What is LDAP and is it useful on home network FC5?

I have an FC5 machine on cablemodem 24/7. The machine hosts 3 FQDNs, runs
an apache server and a vsftpd server. I have it setup with dovecot to be
able to grab my system mail with OE on the LAN. I also use samba with cifs
to share XP folders with Fedora and also setup shares from Fedora so that I
can drag and drop files for the FTP server, access my home directory and
public_html directory, and be able to directly edit my html files.

I would like to know what ldap is for and if it would be something useful
to me. Thanks.

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On 2006-10-27, Ohmster <notareal@emailaddress> wrote:

> I would like to know what ldap is for and if it would be something useful
> to me. Thanks.

In general terms, LDAP is a network directory, so it's helpful if
you have directory-like information (e.g., names and contact
information) you wish to store. One common use is for a company
directory. The LDAP server can also do authentication, so
various apps can query the LDAP server with user-provided id
and password, and can decide what to do based on the return value.
In this way an organization can have one source for ids and
passwords (as well as other info).

One common use in a linux context is to use an LDAP server
as an authentication server for workstation logins. LDAP
combined with NFS can provide for common userids, passwords,
and home directories across machines. So, if you have more
than one or two machines on your home network, and more than
one or two users, LDAP might be helpful for you. The most
common implementation that comes with distros is OpenLDAP,
www.openldap.org.

--keith

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Keith Keller <kkeller-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news(E-Mail Removed):

[snip]
>
> One common use in a linux context is to use an LDAP server
> as an authentication server for workstation logins. LDAP
> combined with NFS can provide for common userids, passwords,
> and home directories across machines. So, if you have more
> than one or two machines on your home network, and more than
> one or two users, LDAP might be helpful for you. The most
> common implementation that comes with distros is OpenLDAP,
> www.openldap.org.
>
> --keith

Thanks Keith.

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Keith Keller wrote:
>
> One common use in a linux context is to use an LDAP server
> as an authentication server for workstation logins. LDAP
> combined with NFS can provide for common userids, passwords,
> and home directories across machines. So, if you have more
> than one or two machines on your home network, and more than
> one or two users, LDAP might be helpful for you. The most
> common implementation that comes with distros is OpenLDAP,
> www.openldap.org.
>
The downside of using it for authentication is if you only have one LDAP
server and suddenly you have none. I had a go at it once and fell over
on this one. Hopefully if I get round to trying it again I'll do it
properly...

--
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On 2006-10-28, Dave {Reply Address In.sig} <noone$$@llondel.org> wrote:
>>
> The downside of using it for authentication is if you only have one LDAP
> server and suddenly you have none. I had a go at it once and fell over
> on this one.

Well, sure. It does make your LDAP server very important. The LDAP
server should always have a local account that can be used for non-root
logins in an emergency, and if possible the network should at least have
a machine capable of running an LDAP server from backups temporarily if
the primary server does have problems.

--keith

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>> One common use in a linux context is to use an LDAP server
>> as an authentication server for workstation logins. LDAP
>> combined with NFS can provide for common userids, passwords,
>> and home directories across machines. So, if you have more
>> than one or two machines on your home network, and more than
>> one or two users, LDAP might be helpful for you. The most
>> common implementation that comes with distros is OpenLDAP,
>> www.openldap.org.

It's worth setting up just so you can learn about it. I found it usefull to
offload huge address databases so that I can access it with my addressbook
client rather than getting the client to load over 200,000 addesses
everytime it boots.

Go for it!

:-) Peter