Perl in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

How Data Is Stored in LDAP

LDAP stores data in a structure as described in RFC 1617, which also offers guidelines as to how your naming style might look. While there are many ways to implement a data hierarchy in LADP, you can implement your directory structure so that all entries live under a single root that represents your organization. For example, you can import all your Unix account data for your.domain into a directory server with the following:

object: your.domain
Organizational Unit: People
Type for login name: uid

Your Unix account information would be stored in LDAP like so:

uid=youruser,ou=People,o=your.domain

At the simplest level, data as imported into LDAP by way of the LDAP Directory Interchange Format (LDIF). LDIF is a standard data format that specifies all the information about a record that you will insert into the directory. Take, for instance, a Unix account that lives in /etc/passwd:

nvp:-password-:1000:1000:Nathan V. Patwardhan:/home/nvp:/usr/bin/bash

When you break the password entry down, the following fields exist:

login           nvp
password        -password-
uid             1000
gid             1000
gecos           Nathan V. Patwardhan
home directory  /users/nvp
shell           /usr/bin/bash

The Unix /etc/passwd entries correspond to entries that you’ve created in LDAP, with the following naming differences:

UNIX            LDAP equivalent
login           uid
password        userPassword
uid             uidNumber
gid             gidNumber
gecos           cn, gecos
home directory  homeDirectory
shell           loginShell

Every LDIF begins with a DN, or distinguished name, which describes where ...