Question

I am getting an intermittent COM Exception “An operations error occurred (0x80072020)” (shown below) when I try and query Active Directory using the method GroupPrincipal.FindByIdentity

Here is my code:

PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, Environment.UserDomainName);
GroupPrincipal groupPrincipal = GroupPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, IdentityType.Name, "Group to find");

I am receiving Exception:

Inner Exception: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80072020): An operations error occurred.
  at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.Bind(Boolean throwIfFail)
  at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.Bind()
  at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.get_AdsObject()
  at System.DirectoryServices.PropertyValueCollection.PopulateList()
  at System.DirectoryServices.PropertyValueCollection..ctor(DirectoryEntry entry, String propertyName)
  at System.DirectoryServices.PropertyCollection.get_Item(String propertyName)
  at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.PrincipalContext.DoLDAPDirectoryInitNoContainer()
  at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.PrincipalContext.DoDomainInit()
  at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.PrincipalContext.Initialize()
  at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.PrincipalContext.get_QueryCtx()
  at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.Principal.FindByIdentityWithTypeHelper(PrincipalContext context, Type principalType, Nullable`1 identityType, String identityValue, DateTime refDate)
  at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.Principal.FindByIdentityWithType(PrincipalContext context, Type principalType, IdentityType identityType, String identityValue)
  at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.GroupPrincipal.FindByIdentity(PrincipalContext context, IdentityType identityType, String identityValue)

The code is running from a Windows service on a Windows 2003 SP2 server.

I have found another Stack Overflow question, Active Directory, enumerating user's groups, COM exception, suggesting that enabling Kerberos as an option in the PrincipalContext constructor will fix this problem but I am receiving a different hex code than in this question.

My questions are:

1. Is this particular COM Exception definitely an authentication issue? I need to be sure that this will 100% fix the problem before releasing the software.
2. Is there a resource somewhere which lists all the possible COM exception hex codes so that I can help myself a bit better in the future?

Answer 1

I’ve now found another answer Unable to add user with CrmService API in Dynamics CRM which states that 0x80072020 is indeed a permission issue. I have changed my service to run under a domain level account instead of the local system account and this seems to have cured my problem.