ldap interoperability 1

[mardacofta]

a) I need to implement a look-up of an organisation that has
multiple domains. Their only common denominator is the ".com" part of the URL. Do you recomment multiple LDAP databases, or a single LDAP database ?

b) Due to the fact that different applications on the market certify their products with different LDAP products on the market, there is the case that in an environment, I will end up having to use more than 2 LDAP servers, of different manufacturers. What is the common denominator that I should look for (in specifications), in order for the 2 or more LDAP servers to allow update of each other, i.e. to have only one master and do my updates and the rest will update themselves ?

Q c) I think that a more crucial question is whether the LDAP server products on the market talk to each other, in order to update themselves.

 

[ldap4u]

a) There are probably additional requirements that would lead you to implement multiple LDAP databases. I imagine that since you are talking about multiple domains you may be talking about different organizations (or at least different business units)? If so separate databases would allow the development and maintenance of their (business unit or organization) schema ... If they aren't different organizations but are geographically dispersed - it might also be wise to separate into different LDAP databases as there would most likely be either separate SLA's or maintenance times for each instance ...

b) Most vendors will now certify that their products can leverage LDAP - and that's all - anything stronger wording would be surprising. You will find that almost all vendor applications will integrate with the major LDAP players ... though certification may be a legal word vendors are not willing to put down in writing ... There is no reason to believe that you would be required to maintain multiple LDAP products - but it may be logical in some cases ...

c) Without some type of meta product or in-house solution to simulate a meta product you will most likely not be able to replicate changes from one LDAP server product to another. In other words - LDAP servers can easily update each other if they are from the same vendor - different vendor provided servers usually don't provide mechanisms for replicating changes to other vendor provided LDAP solutions.

HTH