LDAP for Mac

This document describes how to configure MacOS X to query Informatics LDAP servers for user information. This process has been tested on Macs running version 10.8 -- 10.14. It should also be generally applicable to other versions of MacOS, but details may vary.

You will need to have administrative access to your Mac make the changes suggested here. To query Informatics LDAP servers you will also need to be inside the Informatics network (either physically, or using the OpenVPN)

First, run the Directory Utility application from /System/Library/CoreServices (/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications on Yosemite and later) and click on the lock icon to make changes:

Next, double-click on LDAPv3, click New. Enter "dir.inf.ed.ac.uk" in the window that appears and uncheck "Use for authentication". Click Continue:

In the dialog box that appears, change the LDAP Mappings option to "RFC 2307" and, when prompted to enter a Search Base, use "dc=inf,dc=ed,dc=ac,dc=uk" and click OK:

Click OK again and then close the Directory Utility application.

You should now be able to obtain (limited) user information using the "Contacts" ("Address Book" in earlier versions of MacOS) application. Open Contacts and click on Directory Services on the left-hand side (this text may be truncated) and enter a name in the search box (note that the actual contact details have been cut from the following screen shot):

For Informatics users, Contacts will currently only show email address and telephone number.