Chapter 8. Standard Unix Services and LDAP

In Chapter 6, we examined the possibilities of integrating an LDAP directory into basic authentication services by using the PAM and NSS modules. In Chapter 7, we integrated LDAP into the network mail infrastructure in both clients and servers. This chapter takes LDAP integration a step further by exploring how other standard Unix services can make use of our directory. The applications we will explore are Apache, FTP (ProFTPD), Samba, RADIUS (FreeRadius), DNS (BIND 9), and printing (LPRng and LPD). It is impossible to cover all the services a network may provide, but by showing a few concise, real-world solutions to common problems, I hope to give you tools and ideas that you can apply to any network applications you encounter in the future.

The applications discussed in this chapter will communicate directly with the LDAP directory. Servers that do not possess native LDAP support can use the PAM and NSS solutions presented in Chapter 6.