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DJI_0109 copy 2.jpg

Where we’ve been

We entered the world of precision agriculture in 1995 -- before it was considered mainstream. We were first known as Western Iowa GPS. The early years were focused on aerial imagery, yield monitoring, soil testing, mapping as well as some equipment manufacturing and sales. The early part of our GPS practice could be described as “on the bleeding edge,” as it was slow going and sometimes painful... we were just ahead of our time. The team grew to four before we retooled in 2001, as we rolled the practice into our mainstream business known as HTS Precision Ag Solutions, a division of Heartland Technology Solutions. This put the groundwork in place for where we are today.

Our Vision:

We strive to be the technology partner of choice by exceeding customer expectations in the delivery of technology, quality and service.

Our Mission:

To help the Agriculture Industry efficiently and profitably feed the world.

Our Core Values:

Team Players

Valued Relationships

Service Plans

HTS Ag Service Plans are an important part of ensuring your technology is functioning properly. We offer both Precision Ag and Grain Management Service Plans which can include a pre-season inspection of your precision ag or grain management systems, minimizing down time due to technology. HTS Ag service plans include Agri-Sync mobile connectivity to allow farmers to get real-time support with our techs through a single app interface, saving time while getting the most out of their ag tech investments. AgriSync enables farmers and advisors to hold see-what-I-see, field level support discussions.

HTS Ag provides High Tech Solutions for Agriculture, and has grown to be one of Ag Leader’s Premier Blue Delta Dealers.

In addition to Ag Leader, we offer technology solutions from OPI Systems, Autel Robotics, DJI, DroneDeploy and more. Since 1995 we’ve been serving customers in Iowa and surrounding states.

Our expertise in Unmanned Aerial Systems over the past several years has also led us into adjacent industries like Public Safety, Construction, Real Estate and others.

Our passionate and knowledgeable team is focused on solving challenges and can create a customized technology solution for any sized farming operation to maximize our customers’ return on investment by improving efficiency, reducing cost, improving yields, increasing margins and improving environmental impact.

As professional, trusted advisors we emphasize to growers the importance of collecting, storing, protecting and analyzing data to glean information that can be used to make sound agronomic and business decisions.

653 Oak Road

Harlan, IA 51537

Office: 800-741-3305

Remote Offices: Grundy Center, IA & Stanton, IA

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23/08/2017 10:01 AM AEST | Updated 23/08/2017 10:01 AM AEST

There Are 122 Million Reasons Why The Postal Plebiscite Makes No Sense

This convoluted mechanism is simply a poor tool for our elected representatives to use to avoid taking any real accountability.

Subject to a High Court challenge, a national postal 'vote' on same-sex marriage is going ahead. An opportunity existed for our government to truly act as leaders, as representatives of their electorates, and to progress Australia's human rights agenda. Instead, a costly, voluntary, non-binding, postal opinion poll will waste a ridiculous amount of much needed public funds.

The problems with the postal 'vote' are multifarious.

An insult to gay and lesbian Australians

Making changes for the progress, development and betterment of the Australian nation is the responsibility of the Parliament, with each Member of Parliament responsible for representing the interests of the electorate who voted for them.

Former High Court justice, Michael Kirby noted that other human rights developments have not been made by public vote, but by the Parliament in its organic capacity.

Many gay and lesbian Australians have expressed similar sentiments. Debate in a public forum about their rights and the taking of a public vote is unusual, unfair and discriminatory. The debate raised by the postal vote gives rise to hate-fuelled voices within the community and places a disgusting burden on those who simply want a right they should already have. The postal vote will divide and propagate hate, rather than allowing the nation to embrace progress, change and civil rights.

The cost -- this money could really improve lives

The postal vote is purported to cost taxpayers a whopping $122 million. This expenditure is nothing other than absurd. It is completely unnecessary; most Australians already support marriage equality. There is absolutely no justification for wasting funds in this manner.

Our nation is currently cutting funding to a broad range of core services. Universities, healthcare, education, disabilities, mental health, homelessness and many other areas of the community are suffering due to funding limitations. The $122 million being wasted on the postal vote could have made a significant impact in many of these areas. For example, that figure is almost the exact amount of funding for the national domestic violence budget for an entire year. In Australia, at least one woman a week is killed as the result of domestic violence.

The divide between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' is growing. Many people are struggling. Loneliness and social isolation is the global epidemic of our times. We need to invest in building happy, caring and LOVING communities that foster diversity, inclusion and harmony.

It's non-binding

One of the most nonsensical aspects of the postal vote is that it's not really a 'vote', it's an opinion poll. The consequences of the vote are non-binding. A resulting 'yes' vote means that Members of Parliament will be given a free vote in Parliament. They will not be bound by the postal vote and can vote as they please. If Australians vote against marriage equality in the postal vote, there will not be a free vote in Parliament.

This convoluted mechanism is simply a poor tool for our elected representatives to use to avoid taking any real accountability on an important issue and to avoid any public backlash or too much party room pressure. This is a spineless, embarrassing and regressive approach by our government and an embarrassment for Australia in comparison to many of its foreign counterparts who have shown great courage and commitment on this issue.

It's voluntary

As Australians will not be forced to vote on the issue, it is possible that only those strongly in favour or opposed to the outcome will vote. Those who do not have any issue with same-sex marriage, but perhaps cannot be bothered voting, may choose not to vote. This will give an inaccurate representation of how Australians genuinely feel towards the matter and may end up in a negative and unfair result.

Snail mail

By 12 September 2017, if you're an Australian on the electoral roll, you'll be receiving your ballot paper. Many people, particularly young people, move frequently and don't update their electoral details. If the form doesn't make it to your house, you won't be able to vote.

Australians will have to check their mail, open it, read it, vote, and go to a letterbox to post it. This is too much effort for many people for a voluntary vote process. The postal vote procedure is also biased towards older people who still use the post. Younger Australians have very little interaction with the postal service. This could greatly skew the results in favour of a more conservative, older group of voters.

If the government insists on a vote, why not a digital vote for a fraction of the cost?

It's just not necessary

There's already sufficient community support and international pressure for marriage equality. According to figures from GetUp! some 72 percent of Australians support marriage equality. This is clear justification for a Parliamentary conscience vote on the issue. The postal opinion poll is an unnecessary, insulting, waste of money which is divisive to the community.

A lost opportunity

The matter of marriage equality presented a great opportunity for Prime Minister Turnbull to show Australia that he could lead and create positive change for the nation in these very uncertain and unsettling times. He has failed dismally.

The postal vote is faulty, flawed and farcical and an insult to the Australian people. An enormous amount of money will be wasted with zero social change achieved. If the postal vote achieves same-sex marriage, despite a fantastic outcome, it will have been achieved via a wasteful and discriminatory process. If the postal vote fails to achieve marriage equality, it could even further delay Australians achieving a right to which they are long overdue.

I worry that this vote will divide us further, hurt a lot of people and leave many bewildered. So if this does go ahead please make sure you're registered to vote. We all need to look after each other and build a community that cares.

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30/11/2015 3:45 PM IST | Updated 15/07/2016 8:25 AM IST

Bihar Assembly: Lalu's Son Tejaswi Yadav Is RJD Party Leader

STRDEL via Getty Images
Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav (R) walks with his son Tejaswi (L) and security personnel as he leaves Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi on December 16, 2013, following his release from the prison. Yadav, the head of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party has been released some two-and-a-half months after he was convicted in a fodder scam case. AFP PHOTO/STR (Photo credit should read STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)

PATNA -- Lalu Prasad's son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav was today named the leader of RJD legislature party in the new Bihar Assembly, a decision slammed by BJP as "open display of dynastic politics".

Lalu Prasad, who was authorised by the RJD legislature party earlier to take the decision, nominated Tejaswi Yadav, a first time MLA from Raghopur seat in Vaishali, as RJD Legislature Party leader in the Assembly, his close aide and MLA Bhola Yadav told PTI.

The RJD chief's wife Rabri Devi will head the legislature party of the bicameral body.

While Tejaswi Yadav is the Deputy Chief Minister of the state, Rabri Devi is a member of state Legislative Council.

Tejaswi's appointment highlights the RJD chief's efforts to guide his younger son to become his heir apparent.

After the recent Assembly polls, RJD is the single largest party with 80 members in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

The appointment of Tejaswi Yadav drew stinging remarks from opposition BJP.

New BJP Legislature party leader Prem Kumar, who is also leader of the opposition, told reporters that "it is an open display of dynastic politics".

"Nation has seen Lalu Prasad playing dynastic politics during 15-year-rule of RJD in the state from 1990 to 2005 and the same is continuing now," Prem Kumar said.

"Lalu Prasad believes only in 'parivarwad' (dynastic politics) and not in 'Loktantra' (democracy)," he said.

Tejaswi Yadav hit back at BJP, saying "when people have accepted us (he and his brother Tej Pratap Yadav) and elected us why is BJP finding fault?"

"I am aware of my huge responsibility and will try to perform to the best of my capacity," he told reporters.

"If BJP finds fault in my performance it has every right to criticise me," he said.

Former Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi described the appointment as "internal matter of RJD".

"There is no bar on appointment of son of a politician to any post as per rules and we should not make personal comment on anybody," Manjhi told reporters.

On Tejaswi Yadav's "lack of experience", Manjhi said, "Let's see him working for 1-2 months, then judge him."

26-year-old Tejaswi Yadav sat next to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the 16th Legislative Assembly which met for the first time today after elections.

Contact HuffPost India

Also see on HuffPost:

Photo gallery Bihar Elections 2015 See Gallery


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Company Details
  • Shijiazhuang Huize Pipe Fitting Co., Ltd.

