2026 · lightning
A Look at OpenLDAP - The Directory Database
This talk will be a relatively high level overview of Directory Databases (LDAP as defined in RFC 4000 and friends). Directory Services was an international effort in the 1980s but was designed for mainframes and X400. The Internet made a lot of that obsolete so a “Lightweight” version of the Diectory Access protocol was created: LDAP. The original work was done at the University of Michigan and that implementation languished until 1999 when the OpenLDAP project was formed.
It will talk about the unique data organization and interface and discuss topics like normal use-cases, abnormal use-cases, integrating with other software applications, security, and performance.