Chapter 1. Introduction
The main purpose of this document is to set up and use a LDAP Directory Server
on your Linux machine.You will learn how to install, configure, run and
maintain the LDAP server. After you also learn how you can store, retrieve and
update information on your Directory using the LDAP clients and utilities.
The daemon for the LDAP directory server is called slapd and it runs on
many different UNIX platforms.
There is another daemon that cares for replication between LDAP servers. It's
called slurpd and for the moment you don't need to worry about it. In this
document you will run a slapd which provides directory service for your local
domain only, without replication, so without slurpd. Complete information about
replication is available at: OpenLDAP
Administrator's Guide
The local domain setup represents a simple choice for configuring your server,
good for starting and easy to upgrade to another configuration later if you want.
The information presented on this document represents a nice initialization on
using the LDAP server. Possibly after reading this document you will feel
encouraged to expand the capabilities of your server and even write your own
clients, using the already available C, C++ and Java Development Kits.
LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. As the name suggests,
it is a lightweight client-server protocol for accessing directory services, specifically X.500-based directory
services. LDAP runs over TCP/IP or other connection oriented transfer services.
LDAP is defined in RFC2251 "The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3).
A directory is similar to a database, but tends to contain more descriptive,
attribute-based information. The information in a directory is generally read
much more often than it is written. Directories are tuned to give quick-response to
high-volume lookup or search operations. They may have the ability to replicate
information widely in order to increase availability and reliability, while reducing
response time. When directory information is replicated, temporary inconsistencies
between the replicas may be OK, as long as they get in sync eventually.
There are many different ways to provide a directory service. Different methods
allow different kinds of information to be stored in the directory, place
different requirements on how that information can be referenced, queried and
updated, how it is protected from unauthorized access, etc. Some directory
services are local, providing service to a restricted context (e.g., the finger
service on a single machine). Other services are global, providing service to
a much broader context.
