samAccountName Vs userPrincipalName

In this article, I am going to explain the difference between a samAccountName and a userPrincipalName which are often used in an Active Directory context.

samAccountName

  • It was used with an earlier version of windows (pre-windows 2000).
  • User login name is in theĀ format of DomainName\testUser.
  • It should be less than 20 characters.
  • It should be unique among all security principal objects within the domain.

userPrincipalName

  • User login name is in format of testUser@DomainName.com
  • It is an internet-style login name for the user based on Internet standard RFC 822
  • It should be unique among all security principal objects within the directory forest

 

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