  •  [Hebei,China]
  • Business Type:Manufacturer
  • Main Markets: Worldwide
  • Exporter:61% - 70%
  • Certs:CE
Shijiazhuang Huize Pipe Fitting Co., Ltd.
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Husky News and Events

Check out our latest news

    • Husky unveils new HyPET High Performance Package with improved productivity and energy efficiency

      Release 2010-10-27

      Düsseldorf, Germany - Husky Injection Molding Systems today announced the launch of its next generation HyPET™ High Performance Package (HPP) for high output preform injection molding. With these latest enhancements, HyPET HPP delivers industry-leading cycle times and increased energy efficiency, while maintaining the highest levels of reliability, repeatability and preform quality.

      Husky is running a 96-cavity HyPET 400 system with enhanced HPP on its booth at the K2010 tradeshow (Düsseldorf, Germany, October 27 – November 3). The system is producing an EcoBase™ preform, weighing 9.9 grams for a 500 ml still water bottle application, at approximately five second cycles. By modifying the base, EcoBase preforms are up to 2.5% lighter than other lightweight preforms, allowing molders to reduce resin consumption. As a single source supplier, Husky is able to make system level improvements that optimize management of the melt stream from pellet to part, resulting in higher preform quality and a significantly improved ability to mold thinwall preforms. For example, for a 500 ml still water application it is possible to manufacture a preform with a side wall as thin as 1.5 mm and thread wall of 0.8 mm.

      “The industry’s most productive preform system is now even better,” said Nadeem Amin, Husky’s Director for PET Business Development. “HyPET HPP’s latest improvements offer levels of performance unmatched in the industry. It is the result of refinements to the entire preform system that can reduce cycle times by at least 5% in comparison to previous industry-leading HyPET HPP cycles, as well as improve energy efficiency by up to 15% in comparison to standard HyPET systems.”

      An evolution of the existing platform, the new HyPET HPP offers several advantages, including greater process stability and superior part-to-part consistency. Enhanced system level integration has several benefits, including simplifying the start-up procedure, maintaining optimal operating tonnage, as well as alerting when maintenance is required. This is one of several enhancements that help improve system durability and longevity.

      Unlike other suppliers, Husky takes responsibility for the complete workcell, including Husky PET auxiliaries, overseeing configuration, supply and start up, as well as providing complete support, service and parts. All functions within the workcell are managed through Husky’s Polaris™ Control, which centralizes operation and process data for the entire injection molding system.

      Husky’s new HyPET HPP system is on display at K2010 at Husky’s booth, Hall 13, Stand A59. Details for the system are below:

      Machine: HyPET 400 HPP
      Mold: 96-cavity mold
      Part: 9.9 gram EcoBase preform
      Application: 500 ml still water bottle with 29/25 thread
      Resin: Indorama Ramapet N1
      Cycle time: 5.2 second cycles
      Process monitoring: Shotscope NX
      Auxiliaries: D824 and H7000 drying system; PD11-FC3 hopper loader; LDM25 material receiver; DSH2400 mold dryer; DSH3001 Cool-Pik blower; SM304/W-PET chiller; soft drop

      About Husky — Husky Injection Molding Systems ( is a leading global supplier of injection molding equipment and services to the plastics industry. The company has more than 40 service and sales offices, supporting customers in over 100 countries. Husky's manufacturing facilities are located in Canada, the United States, Luxembourg and China.

      For more information, please contact:
      Media Relations
      Husky Injection Molding Systems

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Skip to navigation Skip to content

Land access a key barrier for new entrants to farming

“Access to land was identified as the most important barrier to new entrants. Although there are regions in Europe where land is available, accessing productive agricultural land is a major issue.”

Scottish farming needs to attract a steady flow of young farmers and new entrants to maintain the vitality of its agricultural sector. The available statistics show that most farmers (54.92%) are over 55 years of age. The proportion of young people, i.e. those under 35 years of age is relatively low (5.94%).

The ‘young farmer problem’ – the shortage of young people entering agriculture – is recognised at EU-level, although it varies considerably between member states. EU assistance has been available to young farmers for more than three decades, between 2007 and 2013 more than 126 000 young farmers received financial aid towards the initial establishment of their farms. Some 180 000 young farmers across the EU have received supports since 2013. However the ‘young farmer problem’ seems to remain. This is due, on one side, to the complexity of the problem and, on the other, to the limited effectiveness of current policy mechanisms in dealing with it.

Researchers from the James Hutton Institute have undertaken a review of EU supports for New Entrants in collaboration with the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague and the Technology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences.  They presented the research to the European Parliament’s subcommittee on Agriculture and Rural Development on 23 November 2017. The study was commissioned by the European Parliament and aims to examine the current state of policy implementation of New Entrant Supports after the 2013 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. Another objective of the research is to recommend further measures or changes to the supports, which will assist young farmers and new entrants when dealing with the major barriers faced when entering the agriculture industry.

Lee-Ann Sutherland, a Senior Social Scientist from the Hutton’s Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences group explained some of the key findings from the report. She said: “Access to land was identified as the most important barrier to new entrants.  Although there are regions in Europe (typically remote or with poor quality land) where land is available, accessing productive agricultural land is a major issue.  The orientation of CAP direct payments exacerbates this problem – the allocation of farm subsidies on the basis of land access, in combination with limited requirements to make productive use of the land, encourages land speculation.  Current direct payments also discourage older farmers from releasing land, as the subsidies form a de facto pension”.

Feedback on the supports for young farmers and new entrants was consistently positive. The researchers recommend increasing the amount of funding available to assist young people to start farms, and raising the age limit on subsidy eligibility from 40 to 45.  They also identified a lack of clarify in the purpose of the supports at EU level – in Scotland, the supports are aimed at enabling new entrants to start farms, whereas most other European countries orient the supports towards farm successors.”

The study included statistical analysis of national differences and focus groups across 7 Member States.  The research also identified the importance of training in business skills, new initiatives in land matching, land trusts and farming ‘incubators’, and succession planning.  Networks of new entrants, and showcasing of successful business models, will be enabled in Scotland through a forthcoming European Commission-funded project ‘NEWBIE’ – new entrant business networks.

The complete report can be found here.

More information from:

Adam Walker, Communications Officer, Tel:01224 395095 (direct line), +44 (0)344 928 5428 (switchboard).

Printed from /news/land-access-key-barrier-new-entrants-farming on 08/08/20 12:31:49 AM

The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.


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Dentist in Harrow, North West London

Harrow Weald Dental Practice
359 High Road, Harrow Weald, Middlesex HA3 5EQ
0208 427 8120

General Treatments » Pregnant Women

Pregnancy can be an exciting time and while you have so much to plan for, your oral health may be one of the last things you're thinking about. But it's more important than ever to pay close attention to your dental health in this time.

That's because hormone changes during pregnancy can affect your oral health and many pregnant women notice that their gums are red, inflamed and sometimes bleed when they brush their teeth. The swelling and inflamed gums are referred to as 'pregnancy gingivitis' and can start as soon as the second month of pregnancy. The hormone progesterone can be around 10 times higher than normal during pregnancy, affecting the body's response to toxins as a result of plaque build-up. Women are therefore more susceptible to developing periodontal disease when these hormonal fluctuations occur.

Some women also experience a growth on their gums known as a pregnancy granuloma which are red nodules, usually found on the upper gums. While they are not dangerous, they can cause discomfort. Other oral health problems may include tooth erosion as a result of constant exposure to acid from severe morning sickness. Dry mouth is another major complaint, but can be easily remedied by drinking plenty of water and using sugarless candies to stimulate saliva flow.

If you are pregnant we recommend that you come to the practice for a thorough check up so we can help you to have a healthy and happy pregnancy.

« Back to Treatment Menu

Multi Award Winning


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Who We Are

The IAF is a nimble and transformative U.S. government agency that invests in community-led development across Latin America and the Caribbean. We directly engage local leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs in underserved areas to create more prosperous, peaceful, and democratic communities.

Grassroots Businesses: A Virtual Artisan Fair

Over the past 50 years, the IAF has supported an incredible number of innovative and entrepreneurial groups with a common dream: transforming their lives and communities. Join us as we travel north to south through the region to see how agricultural producers and artisan groups have conquered the world with small IAF investments to grow their businesses.

Read more ›

Key Publications


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Covid-19 (Coronavirus) Guidance for Owners of Residential and Holiday Parks

  • Posted

This is an unprecedented and unsettling time for the owners of residential and holiday parks. Below is some guidance based on the current government communications. We will update this to ensure that new government guidance is communicated to you.

Carry out a risk assessment to determine what new procedures you should adopt to manage risk. In particular, establish a chain of command to identify who will run or manage your park(s) if the owner or senior management falls ill.

  • Work out what training is needed for your staff and keep a record of when this training has been carried out.
  • Reassure your staff, customers and (perhaps most importantly) residents, many of whom may be in one or more of the vulnerable groups identified by Government (i.e. over 70 and/or with underlying health issues.
  • Ensure that any staff members or residents who show symptoms self-isolate for the recommended minimum period. Symptoms may include (but are not limited to) a new, continuous cough, or a high temperature.
  • Keep staff updated on actions being taken to reduce risks of exposure in the workplace, including encouraging staff to work from home where possible.
  • Remind staff and residents (especially those who are in a vulnerable group) to follow the Government’s social distancing guidance:

  • Make sure your staff emergency contact details are up to date.
  • Make sure your employees (especially those in regular contact with residents) know how to spot suspected symptoms of coronavirus and report this to senior management without delay.
  • Encourage all staff and residents to wash their hands on a regular basis for 20 seconds with soap and water.
  • Provide hand sanitisers and tissues for staff and residents and encourage them to use them.
  • Provide additional cleaning, especially in areas where anyone with symptoms has been, and ensure that you have sufficient cleaning materials and protective equipment for staff.
  • Be aware that in the coming days, holiday parks may be forced to close to help limit the spread of the virus.

