Directory Services (was Re: Obj-C vs Java)
Directory Services (was Re: Obj-C vs Java)
- Subject: Directory Services (was Re: Obj-C vs Java)
- From: Richard Kendall Wolf <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 13:51:50 -0500
On Wednesday, July 25, 2001, at 10:02 AM, Lloyd Sargent wrote:
... but does anybody know if Apple (or
a third-party) is working on an LDAP v.3 directory services plugin
for the directory services architecture in Mac OS X? I've asked on
another list ... but I think this has the interest value of a clump
of fungus for most people.
Hmmm... tell me more about this clump of fungus (fungi?)....<grin>
This is a little off-topic for this list, so I won't say too much
about it (but a couple of people have asked about it). Apple gave a
really good directory services presentation at WWDC and you can see
it on ADC TV, if you want to find out more.
The basic idea is that you can choose which directory service you
want Mac OS X to use. Mac OS X ships with NetInfo and LDAP v.2, but
NetInfo is the default. "In principle," developers can create other
directory service plugins to for Mac OS X to use -- we could, for
example, have an NDS plugin for NetWare enterprises and an Active
Directory plugin for AD enterprises. "In practice," however, there
is only one directory service that matters anymore ... LDAP v.3.
Both Novell and Microsoft now prefer LDAP v.3 as the means to access
their respective directory services. Though it may seem cruel for me
to say so, NetInfo doesn't matter much in the the directory services
world. Our organization, for example, has a 40,000 user object
directory services tree and this is considered "small" in the
directory services world. At its 2000 BrainShare conference, Novell
demonstrated what has since been lovingly referred to as "the
butt" -- the "billion user-object tree" -- on a Sun server running
Novell Directory Services software. Just imagine setting up a
NetInfo directory with a billion users in it. :-) :-)