Sebastopol, CA--For system administrators, running multiple servers on
multiple platforms is the rule these days rather than the
exception--and it's a situation with the potential to turn into an
administrative nightmare. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or
LDAP, has proved to be the answer for many an overburdened system
administrator. With its ability to consolidate existing network
services into a single directory, LDAP can restore order, efficiency,
and allow sys admins to do more with less--an important consideration
in these lean times. In recent months, a growing number of products
that rely on LDAP--including those from Microsoft (Active Directory),
Sun, and Novell (NDS)--have hit the market, making it easier than ever
to implement LDAP. But, according to Jerry Carter, author of LDAP
System Administration (O'Reilly, US $39.95), those who want to master
LDAP need to go one step further.
"The main problem I find is that administrators generally get exposed
to LDAP only from the perspective of a given vendor," he explains.
Carter's new book addresses LDAP from a vendor-neutral viewpoint so
administrators can quickly understand and implement the technology no
matter what version they use. After reading it, he says, "a competent
administrator with no understanding of LDAP at all will be able to
integrate a directory server into essential network services such as
mail, DNS, HTTP, and SMB/CIFS."
With information on network software such as sendmail, Samba, Apache,
and Radius, "LDAP System Administration" offers sys admins the tools
they need to centralize usernames, passwords, printer configurations,
email client configurations, network filesystem configurations, and
other services located on different machines across a network. Carter
points out that it's not just a matter of pouring a multitude of
smaller pots into a larger pot. LDAP helps sys admins organize
information to reduce overhead and data redundancy. Rather than
maintaining several administrative databases (NIS, Active Directory,
Samba, and NFS configuration files), administrators can make changes in
only one place and have all of their systems immediately "see" the
updated information.
To demonstrate the concept, Carter's book takes a hands-on approach,
using the OpenLDAP 2 directory as a premise for examples. OpenLDAP 2 is
an open source application that ships with Mac OS X and most Linux
distributions, and can be easily downloaded for most Unix-based
systems, though the expertise Carter teaches is also applicable to LDAP
products from Microsoft, Sun, Novell, and others. Readers learn
specifically how to install and run OpenLDAP 2, using techniques to
replace local username and password lookups, among other skills. "LDAP
System Administration" also shows how to use LDAP to replace NIS, and
how to interoperate with different LDAP servers, including Active
Directory.
"It's a dedicated book on LDAP, not just a single chapter in a tome of
sys admin HOWTOs," Carter explains. "LDAP will only become more
important as network services and device expect some type of directory
service to be available. Examples of this can be seen by the Directory
Enabled Networks (DEN) initiative and the Directory Services Markup
Langage (DSML) specifications. It's my belief that LDAP will continue
to move beyond NIS replacements and addressbooks."
Additional Resources:
LDAP System Administration
Gerald Carter
ISBN 1-56592-491-6, 304 pages, $39.95 (US), $61.95 (CAN), 28.50 (UK)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
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