Mac OS X Lion Server For Dummies®

Address Book Server and Network Directories

Supporting lots of clients is nice, but here's the key benefit to Address Book Server: It enables users to modify contacts and add their own contacts to the server. Changes by users usually aren't possible (or desired) in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)-based directories, such as Open Directory. Users can also create their own fields for contacts, such as for Twitter names or company-specific information — an unheard-of thought with an LDAP directory. Because Address Book Server acts as kind of a gateway to the directory server, you don't need to give users write permissions to the network directory, and you don't need to modify the LDAP schema.

Address Book Server stores contacts as standard vCards, or electronic business cards. The cards are stored outside the Open Directory or other LDAP directory. Users can e-mail or drag vCards to the Desktop for sharing. Address Book clients connected to Address Book Server are authenticated from Open Directory and Kerberos.