21.2. 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.

The fundamental features of the LDAP-UX Integration products allow you to take your user and group information (which was once stored in /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. 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.