Audience Assumptions

The LDAP Naming Service chapters are written for system administrators who already have a working knowledge of LDAP. The following is a partial list of concepts with which you must be very familiar prior to deploying a Solaris-based LDAP naming service using this guide.

• LDAP Information Model (entries, object classes, attributes, type, values)

• LDAP Naming Model (Directory Information Tree (DIT) structure)

• LDAP Functional Model (search parameters: base object (DN), scope, size limit, time limit, filters (Browsing Indexes for the iPlanet Directory Server), attribute list)

• LDAP Security Model (authentication methods, access control models)

• Overall planning and design of an LDAP directory service, including how to plan the data, design the DIT, design the topology, design the replication, and how to design the security.

Suggested Background Reading

If you need to learn more about any of the aforementioned concepts or would like to study LDAP and the deployment of directory services in general, the following are useful titles.

• Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services by Timothy A. Howes, Ph.D and Mark C. Smith

  In addition to providing a thorough treatment of LDAP directory services, this book includes useful case studies on deploying LDAP at a large university, a large multinational enterprise, and an enterprise with an extranet.

• iPlanet Directory Server 5.1 Deployment Guide, which is included in the documentation CD.

  This guide provides a foundation for planning your directory, including directory design, including schema design, the directory tree, topology, replication, and security. The last chapter provides sample deployment scenarios to help you plan simple deployments as well as complex deployments designed to support millions of users distributed worldwide.

• iPlanet Directory Server 5.1 Administrator's Guide, which is included in the documentation CD.

Additional Prerequisites

If you are transitioning from using NIS+ to using LDAP, refer to the Appendix entitled, “Transitioning from NIS+ to LDAP” in System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (FNS and NIS+) and complete the transition before proceeding with these chapters.

If you need to Install the iPlanet Directory Server 5.1, refer to the iPlanet Directory Server 5.1 Installation Guide.