Understanding LDAP Services for NDS

LDAP Services for NDS is a NetWare^® server application (nldap.nlm) that allows LDAP clients to access information stored in NDS.

With LDAP Services for NDS, you define the directory information you want to make accessible and grant the rights to the LDAP clients that you want to have access to the directory. Using the NetWare Administrator utility, you can specify all the attributes of the LDAP clients and set all security information in one place.

You can give different clients different levels of directory access, or you can access the directory over a secure connection. These security mechanisms allow you to make some types of directory information available to the public, other types available to your organization, and certain types available only to specified groups or individuals.

The directory features available to LDAP clients depend on the features built in to the LDAP server and the LDAP client. For example, LDAP Services for NDS allows LDAP clients to read and write data in the NDS database if the client has the necessary permissions. Some clients have the capability to read and write data; others can only read directory data.

Some typical client features allow clients to do one or more of the following:

• Look up information about a specific person, such as an e-mail address or phone number
• Look up information for all people with a given last name, or a last name that begins with a certain letter
• Look up information about any NDS object or entry
• Retrieve a name, e-mail address, business phone number, and home phone number
• Retrieve company name and city name
• Retrieve any information in the NDS database