Red Hat Directory Server 8.0 Administrator's Guide

General Red Hat Directory Server

Usage

Red Hat Directory Server product includes a directory service, an administration server to

manage multiple server instances, and a Java-based console to manage server instances

through a graphical interface. This chapter provides an overview of the basic tasks for

administering a directory service.

The Directory Server is a robust, scalable server designed to manage an enterprise-wide

directory of users and resources. It is based on an open-systems server protocol called the

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Directory Server runs the ns-slapd daemon on

the host machine. The server manages the directory databases and responds to client requests.

Directory Server 8.0 is comprised of several components, which work in tandem:

• The Directory Server is the core LDAP server daemon. It is compliant with LDAP v3

standards. This component includes command-line server management and administration

programs and scripts for common operations like export and backing up databases.

• The Directory Server Console is the user interface that simplifies managing users, groups,

and other LDAP data for your enterprise. The Console is used for all aspects of server

management, including making backups; configuring security, replication, and databases;

adding entries; and monitoring servers and viewing statistics.

• The Administration Server is the management agent which administers Directory Server

instances. It communicates with the Directory Server Console and performs operations on the

Directory Server instances. It also provides a simple HTML interface and online help pages.

Most Directory Server administrative tasks are available through the Directory Server Console,

but it is also possible to administer the Directory Server by manually editing the configuration

files or by using command-line utilities.

1. Directory Server File Locations

Red Hat Directory Server 8.0 conforms to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standards. For more

information on FHS, see the FHS homepage, http://www.pathname.com/fhs/. The files and

directories installed with Directory Server are listed in the tables below for each supported

platform.

In the file locations listed in the following tables, instance is the server instance name that was

given during setup. By default, this is the leftmost component of the fully-qualified host and

domain name. For example, if the hostname is ldap.example.com, the instance name is ldap

by default.

The Administration Server directories are named the same as the Directory Server directories,

Chapter 1.