What is LDAP?

Understand what LDAP is and how its settings work in your server environment.

Overview

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a platform protocol used for directory services authentication.

LDAP provides the communication language that your server uses to communicate with other directory services servers. Directory services store the users, passwords, and computer accounts, and share that information with your company entity on the network.

The LDAP settings ensure your company users log on by authenticating directly into an LDAP server and then enable synchronization with LDAP to update user information. Configure LDAP settings for the following purposes:

• Synchronize users in your organization as ProcessMaker users.

• Authenticate the server source.

• Configure how users and groups synchronize.

LDAP synchronization occurs in the Auth package.

LDAP Distinguished Names

LDAP uses Distinguished Names (DN) to identify users, groups, and other types of entities. The DN describes entities starting from the specific and moving to the general in the hierarchy of entities. In LDAP and Active Directory, which is Microsoft's extension of LDAP, Distinguished Names are constructed hierarchically using the following components.

Component and Abbreviation	Usage	Example
domain components (DC)	Enter each DC as read left to right, each separated by a comma without spacing between each.	dc=acme,dc=com
organizational units (OU)	Enter each OU, each separated by a comma without spacing between each.	ou=managers,ou=regionalbranch
common names (CN)	Enter each CN, each separated by a comma without spacing between each.	cn=Louis Canera,cn=John Doe

Other naming attributes described in RFC 2253, such as o= for organization name and c= for country/region name, are not used in Active Directory, although they are recognized by LDAP.

For more information how to construct DNs, see this LDAP guide.

Related Topics

pageView LDAP SettingspageSearch for an LDAP SettingpageConfigure LDAP SettingspageCopy an LDAP SettingpageClear an LDAP SettingpageView LDAP LogspageAuth PackagepageWhat is a Package?