simple bind vs "who am i"

[François Beretti <francois.beretti@enatel.com>]

Hi,

Because I have to use the Microsoft LDAP api (winldap.h) to do requests 
on an OpenLDAP server, I encounter a situation where I have to ensure 
that I am authenticated (it's due to a ms bug that makes the connection 
autoreconnect when it has been broken, but _without_ doing a bind again, 
so you get anonymous instead of your previous authenticated state).

I have several solutions :
- doing a bind before each operation
- performing a "who am i" extended operation before each operation
- performing an ldap operation on the directory that can only (because 
of access rights rules) be performed while authenticated, before each 
operation

In your opinion, which is the less expensive in server ressources with 
the OpenLDAP' slapd?

Additional question : are the extended operations dependent on the 
client api ? And if yes, does anymone know (I am a bit OT here) if the 
ms ldap api supports it ?

Thank you very much

François