brain-dump/sysadmin/windows/active-directory/active-directory-ou-search-string.md

Obtain the Active Directory OU Search String

For LDAP authentication, a quick and easy way to obtain the LDAP search string.

1. Open a cmd prompt
2. Run the following: text dsquery user -name John*

This will return pre-formatted OU strings for all users matching John:

"CN=John Smith,OU=Management,OU=People,DC=example,DC=com"
"CN=Johnny Smith,OU=IT,OU=People,DC=example,DC=com"

Search by Active Directory Attributes

1. Open a cmd prompt
2. Run the following: powershell dsquery * -filter "(&(objectClass=Computer)(objectCategory=Computer)(sAMAccountName=asset-tag123$))" -attr sAMAccountName distinguishedName Returns: text sAMAccountName distinguishedName ASSET-TAG123$ CN=asset-tag123,OU=Computers,OU=Computer_Assets,DC=example,DC=com

To see other options offered by the dsquery tool:

dsquery /?