The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) allows client systems to access information stored on LDAP servers over a network. An LDAP directory server stores information in a directory-based database that is optimized for searching and browsing, and which also supports simple functions for accessing and updating entries in the database.

Database entries are arranged in a hierarchical tree-like structure, where each directory can store information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, network service information, printer information, and many other types of structured data. Systems can use LDAP for authentication, which allows users to access their accounts from any machine on a network.

The smallest unit of information in an LDAP directory is an entry, which can have one or more attributes. Each attribute of an entry has a name (also known as an attribute type or attribute description) and one or more values. Examples of types are domain component (dc), common name (cn), organizational unit (ou) and email address (mail). The objectClass attribute allows you to specify whether an attribute is required or optional. An objectClass attribute's value specifies the schema rules that an entry must obey.

A distinguished name (dn) uniquely identifies an entry in LDAP. The distinguished name consists of the name of the entry (the relative distinguished name or RDN) concatenated with the names of its ancestor entries in the LDAP directory hierarchy. For example, the distinguished name of a user with the RDN uid=arc815 might be uid=arc815,ou=staff,dc=mydom,dc=com.

The following are examples of information stored in LDAP for a user:

# User arc815
dn: uid=arc815,ou=People,dc=mydom,dc=com
cn: John Beck
givenName: John
sn: Beck
uid: arc815
uidNumber: 5159
gidNumber: 626
homeDirectory: /nethome/arc815
loginShell: /bin/bash
mail: johnb@mydom.com
objectClass: top
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
objectClass: posixAccount
objectClass: shadowAccount
userPassword: {SSHA}QYrFtKkqOrifgk8H4EYf68B0JxIIaLga

and for a group:

# Group employees
dn: cn=employees,ou=Groups,dc=mydom,dc=com
cn: employees
gidNumber: 626
objectClass: top
objectClass: posixGroup
memberUid: arc815
memberUid: arc891