Components of an LDAP Search

An LDAP search has the potential to retrieve information about all objects within a specific scope that have certain characteristics — for example, the telephone number of every person in a department.

The following are used to accomplish an LDAP search:

• A search base (the distinguished name of the search base object) defines the location in the directory from which the LDAP search begins.
• A search scope defines how deep to search within the search base.
  • Base, or zero level, indicates a search of the base object only.
  • One level indicates a search of objects immediately subordinate to the base object, but does not include the base object itself.
  • Subtree indicates a search of the base object and the entire subtree of which the base object distinguished name is the topmost object.
• A filter allows certain entries in the subtree and excludes others.
• A selection indicates what attributes to return from objects that match the filter criteria.
• Optional controls affect how the search is processed.

Figure 3.1 illustrates the base distinguished name and the search scope of an LDAP search.

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Figure 3.1 LDAP Search Base and Search Scope

Figure 3.2 shows the base distinguished name for a container object.

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Figure 3.2 Base Distinguished Name for an LDAP Search

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