# Booting an LDAP server

To begin, launch the OpenDS QuickSetup JNLP (Java Web Start) installer, then follow the installation steps to set up your directory server.

You can obtain the installer from https://opends.java.net/ by clicking the "Install with QuickSetup" link.

As part of this installation, you will specify a password, which we will call YOUR_SELECTED_PASSWORD.

Next, load some credentials into the directory server. Download this sample file of credentials: http://today.java.net/today/2007/03/22/secArticle.LDIF. Now load it into your directory server using the `import-ldif` tool in the `bin` directory of your OpenDS installation. (Make sure that OpenDS is not running when you import credentials; otherwise you will receive an error message indicating that the import utility cannot acquire a lock over storage.)

    import-ldif --backendID userRoot --ldifFile secArticle.LDIF

Now bring up the OpenDS server by running the `start-ds` script in the `bin` directory of your OpenDS installation.

Parent topic: Configuring LDAP authentication
Related concepts
Setting up Derby to use your LDAP directory service
Guest access to search for DNs
LDAP performance issues
LDAP restrictions
JNDI-specific properties for external directory services