Speak to our expert Park Homes experts today

The guidance for park owners and residents is likely to change and develop over the coming days and weeks. For more information please contact our residential parks team today on 03456 381381 or email


text:
LPI exam 301 prep

Topic 304: Usage

Senior Level Linux Professional (LPIC-3)

Content series:

This content is part # of # in the series: LPI exam 301 prep

Stay tuned for additional content in this series.

This content is part of the series:LPI exam 301 prep

Stay tuned for additional content in this series.

Before you start

Learn what these tutorials can teach you and how you can get the most from them.

About this series

The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) certifies Linux® system administrators at three levels: junior level (also called "certification level 1"), advanced level (also called "certification level 2"), and senior level (also called "certification level 3"). To attain certification level 1, you must pass exams 101 and 102. To attain certification level 2, you must pass exams 201 and 202. To attain certification level 3, you must have an active advanced-level certification and pass exam 301 ("core"). You may also need to pass additional specialty exams at the senior level.

developerWorks offers tutorials to help you prepare for the five junior, advanced, and senior certification exams. Each exam covers several topics, and each topic has a corresponding self-study tutorial on developerWorks. Table 1 lists the six topics and corresponding developerWorks tutorials for LPI exam 301.

Table 1. LPI exam 301: Tutorials and topics
LPI exam 301 topicdeveloperWorks tutorialTutorial summary
Topic 301LPI exam 301 prep:
Concepts, architecture, and design
Learn about LDAP concepts and architecture, how to design and implement an LDAP directory, and about schemas.
Topic 302LPI exam 301 prep:
Installation and development
Learn how to install, configure, and use the OpenLDAP software.
Topic 303LPI exam 301 prep:
Learn how to configure the OpenLDAP software in detail.
Topic 304 LPI exam 301 prep:
(This tutorial) Learn how to search the directory and use the OpenLDAP tools. See the detailed objectives.
Topic 305 LPI exam 301 prep:
Integration and migration
Coming soon.
Topic 306 LPI exam 301 prep:
Capacity planning
Coming soon.

To pass exam 301 (and attain certification level 3), the following should be true:

  • You should have several years of experience with installing and maintaining Linux on a number of computers for various purposes.
  • You should have integration experience with diverse technologies and operating systems.
  • You should have professional experience as, or training to be, an enterprise-level Linux professional (including having experience as a part of another role).
  • You should know advanced and enterprise levels of Linux administration including installation, management, security, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
  • You should be able to use open source tools to measure capacity planning and troubleshoot resource problems.
  • You should have professional experience using LDAP to integrate with UNIX® services and Microsoft® Windows® services, including Samba, Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM), e-mail, and Active Directory.
  • You should be able to plan, architect, design, build, and implement a full environment using Samba and LDAP as well as measure the capacity planning and security of the services.
  • You should be able create scripts in Bash or Perl or have knowledge of at least one system programming language (such as C).

To continue preparing for certification level 3, see the series developerWorks tutorials for LPI exam 301, as well as the entire set of developerWorks LPI tutorials.

The Linux Professional Institute doesn't endorse any third-party exam preparation material or techniques in particular.

About this tutorial

Welcome to "Configuration," the fourth of six tutorials designed to prepare you for LPI exam 301. In this tutorial, you learn how to search the directory, how to use the command-line tools for searching and administration, and how to configure third-party applications to use your LDAP tree as a Whitepages service.

This tutorial is organized according to the LPI objectives for this topic. Very roughly, expect more questions on the exam for objectives with higher weights.

Table 2 provides the detailed objectives for this tutorial.

Table 2. Configuration: Exam objectives covered in this tutorial
LPI exam objectiveObjective weightObjective summary
Searching the directory
2Use advanced options to search the LDAP directory
LDAP command-line tools
4Use the various command-line tools to search, modify, and administer the LDAP server
1Use your LDAP server as a Whitepages service for applications like Microsoft Outlook®

To get the most benefit from this tutorial, you should have advanced knowledge of Linux and a working Linux system on which to practice the commands covered.

If your fundamental Linux skills are a bit rusty, you may want to first review the tutorials for the LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 exams.

Different versions of a program may format output differently, so your results may not look exactly like the listings and figures in this tutorial.

System requirements

To follow along with the examples in this tutorial, you'll need a Linux workstation with the OpenLDAP package and support for PAM. Most modern distributions meet these requirements.

Searching the directory

This section covers material for topic 304.1 for the Senior Level Linux Professional (LPIC-3) exam 301. This topic has a weight of 2.

In this section, learn how to:

  • Use OpenLDAP search tools with basic options
  • Use OpenLDAP search tools with advanced options
  • Optimize LDAP search queries
  • Use search filters and their syntax

The data in your tree is useful only if you can find entries when you need them. LDAP provides a powerful set of features that allow you to extract information from your tree.

The basics of search

To search a tree, you need four pieces of information:

  1. Credentials on the server that holds the tree
  2. A Distinguished Name (DN) on the tree to base your search on
  3. A search scope
  4. A search filter

You have already learned about server credentials in previous tutorials from this series. The credentials can be nothing, which results in an anonymous bind, or they can be the DN of an entry along with a password. Implicit in this is that the server recognizes these credentials as valid, and is willing to allow you to search!

The DN that you base your search on is called the base DN. All results will be either the base DN itself or its children. If your base DN is ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com, then you might find cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com, but you won't find cn=Users,ou=Groups,dc=ertw,dc=com, because it lies outside the base DN you were trying to search.

The scope determines which entries under the base DN will be searched. You may want to limit the scope because of performance reasons, or because only certain children of the base DN contain the information you want. The default search scope, subordinate (usually abbreviated as sub), includes the base DN and all children. You can search only the base DN with a base scope, such as when you want to test to see if an entry exists. The search scope called one searches only the base DN's immediate children and excludes any grandchildren and the base DN itself. Figure 1 shows a tree and the entries that would be included in the three different search scopes.

Figure 1. Three different search scopes
Three different search scopes
Three different search scopes

The most powerful (and complex) part of searching is the search filter. The credentials, base DN, and scope limit which entries are to be searched, but it is the query that examines each record and returns only the ones that match your criteria.

Simple search filters

Search filters are enclosed in parentheses. Within the parentheses is one attribute=value pair. A simple search filter would be (objectClass=inetOrgPerson), which will find any entries with an objectClass of inetOrgPerson. The attribute itself is not case sensitive, but the value may or may not be depending on how the attribute is defined in the schema. Recall from the first tutorial, LPI exam 301 prep:
Concepts, architecture, and design
, that the schema defines the attributes and their properties. One property of the attribute is if comparisons are case sensitive or not.

Substring searches are performed with the asterisk (*) operator. Search for (Sean*) to match anything beginning with Sean. The asterisk can go anywhere in the string, such as (* Walberg) to find anything ending in Walberg, or even S*Wa*berg to find anything starting with S, ending in berg, and having Wa somewhere in the middle. You might use this to find the author's name, not knowing if it is Sean or Shawn, or Walberg or Wahlberg.

The most generic form of the asterisk operator, attribute=* checks for the existence of the specified attribute. To find all the entries with defined e-mail addresses, you could use (mail=*).

AND, OR, and NOT

You can perform logical AND and OR operations with the "&" and "|" operators respectively. LDAP search strings place the operator before the conditions, so you will see filters like those shown in Listing 1.

Listing 1. Sample search filters using AND and OR
(|(objectClass=inetOrgPerson)(objectClass=posixAccount)) (&(objectClass=*)(cn=Sean*)(ou=Engineering)) (&(|(objectClass=inetOrgPerson)(objectClass=posixAccount))(cn=Sean*))

The first search string in Listing 1 looks for anything with an objectClass of inetOrgPerson or posixAccount. Note that each component is still enclosed in parentheses, and that the OR operator (|) along with its two search options are also enclosed in another set of parentheses.

The second search string is similar, but starts with an AND operation instead of OR. Here, three different tests must be satisfied, and they all follow the ampersand in their own set of parentheses. The first clause, objectClass=*, matches anything with a defined objectClass (which should be everything, anyway). This search of all objectClasses is often used as a search filter when you want to match everything and are required to enter a filter. The second clause matches anything that starts with Sean.

The third search string shows both an AND and an OR used together in a filter that looks for anything with an objectClass of either inetOrgPerson or posixAccount, and a common name beginning with Sean.

The logical NOT is performed with the exclamation mark (!), much like the AND and OR. A logical NOT has only one argument so only one set of parentheses may follow the exclamation mark. Listing 2 shows some valid and invalid uses of NOT.

Listing 2. How to use, and how not to use, the logical NOT
(!cn=Sean) # invalid, the ! applies to a filter inside () (!(cn=Sean)) # valid (!(cn=Sean)(ou=Engineering)) # invalid, only one filter can be negated (!(&cn=Sean*)(ou=Engineering))) # valid, negates the AND clause

In the fourth example of Listing 2, the negation is applied to an AND filter. Thus, that rule returns any entries that do not satisfy both of the AND clauses. Be careful when dealing with negation of composite filters, because the results are not always intuitive. The fourth example from Listing 2 will still return entries with an ou of Engineering if they don't have a common name starting with Sean. Both tests must pass for the record to be excluded.

