LDAP description?
Steve Cousins
I hate to do this but I am hearing lots of talk about LDAP and no one
seems to know exactly what it is all about so I would like to ask a very
open question:
What is the main purpose of LDAP?
I have the impression that it is a way to get data over a network. I
have heard it being linked with X.500 (what exactly is X.500?).
Why I think I need to know about this:
We have a number of systems (email, calendaring, lap authentication
) in which it would be nice to have one database of all of our users and
be able to set up accounts in the various systems with this one
database. I take it that we could do this if all of our systems can get
info via LDAP and the database is LDAP compatible. Is this correct? Is
this the purpose of LDAP?
Thanks for your help.
Steve Cousins
University of Maine IT
Orono, Maine USA
cou...@umit.maine.edu
Ron Jarrell
> Hi,
> I hate to do this but I am hearing lots of talk about LDAP and no one
> seems to know exactly what it is all about so I would like to ask a very
> open question:
> What is the main purpose of LDAP?
> I have the impression that it is a way to get data over a network. I
> have heard it being linked with X.500 (what exactly is X.500?).
> Why I think I need to know about this:
> We have a number of systems (email, calendaring, lap authentication
> ) in which it would be nice to have one database of all of our users and
> be able to set up accounts in the various systems with this one
> database. I take it that we could do this if all of our systems can get
> info via LDAP and the database is LDAP compatible. Is this correct? Is
> this the purpose of LDAP?
LDAP is the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or, in other words,
it's a protocol for accessing a directory (i.e. database full of some
sort of demographic/informational data) over a network. It's called
LDAP because it's the easier to use, less overhead version of the
full blown DAP that you need to run to get to an X.500 database;
people wanted the X.500 global directory functionality without having
to run an entire ISO networking environment just to talk to it.
LDAP is often used, however, interchangeably to describe both the
protocol for talking to the directory, and the directory itself. Hence
you use ldap to talk to an ldap database...
Bascially, yes, you can do what you want by running an ldap server,
loaded with the right data. One of the big advantages of LDAP is that
the schema for the database is very flexible and extensible. One of
the big problems of LDAP is that the schema for the database is very
flexible and extensible. Various vendors have either picked entirely
different fields for the same thing, or, worse, used the same field
for entirely different purposes. So right now there's a juggling and
research act that has to go on with each new purpose an ldap directory
is tasked with, to be sure that it's schema, and the data represented
by that schema, match the world-view of the program that will be
using it.
Brian Olivier
<cou...@woof.umecit.maine.edu> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I hate to do this but I am hearing lots of talk about LDAP and no one
>seems to know exactly what it is all about so I would like to ask a very
>open question:
>
> What is the main purpose of LDAP?
LDAP is an access protocol, the same way as SQL and ODBC are used to
connect to databases, LDAP is used to connect to directories.
>
>I have the impression that it is a way to get data over a network. I
>have heard it being linked with X.500 (what exactly is X.500?).
X.500 is a standardised way to organise information. The format of
X.500 is used also in LDAP
>
>Why I think I need to know about this:
>
> We have a number of systems (email, calendaring, lap authentication
>) in which it would be nice to have one database of all of our users and
>be able to set up accounts in the various systems with this one
>database. I take it that we could do this if all of our systems can get
>info via LDAP and the database is LDAP compatible. Is this correct? Is
>this the purpose of LDAP?
Right on the spot. That is what the purpose is.
Go for more info to developer.netscape.com or www.olivier.com
If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate do mail me
directly or just post questions to the newsgroup.
Best regards,
Brian