Obviously the key thing on my mind lately is work. I'm confronting a new challenge currently and it primarily has to do with LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). Essentially it's a top down organizational directory, where you have parent/child relationships and each child attribute can be assigned multiple variables. Bottom line is, it's a pain in my ass. It's a simple enough approach to organizing data but when your dealing with hundreds of thousands of records it can become a little much. Either way, it's good experience and it keeps me interested.
Through this work with LDAP I've been able to play with a few LDAP browsers and administrator tools. Here's some notes on a few that you may find useful:
- JXplorer
Java based LDAP browser which is kind of a downer for me but a solid tool none the less. It has your basic functionality and gives you the ability to add certificates to a keystore for secure TLS connections. This is strictly a browser and does not have any advanced functionality such as LDIF exports. You can edit attributes and I believe delete them as well but after using this browser for the past couple months I don't trust it. It loves to freeze up on you and also doesn't mind biting off more than it can chew at times. Proceed with caution.
- Apache Directory Studio
Another java based browser, what gives?! Very nice layout and has much more functionality than all the others. First major problem I ran into was the java heap size, go figure... The directory I was working with was extremely large and when I attempted to perform some partial LDIF exports I constantly hit the Java VM memory ceiling. Luckily the tech rep I was working with had a write up showing us how to create an .ini file in the apache studio directory which allowed us to increase the heap size for the app. Once I put the max to 1024mb things ran much much better. Great for performing LDIF batch jobs as well if you need to import/export actionable LDIF files against a directory. Definitely recommend this LDAP browser/admin tool.
- Softerra LDAP Browser/Administrator
Didn't get to use this one as much as the others but it seemed solid enough. Not java based as far as I know so that's a plus (can you tell I'm not a java fan yet?). The free edition is limited in what you can do but all in all I had no major complaints about this browser, although time will tell...
I've finally gotten my office put together now so it's much more usable, hopefully I will be spending more time in here and actually start some side projects I've been thinking about. It would also be nice to update my storyline I started over a month ago!!
Anyway, just an update in the life of Cooper, later...