Searching ranges

Often you need to search for a range of values. LDAP provides the <= and >= operators to query an attribute. Be careful that the equal sign (=) is included, because there are no < and > operators—you must also test for equality.

Not all integer attributes can be checked with the range operators. When in doubt, check the schema to make sure the attribute implements an ordering type through the ORDERING keyword. Recall from the first tutorial, LPI exam 301 prep:
Concepts, architecture, and design
, that an attribute is defined in the schema, and part of the definition includes how the server should sort the attribute.

Searching for close matches

An LDAP directory is often used to store names, which leads to spelling problems. "Sean" can also be "Shawn" or "Shaun." LDAP provides a "sounds-like" operator, "~=", which returns results that sound similar to the search string. For example, (cn~=Shaun) returns results that have a common name containing a word that sounds like "Shaun." Implicit in the sounds-like search is a substring search, such that (cn=~Shaun) will return results for cn=Shawn Walberg. The OpenLDAP implementation is not perfect, though; the same search will not return results for the "Sean" spelling.

Searching the DN

All the examples so far have focused on searching attributes, not searching on the distinguished name (DN) that identifies the record. Even though the leftmost component of the DN, the relative DN (RDN), appears as an attribute and is therefore searchable, the search filters presented so far will not look at the rest of the DN.

Searching the DN is done through a specific query filter requiring an exact match. The format is attribute:dn:=value, where the attribute is the component of the DN you want to search, and the value is the search string (no wildcards allowed). For example, (ou:dn:=People) would return all the entries that have ou=People in the DN, including the container object itself.

Altering the matchingRule

By default, most strings, such as the common name, are case insensitive. If you want to override the matching rule, you can use a form similar to the DN search. A search such as (ou:caseexactmatch:=people) will match an organizational unit of "people", but not "People". Some common matching rules are:

  • caseIgnoreMatch matches a string without regard for capitalization. Also ignores leading and trailing whitespace when matching.
  • caseExactMatch is a string match that also requires similar capitalization between the two strings being searched.
  • octetStringMatch is like a string match, but does not remove whitespaces, and therefore requires an exact, byte-for-byte, match.
  • telephoneNumberMatch searches a telephone number, which has its own data type in LDAP.

You can also change the matching rule of a DN search by combining the DN search with the matching rule search. For example, (ou:dn:caseexactmatch:=people) searches for a DN containing the exact string "people".

These two types of searches, DN searches and matching rule searches, are also called extensible searches. They both require exact strings and do not allow wildcards.

Using ldapsearch

The command-line tool to search the tree is ldapsearch. This tool lets you bind to the directory in a variety of ways, execute one or more searches, and retrieve the data in LDIF format.

The default behavior of ldapsearch is:

  • Attempt a Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) authentication to the server
  • Connect to the server at ldap://localhost:389
  • Use (objectClass=*) as a search filter
  • Read the search base from /etc/openldap/ldap.conf
  • Perform a sub search; that is, include the search base and all children
  • Return all user attributes, ignoring operational (internal usage) attributes
  • Use extended LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) for output
  • Do not sort the output

Authenticating to the server

If you are not using SASL, then you need simple authentication using the -x parameter. By itself, -x performs an anonymous bind, which is a bind without any bind DN or password. Given the other defaults, ldapsearch -x will dump your entire tree, starting at the search base specified in /etc/openldap/ldap.conf. Listing 3 shows the usage of a simple anonymous search.

Listing 3. A simple anonymous search
$ ldapsearch -x # extended LDIF # # LDAPv3 # base <> with scope subtree # filter: (objectclass=*) # requesting: ALL # # people, dn: ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com ou: people description: All people in organization objectClass: organizationalUnit ... output truncated ...

Listing 3 shows the header and first entry returned from a simple anonymous search. The first seven lines form the header, and in LDIF fashion, are commented starting with the hash mark (#). The first three lines identify the rest of the text as being extended LDIF and retrieved using LDAP version 3. The next line indicates that no base DN was specified and that a subtree search was used. The last two lines of text give the search filter which is everything and that all attributes were requested.

You may use the -LLL option to remove all the comments from your output.

After the header comes each entry; each entry starts with a header describing the entry and then the list of attributes, starting with the DN. Attributes are not sorted.

If you need to use a username and password to log in, use the -D and -w options to specify a bind DN and a password, respectively. For example, ldapsearch -x D cn=root,dc=ertw,dc=com -w mypassword will perform a simple authentication with the root DN username and password. You may also choose to type the password into a prompt that does not echo to the screen by using -W instead of -w password.

You may also connect to a different server by passing a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) to the remote LDAP server using the -H option, such as ldapsearch -x -H ldap:// to connect to an LDAP server at

Performing searches

Append your search filter to your command line in order to perform a search. You will likely have to enclose the filter in quotes to protect special characters in the search string from being interpreted by the shell. Listing 4 shows a simple search on the common name.

Listing 4. A simple search from the command line
$ ldapsearch -LLL -x '(cn=Fred Smith)' dn: cn=Fred Smith,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com objectClass: inetOrgPerson sn: Smith cn: Fred Smith mail:

The search in Listing 4 uses the -LLL option to remove comments in the output and the -x option to force simple authentication. The final parameter is a search string that looks for Fred Smith's entry. Note that the parentheses are used around the search, and that single quotes are used both to protect the parentheses as being interpreted as a subshell invocation, and because the search string contains a space which would cause the "Smith" to be interpreted as a separate argument.

Listing 4 returned all of Fred Smith's attributes. It is a waste of both client and server resources to retrieve all values of a record if only one or two attributes are needed. Add the attributes you want to see to the end of the ldapsearch command line to only request those attributes. Listing 5 shows how the previous search looks if you only wanted Fred's e-mail address.

Listing 5. Requesting Fred Smith's e-mail address
$ ldapsearch -LLL -x '(cn=Fred Smith)' mail dn: cn=Fred Smith,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com mail:

The mail attribute is appended to the command line from Listing 4, and the result is the distinguished name of the record found, along with the requested attributes.

ldapsearch looks to /etc/openldap/ldap.conf for a line starting with BASE to determine the search base, and failing that, relies on the server's defaultsearchbase setting. The search base is the point on the tree where searches start from. Only entries that are children of the search base (and the search base itself) will be searched. Use the -b parameter to specify a different search base, such as ldapsearch -x -b ou=groups,dc=ertw,dc=com to search the groups container from the tree.

Altering how data is returned

LDAP can store binary data such as pictures. The jpegPhoto attribute is the standard way to store a picture in the tree. If you retrieve the value of the attribute from the command line, you will find it is base64 encoded. The -t parameter is used to save any binary attributes into a temporary file. Listing 6 shows how to use this parameter.

Listing 6. Saving binary attributes on the file system
$ ldapsearch -LLL -x 'cn=joe*' jpegphoto | head dn: cn=Joe Blow,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com jpegPhoto:: /9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQEASABIAAD//gAXQ3JlYXRlZCB3aXRoIFRoZSBHSU1Q/9sAQw ... output continues for 1300+ lines ... $ ldapsearch -LLL -t -x '(cn=joe*)' jpegphoto dn: cn=Joe Blow,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com jpegPhoto:< file:///tmp/ldapsearch-jpegPhoto-VaIjkE $ file /tmp/ldapsearch-jpegPhoto-VaIjkE /tmp/ldapsearch-jpegPhoto-VaIjkE: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, comment: \ "Created with The GIMP\377"

Listing 6 shows two searches for anyone with a name beginning with "Joe," and only retrieving the jpegPhoto attribute. The first try does not use the -t parameter, and therefore the value of jpegPhoto is shown on the console in base64 format. The usefulness of this is limited at the command line, so the second try specifies -t on the command line. This time the value of jpegPhoto is a URI to a file (you may change the directory with the -T option). Finally, the returned file is inspected, and indeed, it is the binary version of the picture that can be viewed.

By default, ldapsearch prints out results in the order they were received in from the server. You can sort the output with the -S parameter, passing it the name of the attribute you want to sort on. For sorting on multiple attributes, separate the attributes with a comma (,).

LDAP command-line tools

This section covers material for topic 304.2 for the Senior Level Linux Professional (LPIC-3) exam 301. This topic has a weight of 4.

In this section, learn how to:

  • Use the ldap* tools to access and modify the directory
  • Use the slap* tools to access and modify the directory

Several tools are provided with OpenLDAP to manipulate the directory and administer the server. You are already familiar with ldapsearch, which was covered in the previous section. The commands beginning with ldap are for users of the tree, the commands beginning with slap are for administrators.

Tree manipulation tools

The commands in this section are for manipulating the tree, either by changing data or reading data. ldapsearch falls into this category, too. To use these commands, you need to authenticate to the server.

ldapadd and ldapmodify

These two commands are used to add and change entries in the tree. You may recall from the first tutorial, LPI exam 301 prep:
Concepts, architecture, and design
in the series that the LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) can be used to add, change, and delete data from the tree. Listing 7 shows a sample of some LDIF to add an entry.

Listing 7. LDIF to add an entry to the tree
dn: cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com objectclass: inetOrgPerson cn: Sean Walberg cn: Sean A. Walberg sn: Walberg homephone: 555-111-2222

Listing 7 begins with a description of the distinguished name of the entry. This entry will end up under the ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com container, and have a relative distinguished name of cn=Sean Walberg, which is obtained by splitting the distinguished name (DN) after the first attribute/value pair. The entry has an objectclass of inetOrgPerson, which is a fairly generic type for any person belonging to an organization. Two variants of the common name follow, then a surname, and finally, a home phone number.

Implicit in Listing 7 is that this is an addition to the tree, as opposed to a change or deletion. Recall that LDIF files can specify the changetype keyword, which tells the reader what to do with the data.

