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I am new to ldap and I don't know where ldap stores user's information? whether it uses some database or some file? If it stores user's data in file system then in which file it stores? what is the purpose of ldif file ?

Please don't discourage. I'm new to ldap

Thanks

marc_s
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Hafiz Mujadid
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  • Which *ldap* ? LDAP is just a **protocol** - how each product (like OpenLDAP, Active Directory) stores its data is up to the product and therefore dependent on which actual **product** you use – marc_s Jun 24 '15 at 18:50
  • marc_s! I want to know about openldap. – Hafiz Mujadid Jun 25 '15 at 03:11

1 Answers1

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Are you asking because you want to do LDAP-Administration and setting up an LDAP-Server? Or do you want to use LDAP as a protocol to retrieve informations from an existing LDAP-Server?

In the later case: don't bother about it as it's irrelevant to the protocol! In the former case: It depends on what you configure ;)

LDIF is the Ldap Data Interchange Format. It's a way of persistently and interchangeably store and transfer LDAP-Data. The format of such LDIF-Files can be used to create and/or alter and/or delete entries in an LDAP-Server.

Most important thing is to differentiate between LDAP as a protocol and the LDAP-Server as a backend accessed by the protocol. This backend can be OpenLDAP, ActiveDirectory, OpenDirectory and many others. All of those have their own ways of storing the data persistently in a filesystem by means of plaintext-files, databases or whatever the creator though was good.

If you want to read something about it, there is a book from O'Reilly about LDAP: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9781565924918.do

You might also want to have a read on http://archive.oreilly.com/pub/a/sysadmin/2006/07/27/demystifying-ldap.html

heiglandreas
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