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About LDAP

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Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a software protocol that allows users to locate organizations, individuals, and other resources such as files and devices in a network, whether on the Internet or on a corporate intranet. LDAP is a "lightweight" (smaller amount of code) version of DAP (Directory Access Protocol), which is part of X.500, a standard for directory services in a network. LDAP is lighter because in its initial version it did not include security features.

LDAP is both a naming server and a directory server. The naming server provides the capability to name something or associate a set of data with a name. For example, in a file system we create files and give them names. The directory server provides the capability to arrange and store these objects in some structured way to avoid name collision and for easier retrieval.

An LDAP directory is organized in a simple "tree" hierarchy consisting of the following levels listed in order of parent to child:

The root directory
Countries
Organizations
Organizational units (divisions, departments, and so forth)
Individuals (including people, files, and shared resources such as printers)

An LDAP directory can be distributed among many servers. Each server can have a replicated version of the total directory that is synchronized periodically. An LDAP server is called a Directory System Agent (DSA). An LDAP server that receives a request from a user takes responsibility for the request, passing it to other DSAs as necessary, but providing a single coordinated response for the user.

When you create your LDAP directory structure, you may have multiple organizations.

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