Searching active directory (no results)

[NickiJames]

Hi all...

 

My name is Nicki and I'm a 17 year old who's passionate about I.T.... I've just started working as an Apprentice I.T. Technician in a school and so far I'm really enjoying it. I don't mean to ramble but I just wanted to give you guys some context. I'm essentially a complete 'noob' when it come to the management side of I.T. Sorry if this is in the wrong category but I wasn't sure where to put it and here seemed the most appropriate.

 

My question is fairly simple and it feels kinda stupid to ask but how do you search active directory? I have tried right clicking on the OU in question and then clicking find but I am getting no results...? I thought I was miss spelling the students username at first but when a colleague of mine searched the username appeared straight away. I have tried searching for other users as well and I still get no results... I thought it could be an issue with permissions, but I doubt this is the case as when I click onto an OU I can see all the users and I can click on a user and edit the properties (password ect) I just can't seem to search, even though I can find them manually...

 

I have mentioned it to my line manager (who is also registered on this forum) but he said that I would be a good learning experience for me to find information on this problem myself.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I'm more than willing to learn

Cheers

[DJ-1701]

Action -> Find...

Or right click on OU and Find...

[NickiJames]

Hey DJ-1701,

Thanks for the prompt reply but I have tied this and the dialogue box pops up but when I search I get no results.... (as I mentioned in my original post...)

[Joanne]

I wonder if you don't have the correct permissions set?

[caffrey]

Anything happen if you just click find now without any input ?

[Joanne]

What happens when you search the entire directory for your username?

 

[caffrey]

Tried dsquery on the cmd line ?

 

dsquery user domainroot -name *smi*

[NickiJames]

Hey,

To by honest I am not sure but when I manually find and right click on my user account in AD in the properties it says under member of it says 'domain admins' if that helps or means anything....?

Thanks for your input

[NickiJames]

I wonder if you don't have the correct permissions set?

Hey, To by honest I am not sure but when I manually find and right click on my user account in AD in the properties it says under member of it says 'domain admins' if that helps or means anything....?Thanks for your input

[NickiJames]

Tried dsquery on the cmd line ?

Hey Caffrey,

This works fine but I still can't get search to work in AD... any ideas?

[NickiJames]

Anything happen if you just click find now without any input ?

Still Blank...

[NickiJames]

What happens when you search the entire directory for your username?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41448[/ATTACH]

 

Still nothing, but again thanks

[caffrey]

Nope, it should just work especially if dsquery is working, did you just try clicking find now without anything in the name criteria box ? And are you sure your searching on user,contacts and groups ?

[JRowley]

Hi Nicki,

 

Great to hear you are perusing your passion and have started an apprenticeship in IT.

 

As for your problem, you might want to look into this: Maximum size of Active Directory searches

 

It's possible that there is a Group Policy Object which has been set for the OU your account is in which limits the number of search results to 0. It seems unlikely to me, but worth looking into. Follow the gpedit guide and see if the number is set to 0.

[RJohnson91]

Still nothing, but again thanks

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41451[/ATTACH]

 

Hi Nicki,

 

Welcome to ICT!

 

I started my apprenticeship when I was 19, I'm now 26 and an ICT Manager across three sites, the world is your oyster and you'll enjoy every moment of it if you're passionate

 

 

In regards to your AD trouble, lets look very basic first.

 

Are MSTSCed directly on the Domain Controller or using the windows snap in AD?

 

Ryan

[BKGarry]

Welcome to ICT Support Nicki,

 

I have had a few random cases like this, sometimes you may find the student in question has a different legal to preferred name and/or had a name change and you are searching for the old name.

 

I know that sounds completely stupid but sometimes that has been the case for us here.

[DJ-1701]

Still nothing, but again thanks

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41451[/ATTACH]

 

Well that looks right @NickiJames, and if you are in Domain Admins, unless there is a typo in the username that should work...

Out of interest, what happens if you run a search for your own username?

[Joanne]

What happens when you search the entire directory for your username?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]41448[/ATTACH]

@DJ-1701 - great minds

[NetworkNinja]

Hi Nicki,

 

I started out the exact same as you. I started an apprenticeship when i was 17, and i am now 21 and running a team at the school i work at. if you need help with anything just PM me and i will do my best to give you advice.

[DJ-1701]

@DJ-1701 - great minds

 

Unfortunately mine is not as quick as yours though.

[NickiJames]

Hi Nicki,

 

Great to hear you are perusing your passion and have started an apprenticeship in IT.

 

As for your problem, you might want to look into this: Maximum size of Active Directory searches

 

It's possible that there is a Group Policy Object which has been set for the OU your account is in which limits the number of search results to 0. It seems unlikely to me, but worth looking into. Follow the gpedit guide and see if the number is set to 0.

Thanks for replying, I have looked into this (and spoken to my line manager) and there is no policy limiting the search results... so for now my quest to solve this issue continues...

[NickiJames]

Are MSTSCed directly on the Domain Controller or using the windows snap in AD?

Cheers Ryan, I had to ask my line manager about this one because i wasn't sure what it meant:confused2:... but apparently I'm using the windows snap in AD

[NickiJames]

Hi Nicki,

Great to hear you are perusing your passion and have started an apprenticeship in IT.

As for your problem, you might want to look into this: Maximum size of Active Directory searches

It's possible that there is a Group Policy Object which has been set for the OU your account is in which limits the number of search results to 0. It seems unlikely to me, but worth looking into. Follow the gpedit guide and see if the number is set to 0.

Hey, turns out you were right, there was a policy limiting the umber of search results to 0.... The reason I said this was not the case before is because I was looking at the wrong policy (whoops:rolleyes:). On the plus side its been a learning experience... Thanks for your help everyone! I'm sure you'll be seeing more of me

[BKGarry]

Good to hear you have a solution to it now.

[JRowley]

Hey, turns out you were right, there was a policy limiting the umber of search results to 0.... The reason I said this was not the case before is because I was looking at the wrong policy (whoops:rolleyes:). On the plus side its been a learning experience... Thanks for your help everyone! I'm sure you'll be seeing more of me

 

You're welcome, glad you got to the bottom of it. Certainly an interesting problem, I've never experienced it myself. Group policy can be particularly complex so don't worry about looking in the wrong one, pretty sure we've all been there at one point or another .