Distinguished Name

(DN) The unique name of a directory entry. It is comprised of all of the individual names of the parent entries back to the root entry of the directory information tree (DIT). (The DIT is a hierarchical tree-like structure consisting of the DNs of directory entries.) The following example shows a typical DN:

cn=Sara Will, ou=Sales, o=Acme Corporation, c=AU

Where cn stands for common name, ou stands for organizational unit, o stands for organization, and c stands for country. DNs are also used to identify credentials that are stored in wallets.