Does LDAP fit the role of a user database for an application?

Posted by Spredzy on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Spredzy
Published on 2013-06-25T15:05:34Z Indexed on 2013/06/25 16:23 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 249

Filed under:

ldap

|

authentication

I (my company) run a webservice that integrates pieces of few entreprisey-level software.

Most of them offer different type of authentication but all offers at least LDAP.

I was wondering if storing my application users directly in an LDAP directory would be a good idea. This way all the application I am using could rely on it for authentication purpose.

I am aware that LDAP is not a database per se, but it is a datastore. I am also aware that there is no kind of constraints thus deleting a user on the LDAP directory won't do anything on my actual data, but this case would be taken care of with an extra process.

My main question here is : is there any reason why I shouldn't use LDAP as my users database ?

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about ldap

NetApp FAS 2040 LDAP Win2k8R2

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to get my FAS2040 to action user lookups using LDAP, below is the filer configuration options: filer> options ldap ldap.ADdomain dc1.colour.domain.local ldap.base OU=Users,OU=something1,OU=something2,OU=darkside,DC=colour,DC=domain,DC=local ldap.base… >>> More
Ubuntu 12.04 Preseed LDAP Config

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm trying to deploy Ubuntu 12.04 via xCAT, everything works except the automatic configuration of LDAP, the preseed file is read but the file /etc/nsswitch is not written properly. My Preseed File: [...] ### LDAP Setup nslcd nslcd/ldap-bindpw password ldap-auth-config ldap-auth-config/bindpw password ldap-auth-config… >>> More
NetApp FAS 2040 LDAP Win2k8R2

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to get my FAS2040 to action user lookups using LDAP, below is the filer configuration options: filer> options ldap ldap.ADdomain dc1.colour.domain.local ldap.base OU=Users,OU=something1,OU=something2,OU=darkside,DC=colour,DC=domain,DC=local ldap.base… >>> More
Apache+LDAP auth on Ubuntu says "Can't contact LDAP server" while ldapsearch is perfect

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi Gurus, I'm migrating from an existing apache+LDAP+mysql+php server to a new hardware platform. Old server is running Debian Lenny, which I have no config documentation available (was done by previous sysadmin); New server is running Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS 32bit. After installing Apache and configured… >>> More
Spring security ldap: no declaration can be found for element 'ldap-authentication-provider'

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Following the spring-security documentation: http://static.springsource.org/spring-security/site/docs/3.0.x/reference/ldap.html I am trying to set up ldap authentication (very simple - just need to know if a user is authenticated or not, no authorities mapping needed) and have put this in my applicationContext-security… >>> More

Related posts about authentication

Configuring Fed Authentication Methods in OIF / IdP

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
In this article, I will provide examples on how to configure OIF/IdP to map OAM Authentication Schemes to Federation Authentication Methods, based on the concepts introduced in my previous entry. I will show examples for the three protocols supported by OIF: SAML 2.0 SSO SAML… >>> More
windows authentication vs sql server authentication for asp.net forms authentication site

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a database and a site having forms authentication. It is working fine with VS2008. This time, I am using "Trusted_connection =True". But when it is opened from outside or directly from browser then I am getting error "Login failed for user 'NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON'." I know this is due… >>> More
Disable authentication on subfolder(s) of an ASP.NET app using windows authentication

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, Is it possible to disable windows authentication on one or more subfolders of an ASP.net application using windows authentication? >>> More
AutoCompleteExtender - authentication failure (forms authentication)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm using the AutoCompleteExtender from the AJAX control toolkit on my aspx page - I have it wired up to a WCF service that is returning a string array and everything works happily. If I change my service definition to include a demand for the caller to be authenticated, like so: <OperationContract()… >>> More
Ruby on Rails , functionalities having twitter authentication and email authentication (autlogic and

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi Experts, I would like to ask your guidance on how to authenticate using email add/ the basic log-in while having also a twitter log-in, twitter authentication works fine but if having an alternative log-in like using basic sign-up and email log-in part wont work.... any ideas please...? >>> More