The ldapadd command is used to process this LDIF file. If Listing 7 were stored as "sean.ldif", then ldapadd -x -D cn=root,dc=ertw,dc=com -w mypass -f sean.ldif would be one way to add the new entry to the tree. The -x -D cn=root,dc=ertw,dc=com -w mypass part of the command should be familiar from the earlier discussion of ldapsearch, as a way to authenticate to the tree with simple authentication and the all-powerful root DN. All the ldap commands in this section use the same parameters to authenticate to the tree, so you will see this form repeated.

ldapadd is implemented as a symbolic link to ldapmodify, and when called as ldapadd is interpreted as ldapmodify -a. The -a parameter tells ldapmodify to assume a default changetype of add, which is used to add new entries to the tree. When called as ldapmodify, the assumption is that the default changetype is modify operation.

ldapadd (and ldapmodify) is an efficient way of loading bulk data into a server without shutting it down. LDIF files can contain many operations, and often it is easier to generate LDIF from whatever other data source you are trying to import than to write custom code to parse the data source and add it directly through LDAP.

ldapdelete, like the name implies, deletes an entry from the tree. All entries are uniquely identified in the tree by their DN; therefore, ldapdelete deletes entries by DN, and not by any other query.

Besides the authentication parameters already discussed, ldapdelete can take its list of DNs to delete either from the command line or from a file. To delete from the command line, simply append the DNs to your command line, such as ldapdelete -x -D cn=root,dc=ertw,dc=com -w mypass "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com". If you have many entries to delete, you can place the DNs, one per line, in a file, and point ldapdelete to that file with -f filename.

Note that you can also delete entries through LDIF and the ldapadd/ldapmodify commands. The ldapdelete command is more convenient in many cases, but is not the only way of deleting entries.

The ldapmodrdn command changes the relative distinguished name of the object, that is, the first attribute/value pair in the DN. This effectively renames the entry within the current branch of the tree. Unlike the LDIF moddn changetype, this command can only rename the entry, and cannot move it to another spot on the tree.

Usage of this command is simple: give it the authentication credentials, the DN of the entry, and the new RDN. Listing 8 shows an account being renamed from "Joe Blow" to "Joseph Blow".

Listing 8. Renaming an entry
$ ldapmodrdn -x -D cn=root,dc=ertw,dc=com -w dirtysecret \ 'cn=Joe Blow,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com' 'cn=Joseph Blow' $ ldapsearch -LLL -x '(cn=Joseph Blow)' dn: cn=Joseph Blow,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com objectClass: inetOrgPerson sn: Blow cn: Joe Blow cn: Joseph Blow

Note that the old RDN still appears as an attribute, that is, cn: Joe Blow. If you want the old RDN to be removed, add -r to your command line. This is the same as adding deleteoldrdn: 1 to your LDIF code (which, curiously, is the default behavior for LDIF but not ldapmodrdn).

ldapcompare allows you to compare a predetermined value to the value stored somewhere in the LDAP tree. An example will show how this works.

Listing 9. Using ldapcompare
$ ldapcompare -x "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" userPassword:mypassword TRUE $ ldapcompare -x "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" userPassword:badpassword FALSE

In Listing 9, the ldapcompare command is run. After the authentication parameters are taken care of, the final two parameters are the DN to check and the attribute and value to check against. The DN in both the examples above is the listing for "cn=Sean Walberg". The attributes being checked in both cases are the userPassword attribute. When the proper password is given, ldapcompare prints the string TRUE and an error code of 6. If the value given doesn't match what's in the entry, then FALSE is sent to the console, and an error code of 5 is returned. The -z option prevents anything from being printed; the caller is expected to use the error code to determine if the check was successful or not.

Even though the example in Listing 9 checked a password, any attribute can be used, including objectClass. If the attribute has multiple values, such as multiple common names or objectClasses, then the comparison is successful if one of them matches.

ldapwhoami allows you to test authentication to the LDAP server and to determine which DN you are authenticated against on the server. Simply call ldapwhoami with the normal authentication parameters, as shown in Listing 10.

Listing 10. A demonstration of ldapwhoami
$ ldapwhoami -x anonymous Result: Success (0) $ ldapwhoami -x -D "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" -w mypassword dn:cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com Result: Success (0) $ ldapwhoami -x -D "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" -w badpass ldap_bind: Invalid credentials (49)

The first example in Listing 10 shows a bind with no username or password. Ldapwhoami returns the string anonymous to indicate an anonymous bind, and also a status line indicating that the authentication was successful. The second example binds as a user's DN. This time the DN returned is the same one that was authenticated with. Finally, a bind attempt is made with invalid credentials. The result is an explanation of the problem.

Ldapwhoami is helpful for troubleshooting the configuration of the server, and also for manually verifying passwords. Access lists might get in the way of an ldapsearch, so using ldapwhoami instead can help you determine if the problem is credentials or access lists.

Administration tools

The commands beginning with slap are for administrators, and operate directly on the database files rather than through the LDAP protocol. As such, you will generally need to be root to use these commands, and in some cases, the server must also be shut down.

Slapacl is a utility that lets the administrator test access lists against various combinations of bind DN, entry, and attribute. For instance, you would use slapacl to test to see what access a particular user has on another user's attributes. This command must be run as root because it is reading the database and configuration files directly rather than using LDAP.

The usage of slapacl is best described through an example. In Listing 11, the administrator is testing to see what access a user has on his own password before implementing an ACL, and then again after implementing an ACL that is supposed to limit the access to something more secure.

Listing 11. Using slapacl to determine the effect of an ACL change
# slapacl -D "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" \ -b "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=People,dc=ertw,dc=com" userPassword authcDN: "cn=sean walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" userPassword: read(=rscxd) ... change slapd.conf ... # slapacl -D "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" \ -b "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=People,dc=ertw,dc=com" userPassword authcDN: "cn=sean walberg,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" userPassword: =wx # slapacl -D "cn=Joseph Blow,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" \ -b "cn=Sean Walberg,ou=People,dc=ertw,dc=com" userPassword authcDN: "cn=joseph blow,ou=people,dc=ertw,dc=com" userPassword: =0

Two pieces of information are mandatory for the slapacl command. The first is the bind DN, which is the DN of the user you are testing access for. The second piece is the DN of the entry you are testing against. The bind DN is specified with -D, and the target DN is set with -b. You can optionally limit the test to a single attribute by including it at the end (like the userPassword example in Listing 11). If you don't specify an attribute, you will receive results for each attribute in the entry.

In the first command from Listing 11, the administrator is testing the cn=Sean Walberg entry to see what access he has against his own password. The result is read access. Recall from the third tutorial in this series, LPI exam 301 prep:
, that users should be able to write and authenticate against their userPassword attribute, but not read it. After changing the ACLs, the test is performed again, and only the write and authenticate permissions are available. Finally, a test is performed to see what access Joseph Blow has on Sean Walberg's password; the result is that he has no access.

Slapaclis an effective way to test the results of ACL changes, and to debug ACL problems. It is particularly effective because it reads directly from the database and slapd.conf, so any changes made to slapd.conf are reflected in the output of slapacl and don't require a restart of slapd.

Slapcat dumps the contents of the LDAP tree as LDIF to the standard output, or to a file if you use -l filename. You can optionally use the -s option to provide the starting DN, or -a to pass a query filter.

Slapcat operates directly on the database, and can be run while the server is still running. Only the bdb database types are supported.

Slapadd is a bulk import tool that operates directly on the backend databases, which means slapd must be stopped to use this tool. It is designed to be used with the output from slapcat. Slapadd doesn't perform much validation on the input data, so it is possible to end up with branches of the tree that are separated. This would happen if some container objects weren't imported.

The input to slapadd is an LDIF file, such as the one generated by slapcat. The slapadd(8C) manpage suggests using ldapadd instead because of the data validation provided by the online variant. The manpage also notes that the output of slapcat is not guaranteed to be ordered in a way that is compatible with ldapadd (the container objects may come after the children in the output, and hence would fail validation). Using any filters in slapcat may also cause important data to be missing. Therefore, you should use slapadd only with LDIF produced by slapcat, and use ldapadd for any other LDIF.

After shutting down your LDAP server, you can just run the slapadd command and pipe your LDAP output to the standard input. If you want to read from a file, use the -l option. As with slapcat, only the bdb database types are supported.

Slappasswd is used to generate hashed passwords to be stored in the directory, or in slapd.conf. A common use is to use a hashed password for the rootdn's account in slapd.conf so that anyone looking at the configuration file can not determine the password. Slappasswd will prompt you for a password to hash if you don't provide any parameters, as shown in Listing 12.

Listing 12. Using slappasswd to hash a password
$ slappasswd New password: Re-enter new password: {SSHA}G8Ly2+t/HMHJ3OWWE7LN+GRmZJAweXoE

You may then copy the entire string to the rootpw line in slapd.conf. Slapd recognizes the format of the password and understands that {SSHA} means that what follows is a SHA1 hash. Anyone who reads slapd.conf will not learn the root password.

The hashes generated by slappasswd can also be used in LDIF files used with ldapadd and ldapmodify, which will allow you to store secure one-way hashes of your password instead of a less secure plaintext or base64-encoded version.

You may recall slapindex from the third tutorial in this series, LPI exam 301 prep:
. After creating or changing an index with the index keyword in slapd.conf, you must rebuild your indexes, or slapd will return incorrect results. To rebuild your indexes, stop slapd and run slapindex. This may take a while depending on how many entries are in your databases, or as the manpage puts it, "This command provides ample opportunity for the user to obtain and drink their favorite beverage."

