Create User in Active Directory C#

In this article we will discuss two approaches to validate user credentials in Active Directory using C#

1. System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement
2. System.DirectoryServices

1. System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement:

Step 1 – Add reference to System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement dll into your project.

Step 2 – Add below namespace to your code file

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using System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement;

Step 3 – Use the below code for user creation in AD.

Here we will be creating user in an OU by name “TestOU”.

            try
            {
                PrincipalContext pricipalContext = null;
                pricipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "yourdomain.com", "OU=TestOU,DC=yourdomain,DC=com");
                //Sometimes we need to connect to AD using service/admin account credentials, in that case the above line of code will be as below
                //pricipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "yourdomain.com", "OU=TestOU,DC=yourdomain,DC=com","YourAdminUser","YourAdminPassword");
                UserPrincipal up = new UserPrincipal(pricipalContext);
                up.SamAccountName = "TestUser";
                up.DisplayName = "Test User";
                up.EmailAddress = "test@yourdomain.com";
                up.GivenName = "Test";
                up.Name = "Test User";
                up.Description = "User Created for testing";
                up.Enabled = true;
                up.SetPassword("testPassword");
                up.Save();
                MessageBox.Show("User Created");
            }
            catch(Exception ex)
            {

            }

2. System.DirectoryServices:

Step 1 – Add reference to System.DirectoryServices dll into your project.

Step 2 – Add below namespace to your code file

using System.DirectoryServices;

Step 3 – Use the below code for user creation in AD.

Here we will be creating user in an OU by name “TestOU”.

            try
            {
                DirectoryEntry directoryEntry = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://yourdomain.com,OU=TestOU,DC=yourdomain,DC=com");
                DirectoryEntry childEntry = directoryEntry.Children.Add("CN=TestUser", "user");
                childEntry.Properties["samAccountName"].Value = "TestUser";
                childEntry.Properties["mail"].Value = "test@yourdomain.com";
                childEntry.CommitChanges();
                directoryEntry.CommitChanges();
                childEntry.Invoke("SetPassword", new object[] { "testPassword" });
                childEntry.CommitChanges();
                MessageBox.Show("User Created");
            }
            catch(Exception ex)
            {

            }

**Note: If you are receiving an exception “RPC server is unavailable” while creating users in Active Directory, try to open ports 636 and 445. Hopefully this should resolve this issue

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