LDAP

[j773303]

Does anyone tell me what's the LDAP? What's the relation about LDAP and /etc/passwd?

[Karthik S S]

Hi,

LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. It is set of protocols for accessing information stored on directory databases. If you are familiar with Micro$oft windows, then Active Directory is an implementation of LDAP.

LDAP can store any information such as users, groups, printers etc. That is why LDAP is an option in the nsswitch.conf file.

Refer,
http://www.openldap.org/faq/data/cache/3.html

-Karthik S S

[Vijaya Kumar_3]

LDAP is a protocol, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, which is used to store information in a directory format.

It can store user information, group information, host information and any relevant information in the directory. It will act as a central repository for informarion. There are many advantages of USING LDAP in a unix environment.

Say, there are 100 unix servers in a site. We can implement LDAP to store information in /etc/passwd and /etc/gorup (User login info). LDAP will store this info in the directory. So We can use single signon for all these boxes. User need only one user ID to login to all 100 boxes.

HP delivers a free product LDAP-UX Client services to impelenment LDAP in HP-UX.

Hope This helps.
Vijay

[j773303]

If 3 unix server wants to use LDAP, are they all need install LDAP-UX software?

[Vijaya Kumar_3 · Accepted solution]

It all depends on how are you going to implement. Why are you going to use LDAP? for what purpose matters? I dont find reasons for using LDAP,just for 3 servers... But it is okay anyway to use.

Steps are as follows:
1. Configure Active Directory (Need to install a Free product from Microsoft-Services For UNIX Version 3.5 or 3.0)

2. Install LDAP-UX Client services in HP boxes

3. Configure LDAP-UX Client Services to use Active Directory

You can download LDAP-UC Client Services From here:
http://www.software.hp.com/cgi-bin/swdepot_parser.cgi/cgi/displayProductInfo.pl?productNumber=J4269AA

Also, Here is the documentation:
http://docs.hp.com/hpux/internet/#LDAP-UX%20Integration

Hope this helps
Vijay

[Steven E. Protter]

Assuming these are the only three boxes in the group.

All three would need ldap/ux client

One would need a server piece which I'm sure exists but don't know where.

root and other sys accounts should not be tied into ldap

SEP

[Vijaya Kumar_3]

I agree with SEP. Thanks Steven.

LDAP-UX Client Services support only following directory Servers:
1. Netscape Directory Server
2. Active Directory Server

You may need to go with any one. I hope you are having an active directory server already, if not you need to purchase Netscape Directory Server and install in one of these three boxes.

Also, OpenLDAP is available as an open source LDAP server, no support is provided by HP. I hope there are some documentation available for that in openldap site.

Vijay

[Robert Binkhorst]

Hi,

LdapUX integration with OpenLDAP is not documented very well. I have it running though, so if you need some help, let me know.

Cheers,

Robert