1. What is LDAP? LDAP is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, which is short for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. It is based on the X.500 standard, but it is much simpler and can be customized as needed. Unlike X.500, LDAP supports TCP/IP, which is required for Internet access. LDAP core specifications are defined in RFC. All LDAP-related RFC can be found on the ldapman RFC webpage.
In short, LDAP is a quick way to obtain centralized and static data about people or resources.
LDAP is a protocol used to publish directory information to many different resources. It is usually used as a centralized address book, but it can be more powerful according to the organizer's needs.
2. LDAP is the phone book. LDAP is actually a phone book, similar to the network directories we use, such as NIS (Network Information Service) and DNS (Domain Name Service), and similar to the trees you see in the garden.
3. Is LDAP a database? Many LDAP developers prefer to consider LDAP as another storage method compared with relational databases, and then compare the reading performance. In fact, the basis of this comparison is incorrect. LDAP and relational database are two different levels of concept, the latter is the storage method (the same level, such as grid database, object database), the former is the storage mode and access protocol. LDAP is a storage concept that has a higher level than the abstract level of relational databases. It is at the same level as the query language SQL of relational databases. The most basic form of LDAP is a standard method for connecting to the database. The database is optimized for read queries. Therefore, it can quickly obtain the query results, but it is much slower in other aspects, such as updates.
In another sense, LDAP implements the storage of the specified data structure, which is a special database. But LDAP is different from general databases. It is very important to understand this point. LDAP optimizes the query performance, which is much better than the Write Performance of LDAP.
Just as Sybase, Oracle, Informix, or Microsoft's database management system (DBMS) is used to process queries and update relational databases, the LDAP server is also used to process queries and update LDAP directories. In other words, the LDAP directory is also a type of database, but it is not a relational database. Note that LDAP is usually used as a hierarchal database instead of a relational database. Therefore, its structure is better to represent in a tree than in a table. Because of this, you cannot use SQL statements.
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