Red Hat Directory Server 8.0 Administrator's Guide

Populating Directory Databases
Databases contain the directory data managed by the Red Hat Directory Server.
1. Importing Data
Directory Server provides three methods for importing data:
• Import from the Directory Server Console. Use the Directory Server Console to append data
to all of the databases, including database links.
• Initialize databases. The Directory Server Console can import data to one database; this
method overwrites any data contained by the database.
• Importing data from the command-line. Directory Server provides command-line utilities to
import data.
NOTE
The LDIF files used for import operations must use UTF-8 character set
encoding. Import operations do not convert data from local character set
encoding to UTF-8 characterset encoding.
Table 4.1, “Import Method Comparison” describes the differences between an import and
initializing databases.
Action Import Initialize Database
Overwrites database No Yes
LDAP operations Add, modify, delete Add only
Performance More time-consuming Fast
Partition speciality Works on all partitions Local partitions only
Response to server failure Best effort (all changes made
up to the point of the failure
remain)
Atomic (all changes are lost
after a failure)
LDIF file location Local to Console Local to Console or local to
server
Imports configuration
information (cn=config)
Yes No
Table 4.1. Import Method Comparison
Chapter 4.
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