LDAP, or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, is a protocol designed to manage and access related information in a centralized, hierarchical file and directory structure.

In some ways, it operates similarly to a relational database, but this does not hold true for everything. The hierarchical structure is the main difference in how the data is related. It can be used to store any kind of information and it is often used as one component of a centralized authentication system.

In this appendix, we will discuss how to install and configure an OpenLDAP server on an Ubuntu 14.04 server. We will then install and secure a phpLDAPadmin interface to provide an easy web interface.