Re: X.500 Questions

"peter (p.w.) whittaker" <pww@bnr.ca> Mon, 15 January 1996 23:36 UTC

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From: "peter (p.w.) whittaker" <pww@bnr.ca>
Message-ID: <Pine.HPP.3.91.960115141013.392Y-100000@bwdlh591>
To: "jason.lindemann" <jason.lindemann@pipe.nova.ca>
Cc: osi-ds <osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk>
In-Reply-To: <199601111805.LAA09326@sm0003sv.pipe.nova.ca>
Subject: Re: X.500 Questions
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On Thu, 11 Jan 1996 jason.lindemann%pipe.nova.ca@bcars735 wrote:
> 1. In a search, does the ability to display the DN (distinguished name),
> rely on 
>         the DUA (directory user agent), or the DSA (directory service agent)?

Since the DUA is the process that interacts with users, and thus handles
the displaying of anything, it is the DUA's responsibility.  The DSA
will return the DN of entries upon which Directory operations were
performed to the DUA, providing the user on whose behalf the DUA is
acting has sufficient privileges to know that the entry exists.  If the
user does have these privileges, it is up to the DUA to know how to
display the DN in a useful form (say, in an RFC 1779 string
representation).

> 2. Is it possible for a bottom level entity to have an alias attribute to the
>         parent of that entity?
> 
> 3. Is it possible for a bottom level entity to have an alias attribute to not 
>         another attribute, but to another complete branch?

Aliases may point anywhere in the tree:  to leaf entries, non-leaf
entries, other alias entries, and nowhere at all....

> 4. Is updating done by the DIB (directory information base), or the DSA?

Since the DIB is the data and the DSA is the process, the DSA updates
the DIB on behalf of a user (user attributes modified via a DUA), itself
(operational attributes modified as part of some other operation), or on
behalf of the Directory (DSA-non-specific operational attributes).

> 5. Any details about replication timing, that you can furnish?

Timing issues are implementation dependent.  The Series of
Recommendations does not mandate when "On update" shadow updates should
be pushed to consumers, only that they should happen once the update has
been made.  It is perfectly legal for a DSA to decide to schedule all
"on update" updates for pushing out to shadow consumers at a fixed time.
As for scheduled updates, they should happen on schedule, but there are
no punitive measures built into the SoR.

pww

Peter Whittaker      [~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]   X.500 Specialist
pww@entrust.com      [  http://www.entrust.com  ]   Nortel Secure Networks
Ph: +1 613 765 2064  [                          ]   P.O. Box 3511, Station C
FAX:+1 613 765 3520  [__________________________]   Ottawa, Canada, K1Y 4H7

X.500 Questions Jason Lindemann
X.500 Questions Jason Lindemann
Re: X.500 Questions peter (p.w.) whittaker