ldapGadget - LDAP ToolKit from DreamLAN.com

Background
Most, if not all, about every directory service (DS) implementation available today is either based on
LDAP or has an LDAP interface, regardless of the backend storage database used.

More often than not, you have two or more directory services from different vendors due to business
requirements. Therefore, the idea of having a single set of flexible and powerful management tools
that is applicable to a wide-range of directory services ranks very high with many administrators and
consultants: Why have to use an entirely different set of tools for different directory services*
when one set would do nicely?

This is the design goal and philosophy behind ldapGadget, formerly known as ldapTasker. (*There are,
of course, situations when vendor-specific tools are needed but those should be the exceptions rather
than the norm.)

For example, although Novell NDS 8 and later uses the FLAIM (FLexible Adaptable Information
Management) database engine and the majority of the Novell-provided management tools are
NCP-based, eDirectory has an integrated LDAP interface. Similarly, Microsoft Active Directory's main
programmatic interface is through ADSI (Active Directory Services Interface) but LDAP access is also
supported.

A number of LDAP browsing and administration tools
are available today, so why another one?

The ones that we have seen are all GUI-based. There
is a PHP-based one but it uses a Web interface. In our
experience, such tools are fine for the occasional
reporting and management work, but are not very
convenient when you have to perform a task
repeatedly and automatically.

Find out more on the ldapGadget product page. You will see some examples showing how ldapGadget
can make your daily management and reporting tasks that much easier. You will also find a set of
heavily-documented ldapGadget example scripts which you can modify easily for your particular needs
and environment.

Our experience showed that many of the often-performed LDAP management
tasks would benefit greatly by a procedure-driven application that can be easily
executed by a scheduler. Therefore, we have decided to break the trend and
develop a console-based LDAP management tool. A non-GUI application generally
runs faster and is more efficient due to the lack of graphics overhead. Without
using .NET like many Windows applications do, it is relatively straightforward to
port to other platforms, such as Linux. At the same time, it is much easier to
schedule its execution - simply run it under a scheduler of your choice.

You can also run ldapGadget as a Win32 service so you can use it to monitor changes on a continuous
basis, in the background. We have provided XYNTService, a tool that can run any console application
as a service.