Ldap is an acronym for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. A directory in this sense is like a telephone directory which stores user information and other things rather than just phone numbers.
Open Admin can be used to manage an external LDAP server which contains student and staff accounts. Open Admin stores information including the uid (userid), uidnumber (number of the user account), and gid( primary group number that the user belongs to). This information is used to create entries in the LDAP server for each student and staff member.
In turn, this directory information can be used by other applications to authenticate the users. This includes library systems, online learning applications, etc.
There are several scripts that OA provides:
The first screen will ask whether to add or delete, as well as whether the next screen should have entries 'Checked' (ie. selected).
If you select 'Add', the script will compare users in both systems (OA and LDAP) and find students not found in LDAP but present in OA. You will see a list of those students with checkboxes. Select (ie. check) those you wish to add to the LDAP directory server. Clicking 'Continue' will add them to the directory.
If you select 'Delete', all entries in the directory are loaded and you may first select (by clicking checkbox) and then delete the student entries by clicking on 'Continue'. You may add these students again later, if desired, by using the 'Add' function to put them back into the directory.
This script is similar to the student script. The first screen will ask whether to add or delete, as well as whether the next screen should have entries 'Checked' (ie. selected).
If you select 'Add', the script will compare users in both systems (OA and LDAP) and find staff not found in LDAP but present in OA. You will get a list of those staff with checkboxes to select those you wish to add to the LDAP directory server. Clicking 'Continue' will add them to the directory.
If you select 'Delete', all entries in the directory are loaded and you may first select (by clicking checkbox) and then delete the staff entries by clicking on 'Continue'. You may add these staff again later, if desired, by using the 'Add' function to put them back into the directory. This will not affect the staff records in OA, only the external directory server.
The first screen allows you to select to either Reset Password or Lock User (which sets the password to a locked value). Selecting (checking) the appropriate checkboxes and clicking 'Continue' will result in the desired action and a confirmation box for each selected action.