How to connect Virola with Active Directory and LDAP

If your company uses Active Directory with LDAP protocol, you can take advantage of this type of integration with Virola corporate messenger. LDAP is a TCP/IP network protocol and set of access methods for interfacing and querying directory information. Active Directory (AD) is Microsoft's implementation of a directory service that supports the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) for querying and accessing data.

Integration with AD/LDAP means that Virola admin does not need to create users manually. Your users can sign into Virola corporate messenger with their AD credentials. Let's see how this works.

How to connect Virola Server to Active Directory

In addition to the address of the host server, where Virola server is installed and its port, you need to specify connection to the Active Directory server. It can be either self-hosted or cloud server, like Azure.

A special parameter directory-server is used to specify the Active Directory server you wish to connect to. If you run Virola Server from command line, you need to add this parameter after usual listen and storage-dir parameters. For example: 

virola_server_app.exe --listen 127.0.0.1:7777 --storage-dir ./ --directory-server azure-domainname.onmicrosoft.com:636

where

  • --listen 127.0.0.1:7777 tells Virola Server to run on IP 127.0.0.1 and listen on port 7777
  • --storage-dir ./ tells Virola Server to store its database next to the server executable file
  • --directory-server azure-domainname.onmicrosoft.com:636 specifies connection to Active Directory server.

If you run Virola Server using Virola Server GUI, you need to specify directory-server parameter in the Other Options field:

Virola Server GUI with Active Directory connection parameter

How to login to Virola Client with Active Directory credentials

Active Directory and LDAP integration in Virola works as authorization service, allowing users to connect with their Active Directory username and password. Your users need to install Virola Client and login to it with their Active Directory credentials, for example:

Virola Client login form with Active Directory credentials

where

  • Server Host: IP address of the machine, where Virola Server is running
  • Server Port: port on which Virola Server is listening
  • Username: username which is used to authenticate in Active Directory
  • Password: active directory password