What is Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)? Which is the latest version in use ? What is it also known as? Where is LDAP commonly used ?How is a LDAP session started by a client?How is a directory different from a database ?How is LDAP different from the commonly used X500 standard
Hi,
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a software protocol for enabling anyone to locate organizations, individuals, and other resources. It is a directory service protocol that runs on a layer above the TCP/IP stack. LDAP is based on a model of “Client-Server Model”. “LDAPv3” is the latest version of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol which is in use nowadays.
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is also known as “RFC 1777”. LDAP is commonly used to provide a "single sign on", where the password of a user is being shared by many services.
LDAP session started by a client is by making LDAP servers, in which the client programs will need to be installed on each workstation that will access the LDAP server. The “pam_ldap” module is used to connect the LDAP with console logins, IMAP, Samba and POP.
LDAP is different from a database due to following reasons:
· Firstly, it’s a database.
· Out-of-the-box synchronization.
· Read/write performance parity.
· Scalability.
· Extensibility.
LDAP different from the X500 standard by following ways:
· Mapping directly onto TCP/IP.
· Simple protocol encoding.
· Names and attributes use text encoding.
Hope this answer will help you a lot.
