Explaining LDAP in a minute

I have always looked for a good way to explain to people what LDAP
directories essentially are. I discovered that the file system analogy
works very well.

This is my working version, as synthesised on my blog:
http://blog.dzhuvinov.com/?p=1085

Feel welcome to use it in your own presentations. If you have
suggestions for improvement I'd be glad to receive them.

Vladimir

***

Overall organisation

     * A file system consists of files in a tree-like structure.
     * An LDAP directory consists of entries in a tree-like structure.

Data types

     * A file in a file system is an arbitrary blob of text or binary
       data.
     * A directory entry is a collection of attributes, or name / value
       pairs. Attributes may be text or binary. They may be mandatory
       or optional, single or multi-valued.

Naming

     * A file in a file system has a name, e.g. "tax-report-2010.xml".
       The file name must be unique within the containing folder.
     * An entry in a directory branch has a relative distinct name
       (RDN), e.g. "cn=Alice Wonderland". The RDN comes from an existing
       name/value pair in the entry that was chosen to become the
       entry's name (or title). RDNs must also be unique within the
       containing directory branch.

Global naming

     * A file in a file system is uniquely identified by its path, e.g.
       "/home/vladimir/taxes/tax-report-2010.xml".
     * An entry in a directory is identified by its distinct name (DN),
       which is formed by the chain of RDNs leading all the way to the
       directory root, e.g.
       "cn=Alice Wonderland, ou=people, dc=wonderland, dc=net".



--

Vladimir Dzhuvinov :: www.nimbusds.com :: vladimir@...

NimbusDS : Nimble directory services for your web and cloud apps