Re: Extending X.500 Directory Functionality

Thomas Johannsen <thomas@aic.co.jp> Sun, 03 May 1992 08:17 UTC

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Date: Fri, 01 May 1992 14:21:50 -0000
From: Thomas Johannsen <thomas@aic.co.jp>
Return-Path: <thomas@aic.co.jp>
Message-Id: <9205010521.AA00991@beat.aic.co.jp>
To: CAL@slacvm.earn
Subject: Re: Extending X.500 Directory Functionality
Cc: osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk, spp@aic.co.jp
Sender: thomas <thomas@jp.co.aic>

> From osi-ds-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk Fri May  1 07:15:35 1992
> From: CAL@slacvm.earn

>  I having been looking into  putting some network information into
>  my X.500 directory.  In particular I would like to have directory
>  entries which contain a nodename,  ethernet address,  IP address,
>  subnet information,  etc.,  and allow users to inquire via 'WHOIS
>  node,nodename@WP' (or  the equivalent)   on any  system for  that
>  information.

There is already some development going on in this direction. The thing I
know best about is Soft Pages Project, which is intended to include network
configuration information (nodes with Domain Name, IP-address, ...; lines
with certain properties) and information about documents stored at
(Internet-) nodes. If you're interested, there is a document available by
anonymous ftp (ftp.tohoku.ac.jp:pub/spp/odr.ps and *.txt). 

>     It seems like a formidable task.  Is there some short cut that
>  I am missing? I certainly have no problem formatting the informa-
>  tion into a flat file for an EDB.   But I don't know what defined
>  fields are available  to hold the information.   

I think the problem is not introducing new object classes and attributes but
to find a proper place within the Directory to store network information.
Probably you are aware of the @o=Internet entry. While one method is keeping
all nodes there (with domains as ou's?) the other is to hold nodes "near"
the organization they belong. This has to be discussed further. Soft Pages
is using both methods at the moment (i.e. hybrid).

Yeong at PSI has done some work in this direction, too.

>  Thanks .... Connie Logg
>   CAL@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU, 415-926-2879
>   Stanford Linear Accelerator Center


Regards,

Thomas


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|   Thomas Johannsen                     Internet: thomas@aic.co.jp   | 
|   AIC Systems Lab.                     BITNET: JOHANNSE at DDDTU1   | 
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