--- Paul M Foster <paulf@quillandmouse.com> wrote:
> Folks:
>
> I've been reading up on LDAP, particularly OpenLDAP.
> From what I can
> determine, it allows one to look up whatever
> information you choose to
> put into the LDAP database. Usually this is things
> like geographic
> location, URL, things like that. But it seems you
> could also include
> things like eye color and birthdate. It apparently
> has access controls
> that allow certain information to be kept
> confidential unless you are
> the right person inquiring.
>
> All this is keen and all. I suppose it would be okay
> for a huge company
> like IBM, where you have tons of employees, and you
> want a universally
> accessible way to dig up internal phone numbers,
> email addresses, etc.
> But beyond that, I don't see a lot of other uses for
> this. For example,
> could LDAP be somehow hooked up to some other part
> of the O/S to govern
> what permissions people have to various directories?
>
> Sorry if this seems like a stupid question. My
> degree is in recliner
> maintenance, not computer science. ;-}
>
> --
You're right in thinking that OPENLDAP server is just
another database... dumbed down Database to be exact.
They typically do not have rollback capability, stored
procedures, or any of the bells and whistles usually
accocited with a RDB. The neat thing about OPENLDAP
is that it can be used to define configuration
standards across a network of computers, and define
the scope with which to apply them. The downside is
that all the utilities on the systems that you are
trying to plug into the LDAP directory need to be
modified to look for the configuration data from the
LDAP server instead of the etc directory.
Fortunately, in linux, much of this work has been done
for you by some enterprising open source guru. The
OpenLDAP website has much of this kind of information.
If it hasn't been done for you though, break out the
coding books. It can be lots of fun, but if you are
getting paid to do it, then it's hungry work.
Rob
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