Now that you know how LDAP works, it's time to put it intopractice. In this article, find out how to compile, install and configurethe OpenLDAP software suite, create an LDAP directory for your organization,and add entries to it. Also included: a detailed discussion of how to searchthe database using both the UNIX client tools supplied with OpenLDAP, andthe LDAP client built into Qualcomm Eudora.
OpenLDAP is an open-source implementation of the LDAP protocol, providing all the tools necessary to set up a fairly sophisticated LDAP directory service on your network. It includes support for version 3 of the LDAP protocol, together with a bunch of other goodies: Unicode support, authentication, referral support, replication and extensibility. It also supports a variety of different database backends for data storage, including Berkeley DB, LDBM and the standard UNIX password database.
The OpenLDAP suite includes both LDAP servers and clients. The server I'll be using throughout this tutorial is named "slapd", the standalone LDAP daemon; the distribution also includes "slurpd", a daemon designed to handle replication between multiple LDAP servers. The client tools include "ldapadd" for adding new entries to the directory, "ldapmodify" for editing entries, "ldapdelete" for deleting entries, and "ldapsearch" for querying the database. Finally, OpenLDAP also supports SSL encryption for greater security, and includes an API that allows developers to access LDAP services from programming languages like PHP and Perl.
Intrigued? Wanna see it in action? Flip the page, and let's get installing!
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