# Setting up Derby to use your LDAP directory service

When specifying LDAP as your authentication service, you must specify what LDAP server to use.

- derby.authentication.server

  Set the property derby.authentication.server to the URL to the LDAP server. For example:

      derby.authentication.server=ldap://godfrey:389/

  The LDAP server may be specified using just the server name, the server name and its port number separated by a colon, or a ldap URL. If a full URL is not provided, Derby will by default use unencrypted LDAP - to use SSL encrypted LDAP an URL starting with "ldaps://" must be provided.

  Also note that support for ldaps:// URLs requires that Derby runs on Java 1.4.2 or higher.

Parent topic: LDAP directory service
Related concepts
Guest access to search for DNs
LDAP performance issues
Considerations when using Windows NT with LDAP
LDAP restrictions
Related reference
Libraries for LDAP user authentication