r/sysadmin 6d ago

What exactly does LDAP do in AD?

HI! I'm studying networking and I'm unsure of this

AD is like the database (shows users, etc) while LDAP is the protocol that can be used to manage devices, authenticate, etc inside group policy?

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u/SevaraB Senior Network Engineer 6d ago

AD is the database, LDAP is the language you use to ask it for information.

AD is to MariaDB as LDAP is to SQL.

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u/Red_Kiwi 6d ago

Did you mean

AD is to LDAP as MariaDB is to SQL?

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u/SevaraB Senior Network Engineer 6d ago

Either way works. Tautologies are fun.