OpenLDAP Presentation
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OpenLDAP Akshay Pushparaj Berlin Iosevka 8pt

Introduction to LDAP

What is LDAP?

LDAP or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is a standards-based protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services. LDAP has always been considered a standard for user management in organizations of all sizes.

What is directory service?

  • Directory is a specialized database specifically designed for searching and browsing, in additional to supporting basic lookup and update functions.
  • Directories tend to contain descriptive, attribute-based information and support filtering capabilities.
  • Directories generally do not support complicated transaction or roll-back schemes found in database management systems designed for handling high-volume complex updates.
  • Directories are generally tuned to give quick response to high-volume lookup or search operations.

What kind of information can be stored in the directory?

LDAP information model is based on entries. An entry is a collection of attributes that has a globally-unique Distinguished Name (DN). The DN is used to refer to the entry unambiguously. Each of the entry's attributes has a type and one or more values.

How is the information arranged?

Directory entries are arranged in a hierarchical tree-like structure.

LDAP Tree{#id .class width=200 height=200 display=block}

Differences between traditional databases

  • LDAP is a open standard protocol.
  • LDAP is heavily read optimized.
  • LDAP is lightweight.

Usecases

Some of the usecases of LDAP are:

  • Machine Authentication
  • User Authentication
  • User/System Groups
  • Address book
  • Organization Representation
  • Asset Tracking
  • Telephony Information Store
  • User resource management
  • E-mail address lookups
  • Application Configuration store Machine Authentication
  • etc

OpenLDAP

What is OpenLDAP?

  • OpenLDAP is an free and open source implementation of LDAP. The project started at University of Michigan, now maintained by the OpenLDAP Foundation.

Features

  • Lightweight
  • Supports a wide variety of backends or databases.
  • Supports components called overlays which can be used to customize backend behaviour without the need to write a custom backend.
  • Has support for wide variety of OS and services.
  • OpenLDAP is highly flexible. Has code-reliant functionality which doesn’t lock users into predetermined workflows; rather, we can manipulate the software to our exact needs.

Cons

  • Directory configuration and management are manual. Hence it is more time consuming and has a higher learning curve.
  • OpenLDAP is a command-line application. However there are multiple LDAP browsers available which can be used in case a UI is required. Few of them listed below:

Other free software LDAP implementations

389 DS

  • Like OpenLDAP, 389 DS or 389 Directory Server is a LDAP implementation by RedHat as part of the community-supported Fedora project.
  • 389 DS have a graphical interface that can be used for administration.

389 DS management console{#id .class display=block}

FreeIPA

  • FreeIPA is an identity management system created by RedHat. The aim with FreeIPA is to provide a centrally managed Identity, Policy and Audit(IPA) system.

    • Identity management ensure the right users have appropriate access to resources.
    • Security policies are a set of requirements to maintain a safe and secure computing environment.
    • Audit trail are records of events, procedures or operations being done on the system.
  • FreeIPA uses a combination of different software inorder to acheive an IPA system. It uses Fedora, 389 DS, Kerberos, DNS, SSSD and other free and open source components.

  • The advantage of using FreeIPA is that it is easy to setup. Since everything is taken care by FreeIPA for us it has less flexibilty comapred to OpenLDAP.

  • FreeIPA has a Web UI for administration.

Web UI

Samba

  • Samba runs on Unix platforms, but speaks to Windows clients like a native. It allows a Unix system to move into a Windows "Network Neighborhood" without causing a stir. Windows users can happily access file and print services without knowing or caring that those services are being offered by a Unix host.
  • Samba is an open source CIFS implementation. CIFS or Common Internet File System is a protocol suite used to share files remotely via IP.
  • Samba allows for a Linux server to act as a Domain Controller. By doing so, user credentials on the Windows domain can be used instead of needing to be recreated and then manually kept in sync on the Linux server.
  • A domain controller is a server that manages network and identity security, effectively acting as the gatekeeper for user authentication and authorization to IT resources within the domain.