Introduction to setting up an LDAP server
Background
Depending on the source, some of the information about LDAP can be confusing or even contradictory. Part of the problem is that there is a lot of space for decisions in the implementation. In the following articles, the approach is to keep configurations as simple as possible, and progressing step by step.
LDAP servers
There are several proprietary and open/free LDAP directory servers (see the list of LDAP software on WikipediA but the two main free servers are:
- The OpenLDAP server, distributed under the OpenLDAP Public License
- The Fedora directory server. The core of the project is distributed under a special version of the GPL (see their licensing page for more details).
The consensus is that OpenLDAP is simpler to setup (only one simple component) but lack the administration tools and the scalability of FDS. The examples in the following articles have been written using OpenLDAP.
RFC2247 vs. X500
First, read Zytrax's page about "Root Name angst". In the examples here we follow the RFC2247, i.e.: we name the base root after the internet domain.links
- The Linux Documentation Project LDAP page
- LDAP page on WikipediA
- ldapman.org has some very good articles.
- The Gentoo LDAP wiki page has some interesting information, but is unfortunately inconsistent from top to bottom.
- Zytrax's "LDAP for Rocket Scientists" book.