Active Directory Properties

Active Directory Properties – LDAP* Fields

Here are the common LDAP attributes which correspond to Active Directory properties. They are useful for VBScripts which rely on these LDAP attributes to create or modify objects in Active Directory. For instance if you bulk import users into Active Directory you need to include the LDAP attributes: dn and sAMAccountName.

* LDAP is the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.

Topics for Active Directory Properties

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Vital LDAP Field – DN Distinguished Name

The keyword ‘distinguished’ means that this attribute is important, and it uniquely defines an Active Directory object. Therefore, each DN must have a unique name and location from all other objects in Active Directory.

Time spent in getting to know the DN attribute will repay many fold. Observe the different components CN=common name, OU = organizational unit. DC often comes with two entries, DC=CP, DC=COM. Note that DC=CP.COM would be wrong. Incidentally in this situation, DC means domain content rather than domain controller.

Another point with the syntax is to check the speech marks; when used with VBScript commands, DN is often enclosed in "speech marks". Even the speech marks have to be of the right type, "double quotes are correct", ‘single quotes may be ignored’ with unpredictable results. Finally, pay particular attention to commas in distinguished names.

LDAP Fields from Active Directory Users and Computers

The diagram below is taken from Active Directory Users and Computers. It shows the commonest LDAP attributes used in VBScript.

It’s worth spending the time to check how the LDAP attributes map to the Active Directory boxes.

One technique that I like to employ is to add values in the boxes, then export using CSVDE, finally open the file in Excel and search for the value.

LDAP Attribute	Example
CN – Common Name	CN=Alan Thomas. Actually, this LDAP attribute is made up from givenName joined to SN.
description	What you see in Active Directory Users and Computers. Not to be confused with displayName on the Users property sheet.
displayName	displayName = Alan Thomas. Ensure that you understand which field you are configuring. DisplayName can be confused with CN or description.
DN – also distinguishedName	DN is simply the most important LDAP attribute. CN=Jimmy Ward, OU= Newport,DC=cp,DC=com
givenName	Firstname also called Christian name
homeDrive	Home Folder : connect. Tricky to configure
name	name = Alan Thomas. Exactly the same as CN.
objectCategory	Defines the Active Directory Schema category. For example, objectCategory = Person
objectClass	objectClass = User. Also used for Computer, organizationalUnit, even container. Important top level container.
physicalDeliveryOfficeName	Office! on the user’s General property sheet
profilePath	Roaming profile path: connect. Trick to set up
sAMAccountName	sAMAccountName = guyt. Old NT 4.0 logon name, must be unique in the domain. Can be confused with CN.
SN	SN = Thomas. This would be referred to as last name or surname.
userAccountControl	Used to disable an account. A value of 514 disables the account, while 512 makes the account ready for logon.
userPrincipalName	userPrincipalName = [email protected] Often abbreviated to UPN, and looks like an email address. Very useful for logging on especially in a large Forest. Note UPN must be unique in the forest.
LDAP Notes Display name and Description are different Office’s LDAP attribute is: physicalDeliveryOfficeName E-mail is plain: mail
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Other LDAP attributes Examples of Exchange Specific LDAP attributes
homeMDB	Here is where you set the MailStore
legacyExchangeDN	Legacy distinguished name for creating Contacts. In the following example, Alan Thomas is a Contact in the first administrative group of GUYDOMAIN: /o=GUYDOMAIN/ou=first administrative group/cn=Recipients/cn=Alan Thomas
mail	An easy, but important attribute. A simple SMTP address is all that is required [email protected]
mAPIRecipient – FALSE	Indicates that a contact is not a domain user.
mailNickname	Normally this is the same value as the sAMAccountName, but could be different if you wished. Needed for mail enabled contacts.
mDBUseDefaults	Another straightforward field, just the value to:True
msExchHomeServerName	Exchange needs to know which server to deliver the mail. Example: /o=YourOrg/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=MailSrv
proxyAddresses	As the name ‘proxy’ suggests, it is possible for one recipient to have more than one email address. Note the plural spelling of proxyAddresses.
targetAddress	SMTP:@ e-mail address. Note that SMTP is case sensitive. All capitals means the default address.
showInAddressBook	Displays the contact in the Global Address List.
Other LDAP attributes
c	Country or Region
company	Company or organization name
department	Useful category to fill in and use for filtering
homephone	Home Phone number, (Lots more phone LDAPs)
l (Lower case L)	L = Location. City ( Maybe Office
location	Important, particularly for printers.
manager	Boss, manager
mobile	Mobile Phone number
ObjectClass	Usually, User, or Computer
OU	Organizational unit. See also DN
postalCode	Zip or post code
st	State, Province or County
streetAddress	First line of address
telephoneNumber	Office Phone
Examples of obscure LDAP attributes
dNSHostname
rID
url
uSNCreated, uSNChanged
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To discover more LDAP attributes, go to the command prompt, type: CSVDE -f Exportfile.csv. Then open Exportfile.csv with Excel.exe. Alternatively, use ADSI Edit and right-click the container objects.
See Also ADSI Edit

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Active Directory Properties