Directories

Directory(LDAP) : understanding

• It is not really a database, but it can handle data in a structured way
• It is meant to describe hierarchical data, it is perfect to describe relationships
• For the demonstrations, we will use apacheDS (a portable implementation of LDAP Directory)

Directory(LDAP) : How it works?

• Directories have a hierarchical structure, as shown in this schema

Directory(LDAP) : How it works? (2)

• Entries are containing data
• those data are structured thanks to the objectClass
• the objectClass contains attributes (typed)
• Entries can contain sub entries

LDAP : main components of the hierarchy

• DC: Domain Component
• C: Country
• O: Organization
• OU : OrganizationalUnit
• CN : CommonName

LDAP: DN Concept

• The DN (Distinguished Name) qualifies an entry fully
• It contains the full path to the entry
• Example : cn=admin, ou=people, dc=example,dc=com

Export/import format LDIF

• To load a directory with initial data, one can use LDIF
• LDIF stands for LDAP Data Interchange Format

dn: cn=admin, ou=people, dc=example,dc=com
description: LDAP Admin
objectClass: organizationalRole
cn: admin

Playing with ApacheDS

• Download the distributable apacheDS Server
• or with docker :

  apacheDS:
        image: greggigon/apacheds
        restart: unless-stopped
        ports:
          - 10389:10389
        volumes:
          - ./apacheDS/data:/data

• Download the studio at apacheDS Studio

Playing with ApacheDS

• Open Apache Directory Studio,
• File > New > LDAP Connection
• the default CN is uid=admin,ou=system
• the default password is secret