[Fedora-directory-users] LDAP aliases

[Rich Megginson]

George Holbert wrote:

> Thanks for the feedback Rich,
>
>> There are a couple of different ways to do something similar.  You 
>> can use "smart referrals" to make the client follow the chain instead 
>> of the server.  Class of Service can be used to generate attributes 
>> and values based on references to other entries.
>
>
>
> Yes, smart referrals seem like they could do pretty much the same 
> thing.  One big difference is that a referral must include a LDAP 
> server in the URL it hands back to the client.  The potential drawback 
> of this is that the referral URL should likely be different depending 
> on the location of the client.  For example, a client in Asia should 
> be referred to a server in Asia, while a US client should be referred 
> to a US server.  This means the referral data will need to be 
> different depending on location, so it cannot be replicated from one 
> central server.
>
> Aliases, on the other hand, wouldn't depend on a server's location, so 
> they could be the same regardless of where a consumer server is located.
>
> Do you happen to know:  is there some URL variable mechanism that 
> would allow me to configure a referral URL which uses the "current 
> LDAP server" so that referral URLs would not need to include hardcoded 
> hostnames?

Not sure.  You may be able to use ldap:///<entry DN> e.g. 
ldap:///uid=another user,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com

If not, then we should probably put this on the wishlist/roadmap.

>
> I'm only looking to re-direct lookups to another location in the DIT, 
> not to another server.  It would be great to be able to do this with 
> one generic URL.
>
> Thanks again,
> -- George
>
> Rich Megginson wrote:
>
>> George Holbert wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I've noticed that FDS and other Netscape-derived directory servers 
>>> (like Sun's) do not have support for LDAP aliases.
>>>
>>> At one point there was an IETF draft for LDAP aliases which can 
>>> still be found here:
>>> http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-byrne-ldap-alias-00.txt
>>>
>>> Based on documentation snippets I've run across, it looks like some 
>>> LDAP servers (IBM, Novell) still support the alias schema suggested 
>>> in the draft.
>>
>>
>>
>> I think the latest version of Sun DS (5.2 sp 3) may support aliases.
>>
>>>
>>> I'm wondering why the alias schema is not included in FDS?  My guess 
>>> is that LDAP aliases turned out to be a bad idea for various 
>>> reasons, but I'm not exactly sure what these reasons are.
>>
>>
>>
>> I don't remember exactly why Netscape never supported aliases.  There 
>> are a couple of different ways to do something similar.  You can use 
>> "smart referrals" to make the client follow the chain instead of the 
>> server.  Class of Service can be used to generate attributes and 
>> values based on references to other entries.
>>
>> If there is enough interest, we could investigate adding support to FDS.
>>
>>>
>>> Does anyone have any philosophies to share about LDAP aliases and/or 
>>> why they aren't included in FDS?
>>>
>>> Thanks very much,
>>> -- George
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Fedora-directory-users mailing list
>>> Fedora-directory-users at redhat.com
>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-directory-users
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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>> Fedora-directory-users at redhat.com
>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-directory-users
>>  
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Fedora-directory-users mailing list
> Fedora-directory-users at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-directory-users

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