h3. System vision
ApacheDS 1.5 is an embeddable, extendable, standards compliant, modern LDAP 
server written entirely in Java, and available under the Apache Software License. 
Other network protocols like Kerberos and NTP are supported as well (and even
more may be added), but basically (and especially for this introduction guide) 
ApacheDS is an LDAP server.

_Embeddable_ means that it is possible to configure, start and stop ApacheDS 
from other Java components, especially application servers, and the server runs 
within the same VM. The solution has already been successfully embedded
in Apache Geronimo, JBoss, and others. The fact that the server is embeddable 
is quite interesting, nevertheless you also have the deployment option to run 
the server standalone, for instance as a Windows service. Perhaps you know 
this situation from other LDAP servers – open source (like OpenLDAP) as well 
as commercial ones (like Sun Java System Directory Server). This guide is 
dedicated to people that are new to ApacheDS. The guide concentrates on 
installing, configuring and running ApacheDS in a standalone configuration.

_Extendable_ means that the modern architecture of the solution provides many 
extension points. Write your own partitions to store directory data, 
interceptors to add functionality, etc. by implementing certain interfaces and 
plugging them in.

_Standard_ compliant means that ApacheDS 1.5 adheres to all RFCs relevant to 
LDAPv3. Please note that version 1.0 of the server has been successfully 
certified by the Open Group in September 2006 ("LDAP certified"). Thus LDAP 
clients may rightly expect that ApacheDS behaves like they expect.

_Modern_  means that ApacheDS aims modernize the LDAP territory, as well as it 
favors standards compliance. New rich integration tier constructs like LDAP 
Stored Procedures and Triggers are being built on top of existing standards.

_Entirely_ written in Java means that the software compiles and runs on a huge 
number of hardware and software platforms. Native installers are available for 
Windows, MacOS and Solaris (both SPARC and intel platform), but in fact the  
set of possible targets is by far more extensive.

h3. Architectural overview

!50k-ft-architecture.png!
 
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