Intro
Suppose you managed to stuff the user’s ID into the description field of every computer object. Then independently the name of the computer object appears in a log such as a web server log and you want to know the user associated with that.
These examples show how to get at that description field from the computer object name.
The details
ldapsearch is a useful tool. I have two versions of it installed on Windows 7 and different Unix/Linux versions. The syntax is slightly different in all cases. Let’s assume the AD domain DRJOHNSAD is mapped to DNS domain drjohnsad.drjohns.net, and the user is drj. Then we have:
Linux
> ldapsearch -h drjohnsad.drjohns.net -b dc=drjohnsad,dc=drjohns,dc=net -D ‘drjohnsad\drj’ -W cn=computerName description
The -W switch prompts for the password. That is a nice switch, and not available in all versions of ldapsearch. If not, use -w password instead. drjohnsad\drj needs the single quote to prevent the “\” character from being treated as a special character by the shell. Windows doesn’t need that.
Windows 7 CMD Window
Oracle-provided ldapsearch
> ldapsearch -h drjohnsad.drjohns.net -b dc=drjohnsad,dc=drjohns,dc=net -D drjohnsad\drj -q cn=computerName description
So -q is used to prompt for a password instead of Linux’s -W.
Lotus Notes ldapsearch
> ldapsearch -h drjohnsad.drjohns.net -b dc=drjohnsad,dc=drjohns,dc=net -D drjohnsad\drj -w password cn=computerName description
You gotta put in the password on the command line.
Of course Windows also has applications which can be used for ldap queries in a GUI, but I don’t use them.
Conclusion
The syntax for a simple ldap query against an AD domain controller is shown.