How can I know where a user/group/computer is located in my domain?

[MahVincent]

Dear all,

When I find a group/user/computer in "Active Directory Users and Computers" MMC, I can get this object to do many things. However, I don't know where it is, in what OUs, etc... (my domain organization is a little complicated) So I raise a question how to find out the path of an object like user, computer or group? If you know how to that or what tool I need to run and so on, please tell me.

Thanks so much for your help.

Mah Vincent

 

[markdmac]

This was a fun one to make. Thanks for asking the question. I've had similar need and this was a good excuse to write the script.

'==========================================================================
'
' NAME: LocateComputerLDAP.vbs
'
' AUTHOR: Mark D. MacLachlan , The Spider's Parlor
' URL: [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.thespidersparlor.com[/URL]
' DATE  : 3/22/2005
'
' COMMENT: <comment>
'
'==========================================================================


objToFind = InputBox("Enter Computer Name to Locate","What Should I Find?")


ExecuteSearch = SearchDistinguishedName(objToFind)

Public Function SearchDistinguishedName(ByVal vSAN)

Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2
    Dim oRootDSE, oConnection, oCommand, oRecordSet

    Set oRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://rootDSE")
    Set oConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
    oConnection.Open "Provider=ADsDSOObject;"
    Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
    objCommand.ActiveConnection = oConnection

ldstring = "'LDAP://" & oRootDSE.get("defaultNamingContext") & "'" 

objCommand.CommandText = "Select Name, distinguishedName from "& ldstring & " where objectClass='computer'"  

objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000
objCommand.Properties("Timeout") = 30 
objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE 
objCommand.Properties("Cache Results") = False 
Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute
objRecordSet.MoveFirst
Do Until objRecordSet.EOF
If lcase(objRecordSet.Fields("Name").Value) = lcase(vSan) Then
    Wscript.Echo "Computer Name: " & objRecordSet.Fields("Name").Value & vbCrLf _ 
    & "Location: " & objRecordSet.Fields("distinguishedName").Value
    'Wscript.Quit
End If
    objRecordSet.MoveNext
Loop
End Function

I hope you find this post helpful. Please let me know if it was.

Regards,

Mark

 

[MahVincent]

It's great!

I have just edit it and find Computer/user/group. Thanks so much for your assistance.

Mah Vinvent

 

[basst]

You can find this information without having to run a script. In AD Users & Computers, right-click your domain and select Find. Enter the user name and click Find Now. In the Find Users Contacts and Groups window, click view | choose columns. Select X500 Distinguised Name. A new column appears showing the location of the user account.

 

[MahVincent]

Thanks so much for all your assistance. Any your suggestions are useful to me.

Mah Vincent

 

[Tekmazter]

You can also use dsquery for this:

dsquery user -limit 300 |find /I "usernamehere

 

[basst]

NOTE: dsquery is only available with Windows 2003 Server or if you are running Windows XP Pro with Windows 2003 ADMINPAK.MSI installed. You can run this tool from a XP Pro desktop with the Adminpak installed over a Windows 2000 Server installation.