Slapdtest simply checks to see if your slapd.conf file is correct. This is helpful because if you were to restart slapd with a bad configuration file, it would fail to start up until you fixed the file. Slaptest lets you perform a sanity check on your configuration file before restarting.

Using slaptest is as simple as typing slaptest. If the slapd.conf is correct, you will see config file testing succeeded. Otherwise, you will receive an error explaining the problem.

Slaptest also checks for the existence of various files and directories necessary for operation. During testing however, the author was able to find some configuration file errors that passed slaptest, but would still cause slapd to fail.

This section covers material for topic 304.3 for the Senior Level Linux Professional (LPIC-3) exam 301. This topic has a weight of 1.

In this section, learn how to do:

  • Plan whitepages services
  • Configure whitepages services
  • Configure clients to retrieve data from whitepages services

A whitepages service allows e-mail clients to retrieve contact information from an LDAP database. By staying with common attribute names, such as those provided by the inetOrgPerson objectClass, you can get the most compatibility with e-mail clients. For example, both Microsoft Outlook and Evolution use the mail attribute to store the user's e-mail address, and the givenName, displayName, cn, and sn attributes to store various forms of the name.

Configuring e-mail clients for an LDAP directory

In theory, any mail client that supports LDAP can use your tree. You will need the following information configured in the client:

  • The LDAP server's address or hostname
  • Credentials to bind with, unless you are binding anonymously
  • The base DN to search from
  • A search filter, such as (mail=*), to weed out accounts without an e-mail address (optional)

Once you input the above information into your e-mail client, you should be able to search for contacts.

Configuring Microsoft Outlook for an LDAP directory

To configure Microsoft Outlook (tested on Outlook 2003), select Tools > Email Accounts. You will see a dialog similar to Figure 2.

Figure 2. Selecting the type of account to add
Selecting the type of account to add
Selecting the type of account to add

Select the option to add a new directory, and click Next. You will then see the dialog in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Selecting the type of directory to add
Selecting the type of directory to add
Selecting the type of directory to add

Select the option to add a new LDAP directory, and click Next. You will then see the dialog in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Specifying the LDAP server details
Specifying the LDAP server details
Specifying the LDAP server details

Enter the relevant details about your LDAP server in the dialog shown in Figure 4. The example shown uses user credentials to bind to the tree. You can use anonymous access if your server's configuration supports it.

After entering in the basic details, click More Settings, and you will be prompted for more information, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Adding advanced options to the LDAP server configuration
Adding advanced options to the LDAP server configuration
Adding advanced options to the LDAP server configuration

Figure 5 shows more options, the important one being the search base. Click OK after entering the search base, and you will be returned to the main Outlook screen.

You may now use the LDAP database wherever you are prompted to look for users by selecting the server name from the "Show Names From" field.

In this tutorial you learned how to use your directory through searching and the command-line tools. You also learned how to configure e-mail clients to use the directory to store contact information.

Searching the LDAP tree requires you to build a query filter. The various operators that are used in a query are outlined in Table 3.

Table 3. LDAP Search Operators
=Tests for equality(cn=Walberg)
*Tests for the existence of an attribute(cn=*)
Substring search(sn=Walb*)
&Logical AND(&(condition1)(condition2))
|Logical OR(|(condition1)(condition2))
!Logical NOT(!(mail=*))
~="Sounds-like" match(cn~=Shawn)
<= and >=Range match(pagesPerMinute >= 20)

Several utilities are provided to use the directory, such as ldapsearch for searching, and ldapadd and ldapmodify for adding and changing data. The tools that start with ldap operate through the LDAP protocol and require credentials to log in to the server. The tools that start with slap are used by the administrator and operate directly on the database.

This tutorial and the previous ones in the 301 series have focused on managing and working with an LDAP server. The next tutorial in the series will look at various applications including e-mail servers, and show how to use LDAP as the data source.

Downloadable resources

Related topics

Zone=Linux, Open source
ArticleTitle=LPI exam 301 prep: Topic 304: Usage


text:
Millennials, it turns out, are quite good at making predictions. Visa’s 2012 Connecting with the Millennials report revealed that eight out of ten millennials interviewed saw a not-too-distant world where they could do all of their shopping and pay their bills online, and 73 percent thought this would be done via smartphone.

Just five years later , these predictions are becoming reality — and millennials are leading the charge. Banks are being forced to advance technologically due to competition from tech-savvy challenger banks, and fintech players which are providing a range of digital banking and cashless payment options.

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Millennials: The cashless vanguard

In Sweden, South Korea and a number of Eastern European countries, cashless societies are emerging much faster than seen in western Europe and the U.S. However, even in the U.S, tech-savvy millennials have been the quickest adopters of cashless payment systems.

ETA’s Transactions Trends survey reveals that only 21 percent of American respondents aged 23 -34 continue using cash for the majority of their purchases — an 18 percent drop since the same survey was undertaken five years ago. To put this into perspective, Generation X (aged 35 – 54) recorded only a two-point drop, and Baby Boomers and older saw an average six-point drop in regular cash users.

What’s more, 41 percent of millennials reported having made purchases with their smartphones and more than half of millennials have already used alternative payment services such as Venmo or PayPal for online payments and to transfer and receive funds. However, a recent report by ETA suggests that adoption of mobile payments and funds transfer systems remains hampered by poor UX and security concerns.

Millennials are quite right to worry about some aspects of being a cashless society.

The hidden risks of going cashless

Millennials are much more detached from their finances than their parent’s generation. While older generations learned to balance their accounts to make ends meet, most millennials have enjoyed digital banking and overdrafts since they first began earning.

Consequently, a recent study by The Pew Charitable Trusts found that millennials are the hardest hit by bank overdraft fees, with one in ten saying they are forced into overdraft at least ten times per year.

As the Netflix generation, millennials have more subscriptions and recurring payments than other age demographics. While recurring payments are convenient, and allow busy millennials to enjoy services without needing to remember different payment dates for various services, for a generation which is already struggling to stick within their financial limits, these type of payments  — which can quickly add up to large monthly amounts — can be risky.

While many cashless systems have embedded security functions — like fingerprint IDs for Apple Pay — as technology advances, so do criminals’ playbooks. According to a new report by BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust, millennials are more likely to be scammed than older generations, because they consider themselves to be “low risk” for digital theft, make more impulse buys and more purchases online.

As our finances and transactions become more digitalized, hackers and thieves will only become more active in this space, and the risk is not just losing some cash, it is having our whole identities stolen. This is why security is becoming a major focus for fintech companies.

How can millennials reduce risk?

Luckily for millennials, a number of new fintech players and challenger banks are designing services to cover their backs, and keep their finances more secure in the new digital landscape.

Robo-advisors like Mint allow users to manage their finances in real time, and will send notifications to help Millennials keep track of their spending. Budgeting tools like Fudget and Goodbudget allow users to make monthly budgets, and keep track of exactly how much they are spending on hidden extras like subscriptions.

Changes in legislation following the great recession of 2008 opened the doors to new challenger banks, and over the last couple of years we have seen new players like N26, Tandem and atom gain in popularity, especially with younger users. These banks are pushing innovation in banking, are designed for the digital — and mobile — generation and offer a wider range of loans, accounts and overdraft policies to suit users’ spending habits.

When it comes to security, millennials need to realize that they are at risk, and take steps to prevent potential fraud and identity theft.

Using only sites with trusted payment services is a good start, but they should  also consider services which have integrated security functions like biometrics, two-factor authentication, and tokenization and conceal vital information from snooping eyes. A number of payment gateways like Stripe, Braintree and Google Pay are also available, which provide millennials with convenience technologies to simplify the entire payment process.

While there are still risks involved from skilled hackers, taking extra measures reduces the chance of having your account hacked or your identity stolen.

Millennials account for more than a quarter of the total population of the European union and 27 percent of the American population and are set to become the highest-earning generation in history by 2025. With this in mind, it makes sense that this tech savvy demographic be the guinea pigs for the biggest financial shift in history.

As with any change there will be speed bumps, but with the help of the booming fintech industry, many millennials could soon find themselves in a much more secure, and stable financial situation than they are today.

Lucas D. Jankowiak is CEO of, an online and mobile payment gateway.


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Computerworld Unveils 2019 Best Places to Work in IT List

Since 1994, Computerworld’s annual Best Places to Work in IT feature has ranked the top 100 work environments for technology professionals.

Boston, Mass. – June 17, 2019 – IDG’s Computerworld – the leading technology media brand empowering enterprise users and their managers – is pleased to announce the 2019 Best Places to Work in IT list (click to tweet). The annual list is compiled based on a comprehensive questionnaire completed by IT staff regarding company offerings in categories such as benefits, career development, training and retention. Once the final rankings are calculated, the winning organizations are sorted by company size. Topping this year’s list in the respective divisions are Owens Corning (large), Ultimate Software (midsize) and Cloud for Good (small).

“The market for IT talent remains very tight, and employers continue to focus on identifying and retaining the best people,” said Computerworld executive editor Ken Mingis. “Our 2019 survey shows again that the Best Places to Work in IT are dynamic organizations that provide top pay and a broad array of programs and benefits designed to make them attractive places to work. Many show that they have a commitment to training, diversity and improved communication and teamwork.”

Compensation and Benefits
The 2019 Best Places to Work in IT list highlights progressive organizations fostering a work environment of professional growth, collaboration and respect. The companies value their employees, taking the necessary steps to position them for success and reward them for their efforts. This has led to productive and engaged employees, as well as strong retention rates for the organizations.

