Connecting to LDAP with Ruby

Looking at my tasks, the first order of business is to get connected to our LDAP server through a Ruby script. I'll start with a few Google searches and see what kind of LDAP gems I can use and if there are any examples or tutorials.
Here are a few results:

• Ruby/LDAP Tutorial
• ruby-ladp/test (github)
• HowtoAuthenticateWithRubyNetLDAP

For whatever reason, I chose ruby-ldap as my gem to install and ran with its tutorials and examples. Net-LDAP also seemed like a good choice.

I ran a little script just to get started.

But I'm not able to connect. Our LDAP is on SSL with a self signed certificate and I need to import it to my environment. I'm jumping ahead here a bit as I got that script from Christian Hofstadtler's post that helped me troubleshoot the issue. Since I'm developing on OS X, these instructions from Apple got my TLS_CACERT in /etc/openldap/ldap.conf configured correctly.

Now I'm getting data from our LDAP and I need to start filtering and refining. My basic script looks like this:

Move password expiration script from ColdFusion to Ruby

Today I started an interesting project migrating a ColdFusion scheduled task to Ruby. Why would we do such a thing? We have a number of problems with our CF server, primarily the CF spooler has been sending two copies of our organization's notice of password expiration. We've investigated and researched and have never come up with a satisfactory (or logical) solution for it. In addition our unit is moving away from CF and to Ruby on Rails for our application development. It would be in our interest to migrate existing business processes to the new environment.

Me, I'm struggling to get up to speed on Rails. I still maintain a lot of CF code and I have at least two current projects being actively developed in CF. I can support our other developer with html, css, testing and mock ups, but I just can't quite get on the Rails train yet.

My boss, probably at the suggestion of our other dev, assigned me to rewrite our failing expiration notification script in Ruby. This I can probably do. And I'll probably learn a lot about Ruby along the way. I'll break this down in our usual SBAR format.

Situation: Our organization expires passwords every six months. We should probably warn our users when their expiration is coming due; at 30, 14, 7, 3, 2 and 1 day. A script that runs every morning should search the LDAP looking for upcoming expirations, and at those intervals send an email.

Background: We have a working ColdFusion script and a history of utilizing our organization's LDAP. ColdFusion was quick and easy to set up, but there are problems with our server. Additionally, our unit is moving away from CF development. Developing a new script should not be difficult since the logic and assets are readily available. Hopefully, we can return responsibility of this business process to the Identity Management unit and not take so much flack for what the warnings do or do not do.

Analysis: To accomplish this project I have created the following tasks:

1. Connect to LDAP with Ruby
2. Report contents of LDAP in Ruby
3. Refine LDAP results
4. Send email to myself
5. Build logic structure based on existing code
6. Test locally
7. Deploy on server
8. Test on server
9. Schedule as chron job

Results: Successfully find and send expiration notices daily.