UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I am posting in this section because in this regard I am a Dummy. I know very little about ldap.
We have a couple of ldap registries running on an AIX box. I can connect into those registries using an openldap browser.
But I am trying to run some queries against the registry on the server itself, using ldapsearch.
Whenever I try to run any command from ldapsearch I get this:
ldap_bind: Can't contact LDAP server (-1)

What argument do I give the ldapsearch command to get it to attach to the ldapserver correctly ? I guess it's not in the environment.

Thanks,
floyd

You have to bind... which could be anonymous, but many times it's restricted (could be used as an auth source in fact).

The command "ldapsearch" varies from platform to platform. Do a man on "ldapsearch" on your platform.... make note especially of things dealing with "bind"... including the -x option for non SASL bind (and for anonymous bind)... if it's an "auth" required bind, likely you need to supply a bind DN (sometimes that -D <dn> option) ... Then you have to figure out if you need simple auth (often -x) or some sort of SASL based auth (again, it varies depending on ldapsearch). You might also need/want to know a "base" from which to make queries and then you'll need to know what you can filter on, but that comes after you make successful bind.