The Best Places organizations understand what their employees value most about their jobs, and have adjusted their budgets and policies as needed. Unsurprisingly, employees reported “fair compensation” as the most important aspect of their job. Our winning organizations recognize this and have responded accordingly; 96% have budgeted salary increases for the current fiscal year, while 82% of employees reported they are satisfied with their base salaries. Moreover, the winning organizations have implemented compensation packages providing additional value for employees. These include 401(k)/403(b) plans (97%), individual employee performance bonuses (91%), employee referral bonus programs (87%), overtime pay (83%) and profit sharing or employee stock ownership programs (56%).

IT teams continue to value the same benefits as in previous years of our questionnaire. The top-ranking benefits were health insurance, paid time off, and flexible hours. Once again, the winning organizations are meeting expectations, with 100% providing health insurance and paid time off, and 97% offering flexible hours. Specifically, 88% of the organizations offer employees a choice of health plans; meanwhile, employees at these firms receive an average of 21 days of paid time off after just one year of service.

Career Development
In recent years, employee training programs have emerged as a critical component of a dynamic workplace environment. This is particularly true in the tech space as new technologies continually cause roles to evolve while businesses shift to a digital-first strategy. In fact, according to IDG’s 2019 Digital Business Research, organizations are currently researching or piloting artificial intelligence (62%), machine learning (57%) and 5G (55%) to support digital growth.

IT staff needs access to the latest training offerings so they can remain effective in their roles and advance in their careers. The Best Places organizations recognize this and are investing in career development opportunities for their employees. In fact, the average budget for employee training in the latest fiscal year was just shy of $1 million, coming in at $977,884. Additionally, IT workers at these organizations received an average of nine days a year to participate in training. This trend is likely to continue, since 55% of the winning organizations plan to increase their training budget going forward. IT staffing numbers are expected to grow too, since 67% of organizations on the Best Places list plan to increase their head count this year.

Diversity and Inclusion
The organizations included in this year’s list have shown a clear commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Research has shown that a diverse work environment not only leads to higher employee morale, but also greater productivity and collaboration. This sentiment is certainly shared by employees: 70% of Best Places respondents said working with a group of people who are culturally diverse is an important aspect of their job.

The Best Places organizations have embraced this philosophy; 98% have nondiscrimination policies in place while working to create an environment of equality. Respondents were overwhelmingly positive when responding to questions on this topic. In fact, over 90% of employees noted their organization treats everyone fairly and equally, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender and age.

Employee Morale and Company Culture
In addition to these policies and benefits, there are several abstract factors that have led to a positive work environment for IT staff. These include access to new tools and technologies, employee wellness programs, telecommuting options, opportunities to get involved in interesting projects, and much more. Ninety-seven percent of employees reported they have a good relationship with their co-workers, 92% are proud to work for their organization, and 91% feel their organization is run ethically and honestly. This year’s winning organizations have successfully built a strong company culture where employees feel appreciated and are given the tools to progress in their careers.

Learn More About the Top 100 Organizations
The complete 2019 Best Places to Work in IT report can be read on The website features articles profiling several winning organizations, a video highlighting standout benefits and perks offered by the top companies, and an archive listing all honorees dating back to 1994.

Computerworld’s Best Places to Work in IT 2019:

Large Organization Rankings (5,000+ U.S. employees)
1. Owens Corning
2. Worthington Industries
3. Vanguard
4. Asurion
5. Applied Materials
6. Prudential Financial
7. Norton Healthcare
8. Navy Federal Credit Union
9. Discover Financial Services
10. Booz Allen Hamilton
11. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
12. VMware
13. University of Notre Dame
14. Erickson Living Management
15. Kaiser Permanente
16. FedEx
17. EBSCO Industries
18. Jet Propulsion Laboratory
19. TD Ameritrade
20. Portland State University
21. Principal Financial Group
22. Dignity Health
23. Motorola Solutions
24. CDW
25. Johns Hopkins Medicine
26. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
27. Zimmer Biomet
28. Genentech
29. MSC Industrial Supply
30. Health Care Service Corp.
31. H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
32. RSM US
33. Sharp HealthCare
34. Fannie Mae
35. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
36. Total Quality Logistics
37. Raytheon
38. Jack Henry and Associates
39. Aflac
40. SAS
41. DTE Energy
42. Holman Enterprises
43. Southern Co.
44. Nationwide Mutual Insurance
45. Mitre
46. Memorial Healthcare System
47. Christiana Care Health Services
48. Atrium Health
49. Kroger Technology

Midsize Organization Rankings (1,001 – 4,999 U.S. employees)
1. Ultimate Software
3. Kronos
4. Nicklaus Children’s Hospital
5. Align Technology
6. Enova International
7. Box
8. Plante Moran
9. Illumina
10. Halifax Health
11. Informatica
12. CHG Healthcare
13. National Information Solutions Cooperative
14. Avanade
15. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
16. FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority)
17. Carvana
18. CME Group
19. Janney Montgomery Scott
20. Axon
21. Robert W. Baird and Co.
22. Workiva
23. DriveTime
24. Genesis HealthCare System
25. Power Home Remodeling
26. Caesars Enterprise Services
27. Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties
28. Tokyo Electron U.S. Holdings
29. American Fidelity Assurance

Small Organization Rankings (<1,000 U.S. employees)
1. Cloud for Good
2. KnowBe4
3. Axxess
4. AgileCraft
5. CarGurus
7. AP Intego Insurance Group
8. Dataprise
9. Sev1Tech
10. BCU (Baxter Credit Union)
11. Accelirate
12. Paramount Software Solutions
13. Connectria Hosting
14. Liquidnet Holdings
16. MetroStar Systems
17. Planned Systems International
18. oXya
19. Health Catalyst
20. Avaap USA
21. Pariveda Solutions
22. Nitel

About the Best Places to Work in IT list
The Best Places to Work in Information Technology (IT) list is an annual ranking of the top 100 work environments for technology professionals by IDG’s Computerworld. The list is compiled based on a comprehensive questionnaire regarding company offerings in categories such as benefits, career development, training and retention. In addition, Computerworld conducts extensive surveys of IT workers, and their responses factor heavily in determining the rankings.

About Computerworld
Computerworld is the leading technology media brand empowering enterprise users and their managers, helping them create business advantage by skillfully exploiting today’s abundantly powerful web, mobile, and desktop applications. Computerworld also offers guidance to IT managers tasked with optimizing client systems — and helps businesses revolutionize the customer and employee experience with new collaboration platforms. Computerworld’s award-winning website (, strategic marketing solutions and research forms the hub of the world’s largest global IT media network and provides opportunities for IT vendors to engage this audience. Computerworld is published by IDG Communications, Inc. Company information is available at

Follow Computerworld on Twitter: @Computerworld #CWBestPlaces
Follow Computerworld on LinkedIn
Follow Computerworld on Facebook

About IDG Communications, Inc.
IDG Communications connects the world of tech buyers with insights, intent and engagement. We are the world’s largest media, data and marketing services company that activates and engages the most influential technology buyers. Our premium brands, including CIO®, Computerworld®, CSO®, InfoWorld®, Macworld®, Network World®, and PCWorld® engage a quality audience of the most powerful audience of technology buyers providing essential guidance on the evolving technology landscape.

Our global data intelligence platform activates purchasing intent, powering our clients’ success. IDG Marketing Services creates custom content with marketing impact across video, mobile, social and digital. We execute complex campaigns that fulfill marketers’ global ambitions seamlessly with consistency that delivers quality results.

Follow IDG on Twitter: @IDGWorld
Follow IDG on LinkedIn
Like IDG on Facebook

Alex Kastrinelis
Marketing Specialist
IDG Communications, Inc.

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Top Network Executives Convene to Discuss Strategy in an Unpredictable Market At Vortex 2001

SAN MATEO, CA – MARCH 26 – IDG Executive Forums announced today that the VORTEX 2001 conference will convene the leading minds in the network business to explore new business and customer opportunities in a time of economic uncertainty and market upheaval. VORTEX, an elite invitation-only gathering for senior executives in the Internet, telephone and television industries, will spotlight the most profitable opportunities in key market segments, including optical networking, new networked-applications, wireless and more.

"At VORTEX 2001, we will take a hard look at the business models and revenue streams for the network," said John Gallant, VORTEX's new Executive Producer. "This conference is not about speeds and feeds and truck rolls. It is not a cheerleading session for the latest hot buzzwords and companies. VORTEX 2001 is about reality."

Gallant, along with VORTEX Founding Producer Bob Metcalfe, father of the Ethernet, will facilitate a comprehensive program of presentations, roundtables and special events. The industry's top decision-makers will be on hand to offer insight on new business opportunities in key market segments. Thought leaders will speak to the areas of applications, enterprise, wireless, optical, core-networking, edge-networking and beyond.

Market segments covered at VORTEX 2001 include:

— Applications: What will key providers need?

— The Core of the Network: Find the sweet spots for equipment sales.

— Enterprise Networks: Emerging opportunities plus some predictions on

industry frontrunners.

— The Edge of the Network: Last-mile broadband, voice & data and more.

— Local Carriers: Next generation of services and providers.

— Optical: Winners and losers on the glass highway.

— Pushers: Content, entertainment, and software visions.

— Regulators: New issues, new players, new ballgame.

— Telecom: Revenue opportunities & black holes.

— Unplugged: Wireless, Mobile Commerce, and more.

Confirmed speakers for VORTEX 2001 include:

— Patrick Gelsinger, VP/CTO, Intel Architecture Group

— Reed Hundt, McKinsey & Co.

