LDAP Overview

Messaging Server and Calendar Server products include object classes and attributes defined by the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and extensions to the standard LDAP schema that extend the basic functionality of LDAP.

Initially developed at the University of Michigan, LDAP is a lightweight version of the X.500 Directory Access Protocol. LDAP has become an Internet standard for directory services running over TCP/IP.

One or more LDAP servers contain the data that make up the LDAP directory. An LDAP directory stores information in object-oriented hierarchies of entries. Each entry is uniquely identified by a distinguished name, or DN. The DN consists of the comma-separated sequence of attributes and values that specify the unique location of an entry within the directory information tree. This provides a path of names tracing the entry back to the top of the directory hierarchy.