UserPrincipal.GetGroups fails with unknown error

Question

I am trying to get all Active Directory groups for a user, with the following code:

    private static IEnumerable<string> GetGroupNames(string userName)
    {
        using (var context = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain))
        {
            using (var userPrincipal = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(context, userName))
            {
                var groupSearch = userPrincipal.GetGroups(context);
                var result = new List<string>();
                foreach (var principal in groupSearch)
                {
                    Log.LogDebug("User {0} is member of group {0}", userPrincipal.DisplayName, principal.DisplayName);
                    result.Add(principal.SamAccountName);
                }
                return result;
            }
        }
    }

This code correctly finds the user principal, but fails when GetGroups is called with a PrincipalOperationException: Unknown error (0x80005000).

Root exception:

   at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.ADStoreCtx.GetGroupsMemberOf(Principal foreignPrincipal, StoreCtx foreignContext)
   at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.Principal.GetGroupsHelper(PrincipalContext contextToQuery)
   at System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.Principal.GetGroups(PrincipalContext contextToQuery)
   at [line of the GetGroup call]

Inner exception (COMException):

   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.ADUtils.RetriveWkDn(DirectoryEntry deBase, String defaultNamingContext, String serverN

Another report with this problem.

Any clues?

Answer 1

Adding Environment.UserDomainName as the name argument to the PrincipalContext helped:

using (var context = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, Environment.UserDomainName))

I still don't know why PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain) only works for finding the UserPrincipal and not the groups of the user. The COM error message "unknown error" is not very helpful and the PrincipalContext constructor overload with only the ContextType is virtually undocumented at MSDN. It smells like an issue with the .NET framework as pointed out by Harvey Kwok.