Now that we have a basic OpenLDAP server installed, configured, and running, it is time to turn our attention to using OpenLDAP. In this chapter we will be looking at what the various applications in the OpenLDAP suite do. In the process, we will discuss LDAP operations, create our initial directory tree, and use the OpenLDAP clients and utilities to interact with the directory server. As we do this we will cover the following:
Along the way, we will also see many new LDAP terms and concepts.
In the last chapter we saw that the OpenLDAP suite was composed of daemons, libraries, clients, and utilities.
In UNIX parlance, a daemon is a process that runs for long periods of time without user interaction. It is a process that runs in the background. A server is a type of daemon that answers requests from other applications (clients). There are two daemons in the OpenLDAP suite: the SLAPD daemon (server) and the SLURPD daemon. In the next section we will look at these two.
There are a host of utilities included with OpenLDAP too. Utilities are programs that assist in managing the directory but do not use the LDAP protocol. They do things like maintain indexes, dump the contents of the database, and assist with migrating records from one directory to another.
Clients, in contrast to utilities, are programs that connect to the directory server using the LDAP protocol and perform directory operations, such as searching for, adding, modifying, and deleting records from the directory.
We will look at all of the utilities and clients. But before we dive into that we will look at the daemons and some of the concepts involved in communication between LDAP clients and servers. This will give us the foundational knowledge for our work with the LDAP utilities and clients.