Deploying OpenLDAP

LDAP, or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, is a directory management system/database that simplifies life for anyone managing a network with more than 50 users. While Sun and Microsoft have created their own versions of LDAP, OpenLDAP is freeware that is available for use and redistribution to the programming community.For all the work and time invested in using LDAP, not enough time has been spent designing the layout and the logic of directories. End users and system architects often don’t give appropriate attention to the deployment of LDAP as a standards-based system with interfacing ability. Thus, many of LDAP’s best features – especially OpenLDAP – become unusable. As a remedy, deploying OpenLDAP delves into the logic, theories and fundamentals of directories. This book surpasses “what is”, and instead shows system administrators “how to.” A good resource for learning more is www openldap.org.

Author Biography

Tom Jackiewicz is responsible for global LDAP and e-mail architecture at a Fortune 100 company. Over the past 12 years, he has worked on the e-mail and LDAP capabilities of the Palm VII, helped architect many large-scale ISPs servicing millions of active e-mail users, and audited security for a number of Fortune 500 companies. Jackiewicz has held management, engineering, and consulting positions at Applied Materials, Motorola, and Winstar GoodNet. Jackiewicz has also published articles on network security and monitoring, IT infrastructure, Solaris, Linux, DNS, LDAP, and LDAP security. He lives in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, where he relies on public transportation plus a bicycle to transport himself to the office fashionably late.