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| Configure LDAP server search base and authentication for successful queries |
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Outlook 2000 and 2002 both provide support for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) queries, enabling Outlook users to look up contacts stored in an LDAP server such as the Windows Server Active Directory or other LDAP server. However, successfully querying and LDAP server requires that a user configure the settings properly, which includes setting the search base for the query.
The search base defines the starting point for the search in the directory tree. For example, a user might need to query the entire directory, in which case the search base must specify the root of the directory service. However, a user might need to instead query a specific organization unit (OU) in the directory. For example, you might configure multiple LDAP service accounts in a user's profile to enable them to look up contacts for the Support, Sales, and Marketing groups separately. Each of these would need to point to the appropriate location in the directory service.
A search base comprises multiple objects separated by commas. These objects include:
• cn=common name
• ou=organizational unit
• o=organization
• c=country
• dc=domain
For example, to search the Support container in the techrepublic.com domain, you would specify a search base of:
ou=Support,dc=techrepublic,dc=com
If searching the Active Directory, you do not need to specify a search base to query the entire directory. With other servers, however, you will likely need to specify a search base. The search base string varies from one server to the next according to the directory service's structure.
When specifying LDAP service settings, you will also need to specify authentication credentials if the server requires authentication. When setting up an LDAP account to query the Active Directory, enter the user account in the form \ , where is the domain name and is the account name. |
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