"A referral was returned from the server" exception when accessing AD from C#

user_256988 0
Viewed 172198
DirectoryEntry oDE = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://DC=Test1,DC=Test2,DC=gov,DC=lk");

using (DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher(oDE))
{
    ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("name");
    ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("userPrincipalName");

    ds.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user))";

    SearchResultCollection results = ds.FindAll();

    foreach (SearchResult result in results)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1}",
            result.Properties["name"][0].ToString(),
            result.Properties["userPrincipalName"][0].ToString());
    }
}

On the SearchResultCollection results = ds.FindAll(); line I get an exception:

A referral was returned from the server

Why do I get that exception and what does it mean?

active-directory c#
9 Answers

In my case I was seeing referrals when I was accessing AD via SSO with an account in a trusted domain. The problem went away when I connected with explicit credentials in the local domain.

i.e. I replaced

DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry("blah.com");

with

DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry("blah.com", "someguy@blah.com", "supersecret");

and the problem went away.

user_44275870

I had the same problem and it was a silly mistake of misspelling one of the DC strings.

user_97953090
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