LDAP is the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. It’s a standards-based protocol that sits on top of TCP/IP and allows clients to perform a variety of operations in a directory server, including storing and retrieving data, searching for data matching a given set of criteria, authenticating clients, and more. The standard TCP ports for LDAP are 389 for unencrypted communication and 636 for LDAP over a TLS-encrypted channel, although it’s not uncommon for LDAP servers to listen on alternate ports for a variety of reasons.

This section provides a number of pages to help you get started with LDAP and understand the basic concepts. If you’re looking for the official specifications and other in-depth technical materials, you might want to check out the LDAP Reference Materials section instead.

Pages in this section include:

• Why Choose LDAP?

• Basic LDAP Concepts

• Glossary of LDAP Terms

• Understanding LDAP Schema

• LDAP Operation Types

• LDAP DNs and RDNs

• LDAP Filters

• LDAP Result Code Reference

• LDAP URLs

• DIT and the LDAP Root DSE

• LDIF: The LDAP Data Interchange Format

• DNS SRV Records for LDAP

• A History and Technical Overview of LDAP