, string name, string container)

So you basically need:

- your context type (here:

ContextType.Domain

)
- the domain name (try just the "Netbios" name, e.g. "YOURDOMAIN" - or leave NULL for "default" domain)
- optionally a container (as an LDAP path - a "distinguished" name, full path but without any LDAP:// prefix)
as seen in this answer.