LDAP How To: A Quick Overview

This section provides a quick overview of the steps you will need to take to get an LDAP directory working.

1. Make sure the openldap RPM, and any other LDAP-related RPMs that you need, are installed.

2. Refer to either the Quick Start Guide at the OpenLDAP site (http://www.openldap.org/doc/admin/quickstart.html — start at "Edit the configuration file" since the LDAP files are already installed) or see the LDAP Linux HOWTO (http://www.redhat.com/mirrors/LDP/HOWTO/LDAP-HOWTO.html) for instructions on using LDAP on your system. Both of these documents cover the rest of these steps in more detail.

3. Edit the /etc/openldap/slapd.conf file to get it right for your system. (See the section called Edit /etc/openldap/slapd.conf for more information on editing slapd.conf.)

4. Start slapd by typing /etc/rc.d/init.d/ldap start. (After you have configured LDAP correctly, you should use Linuxconf or ntsysv to configure LDAP to start up with the system.)

5. Create your LDAP directory (examples of LDAP entries are provided at the PADL Software website at http://www.padl.com/ldap_examples.html).

6. Add entries to your LDAP directory with ldapadd or with a script.

7. Use ldapsearch to see if slapd is working.

8. At this point, your LDAP directory should exist. The next step is to configure your LDAP-enabled applications so that they can use the LDAP directory.