Introduction
User accounts are one of the most frequently used types of objects in Active Directory. Because Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 systems manage users through Active Directory, many key issues that system administrators have to deal with are covered in this chapter. In particular, Active Directory manages all the information regarding passwords, group membership, the disabling or expiration of accounts, and when users have logged in.
The Anatomy of a User
The default location for user objects in a domain is the cn=Users container directly off the domain root. You can, of course, create user objects in other containers and organizational units in a domain. Table 6-1 contains a list of some of the interesting attributes that are available on user objects. This is by no means a complete list. There are many other informational attributes that I haven't included.
|
Attribute |
Description |
|---|---|
|
accountExpires |
Large integer representing when the user's account is going to expire. See Recipe 6.25 for more information. |
|
cn |
Relative distinguished name of user objects. This is commonly the username of the user. |
|
displayName |
Typically the full name of a user. This attribute is used in administrative tools to display a user's descriptive "name." |
|
givenName |
First name of the user. |
|
homeDirectory |
Local or UNC path of user's home directory. See Recipe 6.29 for more information. |
|
homeDrive |
Defines the drive letter to map the user's home directory to. See Recipe 6.29 for more information. |
|
lastLogon |
Last logon timestamp, which is not replicated among domain controllers. |
|
lastLogonTimestamp |
Approximate last logon timestamp, which is replicated among domain controllers. This attribute is new in Windows Server 2003. See Recipe 6.27 for more information. |
|
managedObjects |
Multivalued linked attribute (with managedBy) that contains a list of DNs of objects the user manages. |
|
lockoutTime |
Large integer representation of the timestamp for when a user was locked out. See Recipe 6.9 for more information. |
|
memberOf |
List of DNs of the groups the user is a member of. See Recipe 6.14 for more information. |
|
objectSID |
Octet string representing the SID of the user. |
|
primaryGroupID |
ID of the primary group for the user. See Recipe 6.15 for more information. |
|
profilePath |
UNC path to profile directory. See Recipe 6.29 for more information. |
|
pwdLastSet |
Large integer that can be translated into the last time the user's password was set. See Recipe 6.23 for more information. |
|
sAMAccountName |
NetBIOS style name of the user. |
|
sidHistory |
Multivalued attribute that contains a list of SIDs that is associated with the user. |
|
scriptPath |
Path to logon script. See Recipe 6.29 for more information. |
|
sn |
Last name of user. |
|
tokenGroups |
List of SIDs for the groups in the domain the user is a member of (both directly and via nesting). |
|
unicodePwd |
Octet string that contains the password for the user. This attribute cannot be directly queried. |
|
userAccountControl |
Account flags that define such things as account status and password change status. |
|
userPrincipalName |
Email-style account name for user, which a user can use to logon to a computer. |
|
userWorkstations |
Multivalued list of computers a user can logon to. |