— Larry Jacobson, President, Real Media

— Bill Kennard, former FCC chair

— Mitchell Kertzman, CEO, Liberate

— Joe Nacchio, CEO, Qwest

— Dave Nagel, CTO, President AT&T Labs

— William Raduchel, CTO, AOL

— Jonathan Seelig, CTO, Akamai

— Pradeep Sindhu, Vice Chairman & CEO, Juniper Networks

— John Sidgmore, Vice Chairman, Worldcom

— Dan Yost, President, Allegiance Telecom

Two of IDG Executive Forums' leading conferences come together, as VORTEX joins forces with DEMO producers, Chris Shipley and Jim Forbes, to showcase the hottest new technologies in the Internet, telephone and television networking markets. Following the same rigorous screening process used for DEMO, Chris and Jim carefully evaluate and select each product to be showcased at VORTEX 2001.

VORTEX Newcomers

Well-funded network newcomers, who do not have demonstrable technologies or services (high-speed wireless, edge gear, metro services, etc.) are given five minutes in the spotlight at VORTEX. Attendees will get a sneak peek at this elite group of compelling companies soon to impact the network scene.

VORTEX 2001 is an exclusive, invitation-only event for senior executives that brings together all the key elements — leadership, thought, funding, and regulatory expertise — to shape the future of the network business and the technologies that drive it. VORTEX 2001 will be held May 22-24, 2001 at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel resort in Dana Point, California. Attendance at VORTEX is by invitation only; to request an invitation, visit .

VORTEX 2001 Underwriters

Underwriters of VORTEX 2001 are AT&T, Battery Ventures, Credit Suisse First Boston and Sprint.

About IDG Executive Forums

IDG Executive Forums is an information resource company dedicated to serving executives in the high technology marketplace. The company provides the industry analysis, information, insights and networking opportunities its customers need to excel in the fastest-paced marketplace in the world. Most widely known for producing the high-tech industry's premiere executive conferences and newsletters, the company's products include AGENDA(R), DEMO(R), DEMOmobile, VORTEX, DEMOletter(R), and IDG Executive Forums is a subsidiary of International Data Group, the world's leading IT media, research, and exposition company. All registered trademarks are owned by IDG. More information can be found at .

About IDG

IDG is the world's leading IT media, research and exposition company. IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers and 4,000 book titles and offers online users the largest network of technology-specific sites around the world through ( ), which comprises more than 270 targeted Web sites in 70 countries. IDG is also a leading producer of 168 computer-related expositions worldwide, and provides IT market analysis through 50 offices in 43 countries worldwide. Company information is available at

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Understanding the Tech Initiatives & Priorities of Today’s CIOs

It’s that time of year again; CIO’s annual State of the CIO report is released. This year’s survey examines how CIOs are seeing their role transition within their respective companies as technology continues to drive business forward.

To bring this data to life, SVP/General Manager, IDG Events & Publisher, CIO, Adam Dennison hosted a webcast featuring Shannon Gath – VP and CIO of AMAG Pharmaceuticals; Nicole Raimundo – CIO for Cary, North Carolina; and David Behen – VP and CIO of La-Z-Boy. During their conversation, they discussed many of the research findings, including the different responsibilities within CIO leadership, priorities of tech executives, and the importance of communication.

Taking on Strategic Initiatives
Over the previous 10 years of the State of the CIO research, there was almost always a clear distinction between strategic, functional and transformational CIOs, with the majority of CIOs having a transformational role. However, recently there has been a shift towards strategic CIOs. In 2017, half of all CIOs surveyed were considered transformational, with only 31% in the strategic category. This gap narrowed this year as 42% of CIOs sit in the transformational bucket and 40% in strategic.

This fluctuation can be partially attributed to the fact that CEOs are leaning more and more on CIOs and the IT department to lead digital business initiatives and strengthen IT and business collaboration. No longer are the days where IT solely improved the company’s IT operations and systems performance. Now the CIO finally has a true “seat at the table,” developing and refining business strategy, identifying opportunities for competitive differentiation, and driving business innovation. In the coming years, these responsibilities are likely to expand even more with strategic CIOs expected to increase to 58% within the next three years (2023).

However, many companies out there don’t expect to be limited simply to the “strategic” sector. La-Z-Boy is an example of this. David Behen doesn’t see his team ever getting out of being functional but does view them as being in all three categories. At the end of the day, it will always be necessary for IT to maintain security, systems operations, technology crisis control, among other traditional roles; but by moving forward into other areas of IT, CIOs are able to be incredibly good partners for enhancing the business.

IT Executive Priorities are Expanding
As CIO responsibilities continue to transform and expand, it is a very good thing that their priorities are in lockstep with their CEOs. Of those surveyed, 39% of all CIOs shared their CEO’s top priority for IT in 2020 is leading digital transformation initiatives, followed by upgrading IT and data security to boost corporate resilience (31%).

Shannon Gath of AMAG Pharmaceuticals has found success with having her IT team maintain a wide variety of responsibilities, specifically when it comes to determining where to spend their budget. Since her IT department has a wide range of roles, it forces them to come into meetings with their “enterprise hat on” and not simply focus on the functional aspect of their job. This encourages the team to look at the bigger picture throughout the organization and not just their individual department. Additionally, this practice assists in making sure any responsibility from revenue generation to risk mitigation is completed as a team. By taking this approach, AMAG has been able to make sure they invest their budget in the most efficient ways.

This expansion beyond traditional IT responsibilities is supported at La-Z-Boy. Behen has found “not many people are making significant moves in their companies without talking to someone on the IT team,” regardless of their area of expertise. By allowing technology leaders to have this high level of impact during the business decision-making process, companies are becoming much more integrated between all departments. As CIOs and their teams look to enhance the business and collaborate across departments, they are seeing new ways to drive revenue, as 67% shared that revenue-generating initiatives are in their purview.

Communication is Key
Staying consistent with last year, 78% of CIOs say that they are communicating with the Board of Directors more than ever before, with this figure increasing to 83% for strategic CIOs but decreasing to 72% for functional CIOs. This increased level of communication aligns with the tasks making up strategic agendas, such as developing and refining business strategy and driving business innovation.

All three of the CIOs who participated in the webcast agreed that communication with line of business executives has been one of the most important aspects in finding success. For Gath, she says her communication is dependent on timing and what AMAG needs at the current moment. At La-Z-Boy, Behen does his best to distribute his communication as equally as possible, keeping in contact with a variety of departments and believes there should be a need and desire to overcommunicate more with line of business to make sure everyone agrees on what is best for the company. However, he made sure to note that for budgets and supply chain, the CFO has a special place in his inbox. Cary, North Carolina’s Nicole Raimundo found her experiences aligning closer to Behen’s – she does her best to meet with everyone to understand their primary needs, but at the end of the day, “finance is [her] best friend.”

As important as communication is with senior IT executives and the Board of Directors, the relationships IT builds do not stop there. Over half (52%) of CIOs also depend on strategic vendors for advice, followed by their peers (42%). Insight provided by the panel suggested that the biggest difference between the two is that typically vendors simply follow their contractual agreement whereas your peers are willing to go above and beyond their expectations.

With CIOs’ roles expanding and the need for communication at all levels increasing, stronger integration between all moving parts of a company, vendors included, will do nothing but make driving business forward easier and more efficient for all.

To learn more about what else is on the horizon for CIOs in the coming year, download the 2020 State of the CIO white paper and take a listen to the full webcast here.


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The Confrontation - A Family Devotional

Do you ever keep track of someone’s “wrongs” against you?

God commands us to love each other.

Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-5, 13

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13, NIV).

Monica rolled out of bed and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. It had seemed to take forever for her to fall asleep last night. She had spent half the night thinking about her plan to tell Gina—the “former friend” who had stolen her boyfriend, Jimmy—that she had seen Jimmy and Susan Brock at the movies. She didn’t plan to mention that Jimmy had been at the theater with a couple of his friends and Susan had been standing in line behind Jimmy with her parents.

She had spent hours wrestling with the rightness and wrongness of her decision but had fallen asleep determined to get even with Gina.

I’ve made my decision, she told herself as she got dressed. She rushed through breakfast and arrived at school in time to see Gina standing at her locker near the chemistry lab. She glanced up and down the hall for any sign of Jimmy. The coast was clear.

“Hi, Gina,” she said sweetly.

Gina’s eyes widened at Monica’s greeting. “I’ve got something I need to tell you.” Monica took a deep breath. “I’ve been really mad at you for going out with Jimmy. I blamed you for breaking me and Jimmy up, and I’ve thought about ways to get even with you. But I finally had to admit that it would be wrong because—well, because I’m a Christian and God tells me to love you.” Monica blushed. “Plus, I just realized this morning that you were one of the best friends I’ve ever had, and I’d—I’d really like to try to be friends again. What do you think about that?”

The first bell rang. “I’ll see you later, OK?” Monica said, inwardly congratulating herself for the effect her words had obviously had on Gina. Gina’s eyes had clouded with tears as if she couldn’t believe what she had heard. Monica nearly skipped down the hall with self-satisfaction.

Throughout the day she thought about the encounter. She knew that she had done the right thing, and maybe even saved a good friendship. In her heart she knew that even though she had planned to teach Gina a lesson, she’d really taught herself. And from now on, she would remember what God’s love was really like.

TO DISCUSS: What do you think Monica would have gained by “teaching Gina a lesson”? Do you think she gained less or more by acting lovingly toward her instead? First Corinthians 13:5 says that love “keeps no record of when it has been wronged.” What does that mean? Do you ever keep track of someone’s “wrongs” against you? Do you need to change anything in your attitudes or actions in order to obey God’s command to love others (even those who have hurt you)?

TO PRAY: “Heavenly Father, when people make us angry, we want to get even sometimes. Show us how to reflect your love instead of getting even.”

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