[ILUG] ILUG monthly meetings

[Kenn Humborg]

[I'm CC-ing computimes on this because I don't want to see
this error get into print...]

> and the Lightweight Directory Access
> Protocol (LDAP, http://www.OpenLDAP.org), which controls file access in
> large networks."

LDAP does not control file access.  It is a standard protocol
for accessing information services.  It is especially suited to
data that is more free-form than would fit into a normal database
model.  The 'Directory' in LDAP is not a directory on a hard
disk that contains files and other directories (also called a
folder).  The 'Directory' in LDAP is closer to a telephone
directory, or a business directory (such as Thomson).

For example, we use a LDAP server in Blue Tree to access a 
company-wide address book.  (Sort of like a cut-down version
of four11.com or bigfoot.com.)

It is often used to store user account info, rather than the 
more traditional /etc/passwd (on Unix) or Windows NT SAM 
(Security Account Manager).  This proves to be a more flexible
and scaleable user management system when you've got a _lot_
of users (say 50,000+) such as ISPs.

Later,
Kenn