NetGroupGetInfo function (lmaccess.h)

Article
10/13/2021

The NetGroupGetInfo function retrieves information about a particular global group in the security database, which is the security accounts manager (SAM) database or, in the case of domain controllers, the Active Directory.

Syntax

NET_API_STATUS NET_API_FUNCTION NetGroupGetInfo(
  [in]  LPCWSTR servername,
  [in]  LPCWSTR groupname,
  [in]  DWORD   level,
  [out] LPBYTE  *bufptr
);

Parameters

[in] servername

Pointer to a constant string that specifies the DNS or NetBIOS name of the remote server on which the function is to execute. If this parameter is NULL, the local computer is used.

[in] groupname

Pointer to a constant string that specifies the name of the global group for which to retrieve information. For more information, see the following Remarks section.

[in] level

Specifies the information level of the data. This parameter can be one of the following values.

Value	Meaning
0	Return the global group name. The bufptr parameter points to a GROUP_INFO_0 structure.
1	Return the global group name and a comment. The bufptr parameter points to a GROUP_INFO_1 structure.
2	Return detailed information about the global group. The bufptr parameter points to a GROUP_INFO_2 structure. Note that on Windows XP and later, it is recommended that you use GROUP_INFO_3 instead.
3	Return detailed information about the global group. The bufptr parameter points to a GROUP_INFO_3 structure. Windows 2000: This level is not supported.

[out] bufptr

Pointer to the address of the buffer that receives the global group information structure. The format of this data depends on the value of the level parameter. The system allocates the memory for this buffer. You must call the NetApiBufferFree function to deallocate the memory. For more information, see Network Management Function Buffers and Network Management Function Buffer Lengths.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is NERR_Success.

If the function fails, the return value can be one of the following error codes.

Return code	Description
ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED	The user does not have access to the requested information.
NERR_InvalidComputer	The computer name is invalid.
NERR_GroupNotFound	The global group name could not be found.

Remarks

If you are programming for Active Directory, you may be able to call certain Active Directory Service Interface (ADSI) methods to achieve the same functionality you can achieve by calling the network management group functions. For more information, see IADsGroup.

If you call this function on a domain controller that is running Active Directory, access is allowed or denied based on the access control list (ACL) for the securable object. The default ACL permits all authenticated users and members of the "Pre-Windows 2000 compatible access" group to view the information. If you call this function on a member server or workstation, all authenticated users can view the information. For information about anonymous access and restricting anonymous access on these platforms, see Security Requirements for the Network Management Functions. For more information on ACLs, ACEs, and access tokens, see Access Control Model.

The security descriptor of the Group object is used to perform the access check for this function.

User account names are limited to 20 characters and group names are limited to 256 characters. In addition, account names cannot be terminated by a period and they cannot include commas or any of the following printable characters: ", /, , [, ], :, |, <, >, +, =, ;, ?, *. Names also cannot include characters in the range 1-31, which are nonprintable.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	lmaccess.h (include Lm.h)
Library	Netapi32.lib
DLL	Netapi32.dll