OpenLDAP

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OpenLDAP Software

Developer:	The OpenLDAP Project
Latest release:	2.3.30 / November 14, 2006
Preview release:	2.4.3alpha /
OS:	Cross-platform
Use:	LDAP software suite
License:	OpenLDAP Public License
Website:	http://www.openldap.org/

OpenLDAP Software is a free, open source implementation of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) developed by the OpenLDAP Project. It is released under its own license called the OpenLDAP Public License. LDAP is a platform-independent protocol. Several common Linux distributions include OpenLDAP Software for LDAP support. The software also runs on BSD-variants, AIX, HP-UX, Mac OS X, Solaris, Microsoft Windows (2000, XP) and z/OS.

1 Project History and Core Team
2 Components of OpenLDAP Software
3 Release Summary
4 External links

[edit] Project History and Core Team

The OpenLDAP Project was started in 1998 by Kurt Zeilenga. The project started by cloning the LDAP reference source from the University Of Michigan where a long-running project had supported development and evolution of the LDAP protocol.

As of April, 2006, the OpenLDAP Project has three Core Team members: Kurt Zeilenga, Howard Chu, and Pierangelo Masarati. There are numerous other important and active contributors including Luke Howard, Hallvard Furuseth and Marc Boorshtein.

[edit] Components of OpenLDAP Software

OpenLDAP Software has four main components:

slapd - stand-alone LDAP daemon.
slurpd - stand-alone LDAP update replication daemon. slurpd (push replication) is being deprecated in favor of the sync replication (pull replication) implemented as an optional overlay.
Libraries implementing the LDAP protocol.
Overlays, utilities, tools, and sample clients.

[edit] Release Summary

The major (functional) releases of OpenLDAP Software include:

OpenLDAP Version 1 was a general clean-up and consolidation of recent changes.
OpenLDAP Version 2.0, released in August, 2000, included major enhancements including LDAP version 3 (LDAPv3) support, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) support, and numerous other enhancements.
OpenLDAP Version 2.1, released in June, 2002, included the transactional database backend (based on Berkeley Database or BDB), Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) support, and Meta, Monitor, and Virtual experimental backends.
OpenLDAP Version 2.2, released in December, 2003, included the LDAP "sync" Engine with replication support (syncrepl), the overlay interface, and numerous database and RFC-related functional enhancements.
OpenLDAP Version 2.3, released in June, 2005, included the Configuration Backend (dynamic configuration), additional overlays including RFC-compliant Password Policy software, and numerous additional enhancements.

Numerous of the experimental backends and overlays have become production quality by the current release (2.3). The monitor backend is one of the most important of those experimentals.