Listing user accounts recognized by NPS

Answer

If you configure your system for LDAP authentication and want to troubleshoot a user account, you can use ldapsearch to verify the specific details.   If you just want to know if the user is there, you can use the getentcommand.

Since getent uses the same name service as the system, it will show all information, including that gained from network information sources such as LDAP. The databases it searches in are: passwd, group, hosts, services, protocols, or networks. 

This command can be used to fetch a list of user accounts on a Linux system (stored in a database called 'passwd'). This will show all user accounts, regardless of the type of name service used. 

For example, if both local and LDAP name service are used for user accounts, the results will include all local and LDAP users: getent passwd

If you want to check for a specific user, use the following syntax:
 
getent password <username>)

For instance, getent passwd my_test_user

would return something like this (if the user exists):

[nz@nps_server ~]$ getent passwd my_test_user my_test_user:x:10590:10590::/home/my_test_user:/bin/bash


and return nothing if the user does not exist (or is not visible to the system).