internet

Network Directory Services

Network directory services are core to Internet functionality. The Domain Name System (DNS) provides a global (and/or local) directory of hosts and services. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers can provide some of the same information as DNS (or be used to back DNS), but are more frequently used to create network user databases, store user group information, providing centralized account information and password storage.

I recently completed an upgrade of these two core services on a network I manage. We had been running outdated (but functional) BIND v8 and OpenLDAP v2.0 instances for of DNS and LDAP servers. Also, throw a Windows Server 2003 into the mix, which, as an Active Directory domain controller has to run its own DNS and LDAP (AD is tweaked LDAP) servers.