You receive an "Unable to retrieve user information from Active Directory directory service" error message when you try to add users to your portal site (827749)

SYMPTOMS

In SharePoint Portal Server 2003, you may find that you cannot use the Select users and groups -- Web Page Dialog dialog box to search for and add a user to your portal site. When you click Add Users on the Manage Users page, and then click Select users and groups on the Add Users: PortalName page, you may receive the following error message:

Unable to retrieve user information from Active Directory directory service

Additionally, an event ID message that is similar to the following message is logged to the application event log:

Type: Error
Event ID: 201
Description:
Domain 'DomainName' cannot be verified while there is a corresponding entry in the directory service partition configuration. This domain will not be included in the user profile import. Please verify with your directory service administrator whether old settings exist.

However, even though you cannot use the Select users and groups -- Web Page Dialog dialog box to add a user, you can manually add the user to your portal site when you type the name of the user in the Users box in the Step 1: Choose Users area of the Add Users: PortalName page.

CAUSE

This behavior may occur if the user who you want to add is a member of a Microsoft Windows NT4.0 domain that is joined to your Active Directory forest. The Select users and groups -- Web Page Dialog dialog box does not support Windows NT 4.0 domains. You can use the dialog box to search for and add users who are members of a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Windows 2000 domain. However, you cannot use the dialog box to retrieve user information from a Windows NT 4.0 domain.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, type the name of the user or users who you want to add in the Users box in the Step 1: Choose Users area of the Add Users: PortalName page when you add a user or users to your portal site. To do so, follow these steps:

On the Manage Users page of your portal site, click Add Users.
On the Add Users: PortalName page, in the Step 1: Choose Users area, type the name of the user or users who you want to add in the Users box.

Use the DomainName\UserName format when you specify the user name. If you add more than one user, separate each user name with a semicolon character (;).
In the Step 2: Choose Permissions area, click to select the check boxes next to the site groups that you want to the users to belong to, and then click Next.
In the Step 3: Confirm Users area, verify the e-mail address, the user name, and the display name information of the user or users who you want to add.
In the Step 4: Send E-mail area, if you want to send an e-mail message, click to select the Send the following e-mail to let these users know they've been added check box, and then type the information that you want to include in the e-mail message.
Click Finish.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about managing users in SharePoint Portal Server, see the "Portal Site Security" topic in the "Security" section of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Administration Guide. The Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Administration Guide (Administrator's Help.chm) is located in the Docs folder in the root of the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 CD.

For more information about SharePoint Portal Server, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/server/default.asp