HP-UX Directory Server 8.1 deployment guide

1 Introduction to directory services
This document provides information on deploying the HP-UX Directory Server
HP-UX Directory Server provides a centralized directory service for intranet, network, and
extranet information. Directory Server integrates with existing systems and acts as a centralized
repository for the consolidation of employee, customer, supplier, and partner information.
Directory Server can even be extended to manage user profiles, preferences, and authentication.
This chapter describes the basic ideas and concepts for understanding what a directory service
does to help begin designing the directory service.
1.1 About directory services
The term directory service refers to the collection of software, hardware, and processes that store
information about an enterprise, subscribers, or both, and make that information available to
users. A directory service consists of at least one instance of Directory Server and at least one
directory client program. Client programs can access names, phone numbers, addresses, and
other data stored in the directory service.
An example of a directory service is a domain name system (DNS) server. A DNS server maps
computer host names to IP addresses. Thus, all the computing resources (hosts) become clients
of the DNS server. Mapping host names allows users of computing resources to easily locate
computers on a network by remembering host names rather than IP addresses. A limitation of
a DNS server is that it stores only two types of information: names and IP addresses. A true
directory service stores virtually unlimited types of information.
Directory Server stores all user and network information in a single, network-accessible repository.
Many kinds of different information can be stored in the Directory Server:
• Physical device information, such as data about the printers in an organization, such as
location, color or black and white, manufacturer, date of purchase, and serial number.
• Public employee information, such as name, email address, and department.
• Private employee information, such as salary, government identification numbers, home
addresses, phone numbers, and pay grade.
• Contract or account information, such as the name of a client, final delivery date, bidding
information, contract numbers, and project dates.
Directory Server serves the needs of a wide variety of applications. It also provides a standard
protocol and application programming interfaces (APIs) to access the information it contains.
1.1.1 About global directory services
Directory Server provides global directory services, which means that it provides information
to a wide variety of applications. Rather than attempting to unify proprietary databases bundled
with different applications, which is an administrative burden, Directory Server is a single
solution to manage the same information.
For example, a company is running three different proprietary email systems, each with its own
proprietary directory service. If users change their passwords in one directory, the changes are
not automatically replicated in the others. Managing multiple instances of the same information
results in increased hardware and personnel costs; the increased maintenance overhead is referred
to as the n+1 directory problem.
A global directory service solves the n+1 directory problem by providing a single, centralized
repository of directory information that any application can access. However, giving a wide
variety of applications access to the directory service requires a network-based means of
communicating between the applications and the directory service. Directory Server uses LDAP
for applications to access to its global directory service.
1.1 About directory services 9