To get a basic understanding of what AD is and how it relates to LDAP, see
But briefly, Active Directory is a multi-master directory service that is tightly integrated with the Windows security system. LDAP is a standardized protocol that defines how programs on a network can communicate with a directory server. Active Directory supports the LDAP protocol, along with several other protocols, e.g. Kerberos, NTLM, etc. Active Directory ships with several GUI based management programs, but Active Directory is certainly not a "GUI for LDAP". The "What is Active Directory" section of this doc: http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003/techinfo/overview/adsmallbiz. mspx is a pretty good overview. This document describes Active Directory's LDAP compliance: http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/c/8/dc83e0b8-fc2c-4af4-bd27-45b 5963ad98d/AD%20LDAP%20Compliance.doc. -gil Gil Kirkpatrick CTO, NetPro "To fly, flip away backhanded. Flat flip flies straight. Tilted flip curves. Experiment!" -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kenny Mann Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 9:41 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ActiveDir] Active Directory and LDAP I don't understand LDAP and Active Directory as much as I should. So, I've ordered 2 LDAP books (O'Reilly and another) to learn. I'm curious as to how much LDAP and Active Directory have in common. Is AD just a GUI for LDAP? Perhaps there is a book everyone here recommends or will my LDAP books hopefully cover enough so I could be able to feel my way around Active Directory good enough? Doing a search with the word 'book' gives a ton of irrelvent searches in the archives. I saw one book but it's out of print. Kenny Mann List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
