LDAP -n- DC Are they the same thing?

[southbeach]

OS: MS-2K3 R2

I have searched around for LDAP and I am trying to understand if having a DC mean that I actually have an LDAP Server and so, I also have an LDAP Database?

Some other questions I have about this are:
Q. How do I know if I have LDAP running on my DOMAIN?
Q. What do I need to set it up and configure it?
Q. Should LDAP run on the same server as my DC, DNS ???
Q. Should LDAP run only on one server? What about redundancy?
Q. How critical is LDAP for a LAN health and performance?

Don't mean to be abusive by asking so many questions but I am basically looking for general direction and if you know of a site where these are defined, I guess you've noticed, I can use it.

Thank you all in advance for your kind assistance!


--
SouthBeach
The good thing about not knowing is the opportunity to learn - Yours truly, 2008.

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

Light Weight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an open network protocol standard designed to provide access to distributed directories. LDAP provides a mechanism for querying and modifying information that resides in a directory information tree (DIT)

1) AD is a DIT. If your are running AD, then your are utilizing LDAP
2)Promote a member server to a domain controller to create your AD. See answer 1
3)LDAP is utilized by all AD objects and is maintained on all domain controllers
4) see answer 3
5) If you are running an Active Directory environment---lets just say if LDAP is broken, so is your AD---

More reading here. And search Google for documents by Mark Minasi and other experts in this area to better explain that you should be focused on AD instead of LDAP

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/d/3/3d32b0cd-581c-4574-8a27-67e89c206a54/uldap.doc

 

[Zelandakh]

The Windows Security Resource Kit 2008 book is a great place to understand how Windows works properly. It also introduces the concepts of the new technology which will allow you to get up to speed.