LDAP Directory Services

Owned by Julio Polo
Last updated: May 16, 2022 by mhodges
2 min read

Table of Contents

LDAP for Directory Services

LDAP for directory services is supported by special request and requires executive management approval.  Contact the IAM team at <its-iam-help@lists.hawaii.edu> to inquire.

LDAP for Authentication

DEPRECATED: see the UH Login service instead

Using LDAP to verify a UH username and password

  • See LDAP Authentication

  • If you wish to limit use of your app to certain roles and/or campuses, you should retrieve the affiliations of the person associated with the authenticated username, and allow only those matching your criteria to pass through.

Sample Code

Technical Overview

The core UH LDAP servers are virtually fronted with ldap.hawaii.edu and are based on the uhEduPerson schema.

For email clients, see http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/823.

Accessing LDAP

LDAP Environments

host

port

comments

LDAP Environments

host

port

comments

LDAP, Production

ldap.hawaii.edu

636 for LDAPS, 389 if using startTLS

cleartext or anonymous binds are rejected, a Special DN is required

LDAP, Test

ldap-test.its.hawaii.edu

636 for LDAPS, 389 if using startTLS

cleartext or anonymous binds are rejected, a Special DN is required

  • Connecting to LDAP is referred to as binding.

  • You cannot bind to LDAP anonymously, credentials are required.

    • You must request a special DN in order to bind per UH Data Governance policies.

    • Special DNs are only granted when CAS (the UH Web Login Service) will not suffice.

    • Special DN requests are subject to E2.215 and may require a Data Governance approval.

  • If you use persistent connections to LDAP, you should have code that detects broken connections and re-establish them.

Our UH LDAP service features three branches

By default a Special DN provides access to the "people" and "misc" branches.

  • ou=people,dc=hawaii,dc=edu

    • All people who have received a UH Number, meaning anyone who was, is or will shortly be a student, faculty, staff or guest at UH.

    • See also UH Role Assignments and Transitions

    • The UH Online Directory relies on this branch for providing contact information for people.

  • ou=misc,dc=hawaii,dc=edu

    • Departmental/ Group UH Usernames

    • Visiting individuals who have have been granted the ability to access the Internet from our campus(es).

  • ou=dept_listings,dc=hawaii,dc=edu

    • Department listings, primarily used for printing or providing PDFs of the University Phone Directory.

Additional LDAP Info

Data Element Dictionary

This dictionary provides a detailed explanation of each of the LDAP attributes.

Technical Support

There is an active UH community of developers and a good chance that at least one of them has experience with your scenario.  It is well worth joining this community's email list if you've not already done so.  For details, visit UH Applications Developers Forum page.  Note that the ITS Identity and Access Management team also participates on this list.