Preparing your LDAP Directory for HP-UX Integration

3
"LDAP-UX Integration" Products Overview
Before diving into the technical issues of this paper, it's a good idea to understand the function and features
of the LDAP-UX Integration products. The LDAP-UX Integration products consist of two main products,
the "LDAP-UX Client Services" and the "NIS/LDAP Gateway." Each product provides a different approach
for connecting your HP-UX system to an LDAP directory, allowing you to use an LDAP directory
environment for HP-UX system management. The two products can be used together or separately.
This section will give you a brief overview of the features of each product as well as some technical details.
By reviewing this section and the rest of the white paper, you should be able to decide how and when to
deploy the LDAP-UX Integration products. Depending on your environment, either the "NIS/LDAP
Gateway," the "LDAP-UX Client Services" product or a mixed combination of both may provide the best
solution. This section will help you construct a deployment timetable based on your needs and what
features are available.
High level Overview
The fundamental features of the LDAP-UX integration products allow you to take your user and group
information (which was once stored in an /etc/passwd and /etc/group files, or in the NIS passwd and group
databases) and place that data in an LDAP directory. HP-UX applications that conform to the POSIX API
standard (ones that use getpwnam for example) will be able to discover account and group information from
LDAP without modification.
RFC 2307 describes a standard schema for storing NIS information in an LDAP directory, which is used by
both of these products. Among other uses, the RFC 2307 schema allows you to add HP-UX account or
group entries (passwd or group) to your LDAP directory. Or, you can also extend existing directory entries
using the RFC 2307 schema, merging information from multiple sources into one entry per person or per
group in the directory. For example, you can combine HR, email, and HP-UX account information into one
entry per person in your global directory.
Aside from providing a name resolution service, the LDAP-UX Integration product contains scripts that
allow you to convert your account, group and other NIS based databases into LDIF (LDAP Directory
Interchange Format.) This format will help you import your data into your LDAP directory.
The NIS/LDAP Gateway
The NIS/LDAP Gateway consists of a gateway server which converts requests from NIS clients into LDAP
requests and queries the LDAP directory. The LDAP data is converted back to NIS data and is returned in a
response to the NIS client: