Several formats for providing object names are supported by Active Directory. These formats accommodate the different forms a name can take, depending on its application of origin. Active Directory administrative tools display name strings in a default format, which is the canonical name. The following formats are supported by Active Directory and are based on the LDAP distinguished name:
LDAP Distinguished Name.
LDAP v2 and LDAP v3 recognize the RFC 1779 and RFC 2247 naming conventions
cn=jsmith,ou=promotions,ou=marketing,dc=noam,dc=reskit,dc=com
LDAP Uniform Resource Locator (URL):
LDAP://server1.noam.reskit.com/cn=jsmith,ou=promotions,
ou=marketing,dc=noam,dc=reskit,dc=com
Active Directory Canonical Name:
noam.reskit.com/marketing/promotions/jsmith