How to connect to Active Directory with Principal Context?

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.

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

1 Answer

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)

So try something like this:

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

or

PrincipalContext thisPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, null); // default domain 

or

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

or

PrincipalContext thisPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, null, "CN=Users,DC=estagioit,DC=local");