4.2.1. What is auth_ldap
| auth_ldap is an LDAP authentication module for Apache, the world's most popular web server.
auth_ldap has excellent performance, and supports Apache on both Unix and Windows NT. It
also has support for LDAP over SSL, and a mode that lets Frontpage clients manage
their web permissions while still using LDAP for authentication. | |
--www.rudedog.org | |
From the authors point of view:
If you like to consolidate your login-facilities to a common user/passwd base, LDAP
(Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is the right way. LDAP is an open standard and widely supported.
Login-facilities for LDAP:
Unix-Logins for Linux, Solaris
(others?) FTP-Logins (some ftp-daemons) http Basic Authentication Tarantella
Authentication and Role-Management Samba Authentication (2.2.x should support this)
LDAP is role based. That means, i.e. you can define a role »manager« assign a user as
member and that user can login wherever a manager is allowed to login.