Entries in an LDAP Directory have a tree structure. These entries have their own attributes and unique identifiers. Attributes have names that are defined in the schemes used by the server. Unique identifiers are in fact the entry DN (distinguished name) containing an attribute (such as CN – common name) followed by the identifier of the parent entry.

If the cluster will use a new LDAP directory to perform the routing and authentication processes, a basic setup procedure is required to prepare the entries that are to be added. For the LDAP server to have a basic structural support for the entries it will hold, a basic configuration is required to be added, through an "ldapadd" command. This first entry will actually create an organization type of division in the directory and all other objects will be contained in this organization object. To create the object for the "example.tld" domain, use the following LDAP syntax:

dn: dc=example,dc=tld
objectClass: dcObject
objectClass: organization
dc: example
o: tld

Next, user objects that will be used by AXIGEN proxy services can be added in the newly created organization object. This is the entire initial setup the directory service requires, as a basic example. However, if more complex schemes need to be used, any number of branches can be defined.

NOTE: An LDIF file can be used to import this information into the directory. This helps prevent issues related to LDAP syntax and can save the cluster engineer a lot of time.

NOTE: LDAP connectors defined in AXIGEN need to be configured accordingly so that looking information in the structure, that has just been created, is possible.

While adding the LDAP connector in the WebAdmin interface, certain settings need to be configured correctly, in such a manner, that the server can lookup information within the directory structure. The search base and search pattern are the most basic settings that control the way AXIGEN will perform the lookups. For the above example, using the same domain name, the values should be set as follows:

Search Base: dc=example,dc=tld

Search Pattern: mail=%e

The search base actually represents the exact branch in the directory that AXIGEN will consider the parent containing all user entries. The search process will try to match the "mail" property content against the pattern being looked up. This search pattern should return only one entry for each user account looked up by the server. The default value should be more than sufficient for most setups and unless a very special setup is used, it should not be changed.

NOTE: For the search pattern to work with the above example, the "mail" property must exist for each user entry. No matches will be found in the directory if the property doesn’t exist.