All faculty, staff, and students at the University of Maryland now have a simple, personal <userID>@umd.edu email address, which will forward, mail to whichever email account is on file as a person's preferred address (WAM, GLUE, Umail, etc.). To determine what your own userID is (or someone else's), use the LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) search form at http://ldap.umd.edu/search. This search will also tell you the email address to which mail will be forwarded.

The directory is a significant part of an infrastructure that is often described as "middleware" (as opposed to hardware or software). Middleware is meant to provide a comprehensive framework for network-based applications to do enterprise-based authorization, authentication, and security. More information about the university's middleware initiative is available at http://www.oit.umd.edu/middleware/.

The LDAP directory contains official university information about all faculty, staff, students, and affiliates of the university, providing a consolidated source of information for network-based applications. The overall goal of the LDAP implementation is to develop a single broad-based network infrastructure for the consolidation and transmission of information; to facilitate authentication, authorization, and encryption services; and to make it easier for different applications and services to work together.

LDAP is a widely accepted standard. More and more applications are engineered to use LDAP directories for user authentication and authorization as well as for data storage. As more of these applications are put in place at the university, the LDAP directory will become an increasingly vital part of the IT infrastructure.

The LDAP directory is not the primary source for the information it contains. This information is taken from the Human Resources database for faculty and staff, from the Student Information System for students, and from a new Affiliate database for others. Certain parts of the information can be updated by individuals via Testudo (if you are a student) or ARES (if you are faculty or staff). In addition, university employees can choose to make their home information private so that it won't be accessible to others who search the directory.

The LDAP directory identifies each user with a new unique, permanent, 9-digit university ID number, different from the Social Security Number (SNN). Each user also has an LDAP password. The CorporateTime calendar server currently uses LDAP passwords to authenticate users. Eventually, most university systems are expected to use the new university ID number and LDAP password to identify and authenticate, although many still use SSN and the PIN from Testudo or ARES at this time. To set or change your LDAP password, go to http://ldap.umd.edu and select "Change LDAP Password."

You can search the LDAP directory for information about any individual at the university, regardless of his or her status or position, via a single search form at http://ldap.umd.edu/search. At this time, access to information about students is limited to those who authenticate themselves as members of the university community.

Besides controlling authorized access to certain applications and resources, the directory will be useful for a number of other purposes. For instance, the directory will support the development of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for data encryption. This will assist in maintaining secure systems. More information on PKI is available at http://www.oit.umd.edu/middleware/. The directory may also be used to generate dynamic mailing lists for individual colleges, departments, courses, or even separate sections of a course.

To configure your email client to access the directory or to make use of other tools that access the directory, you will need to know the following: the search root, dc=people,dc=ldap,dc=umd,dc=edu; and the server name, ldap.umd.edu. Specific instructions for configuring your email client are available at the OIT Help Desk web site, http://www.helpdesk.umd.edu (search for "ldap").

For several years, the university has used a similar directory service located at the host name x500.umd.edu. This service, however, is outdated, and it is being supplanted by the LDAP. The x500 is therefore no longer supported, and use of it should be discontinued immediately.

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