Building an LDAP Server on Linux, Part 2 - Page 4

Type/Value Pairs

While LDAP is very flexible, there are certain types and values that are already defined, such as access levels, database backends, and debugging levels. Please refer to the essential (and excellent) "OpenLDAP 2.1 Administrator's Guide" (again, see Resources).

I B CN U!

Yes, now we have come to the point where we learn what all those weirdo abbreviations mean. Impress your friends by using them in casual conversations.

DN = distinguished name
O = organization
OU = organizational unit
DC = domain components
CN = common name
SN = surname
UID = user ID

Want to look like a real genius? Peek into the core.schema file, which identifies all of them (there are dozens more).

This is a good time to start up slapd. Depending on your installation, it may already be running — check with ps ax | grep slapd first. If it isn't running, type which slapd to find the executable, and then run it with no arguments. The installation program should have automatically configured startup files to start upon boot, so you'll never have to do this again. OpenLDAP is chock-full of self-tests; run <filepath>/slapd -t to confirm your slapd.conf contains no syntax errors.

A Peek Ahead

Well here we are at the end already. To get a jump on Part 3, peruse man ldapadd and man ldif. In Part 3 we'll populate the database and figure out how to use LDAP for single sign-on.

Resources

man slapd
man slapd.conf
Quick-Start Guide
OpenLDAP 2.1 Administrator's Guide
LDAPman Schema Reference page

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