Get Started: Cloud LDAP

Cloud-hosted LDAP gives you the power of the LDAP protocol with none of the usual setup, maintenance, or failover requirements of traditional LDAP implementations. All you need to do is point your LDAP-connected endpoints to JumpCloud and you’re on your way.

Watch a video tutorial on configuring LDAP.

Create an LDAP Binding User

The LDAP binding user is created to allow the application to gain access to the LDAP directory in order to facilitate authentication requests when a regular LDAP user is attempting to log in. JumpCloud does not support anonymous binds. When a user is designated as the Bind DN, they are automatically bound to the JumpCloud LDAP directory.

To create a binding user:

1. Log in to the JumpCloud Admin Portal.
2. Go to USER MANAGEMENT > Users. 
3. Click ( + ), then select Manual user entry. 
4. Add the User Information:
   • First Name
   • Last Name
   • (Required) Username
   • (Required) Company Email
   • Description
5. Under User Security Settings and Permission​ > Permission Settings​​​​​​, check the box next to Enable as LDAP Bind DN. When enabled, this user acts to bind and search the JumpCloud LDAP directory; one or more users can enable this option.
   

Considerations:

• It’s not required that this user be a service account. Any JumpCloud user can be set as a binding user, although it’s generally recommended to treat this account as privileged for use only to facilitate the application’s ability to bind/search the LDAP directory.
• This option does NOT grant all LDAP users access to LDAP. To grant access, see Connecting Users to Resources – Grant Access.
• More than one user may be designated as an LDAP binding user. Some applications require this designation for all users of the application. This can be the case if the Bind DN is able to log in, but others cannot, even though they are bound to the LDAP directory.

Add Users to the LDAP Directory

To add users to the LDAP Directory:

1. Log in to the JumpCloud Admin Portal.
2. Go to USER AUTHENTICATION > LDAP.
3. Go to Users tab.
4. Select users in the list.
5. Click save.
   

In order to authenticate via LDAP, users must be granted access to the JumpCloud LDAP directory, either individually or via a group. See Creating LDAP Groups and Connecting Users to Resources - Grant Access.
 

Configuration Details and Supported Standards

Considerations:

• The LDAP DN value is found in the user details (see above screenshot).
• Your application may not have a field called LDAP Distinguished Name. It may be referred to as the BindDN or may only have a username field paired with a password. This is the correct value for that field.
• The BaseDN may also be referred to as SearchDN, Search Base, or other similar terminology.
• LDAP service is Read-Only. As a result, ldapmodify and ldapadd are currently not supported. Any modifications to LDAP users will require the use of either the JumpCloud web console or our JumpCloud API. 
• If you experience connection errors, ensure that your firewall isn’t configured to block traffic to port 389. 
• The LDAP protocol doesn’t limit the number of concurrent connections you can have. For example, you can have multiple NAS devices connected to LDAP using the same Bind DN account. 

Examples of Usage

• Using ldapsearch, to filter by inetOrgPerson objectClass. For more examples, see Using ldapsearch with JumpCloud.

• For basic testing, on Linux or OS X, this menu-driven script leverages ldapsearch. Download here.
• For testing in Windows, ldapsearch is available in OpenLDAP for Windows.
• An example of a UI-driven LDAP configuration with OpenVPN: Configuring OpenVPN to use JumpCloud’s LDAP-as-a-Service.

Example Schema

• Learn more: User Attributes.

MFA for LDAP

If your organization has LDAP applications that require extra security, you can build a Conditional Policy or Global Policy to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) as a requirement before users can access the applications.

• See Configuring MFA for LDAP Applications for details.