Welcome to Netscape Directory Server and the Internet. Netscape Communications Corporation is the premier provider of open software that lets people and companies exchange information and conduct commerce over enterprise networks and the Internet.

This Administrator's Guide documents the Netscape Directory Server and the Restricted Mode Directory Server, products that supply management and retrieval of corporate information.

• Netscape Console—A powerful server management tool that uses a graphical interface. You can log in from any system connected to your network to manage a remote server or to make changes in a centralized directory.
• Command-line tools—Allow you to script updates and other modifications to your directory server and its contents.
• Schema management interface—Lets you create custom object classes and attributes to define entries specific to your enterprise's needs.
• Import and export LDIF files—Help you manage directory entries and allows you to add, modify, and delete multiple entries.
• Backup and restore database—Allow you to make backups of the directory database and restore from the backups to protect against data loss.
• SSL—Provides secure communications over the network including ciphers with up to 40-bit encryption.

• FORTEZZA—An encryption system used by federal and government agencies to manage sensitive but unclassified information.
• Directory Server Gateway—Customizable HTTP to LDAP client that allows you to access directory data from a web browser.
• Netscape Directory Express—Basic directory lookup tool that you can use right out of the box.
• Replication and referrals—Let you extend your directory service beyond a single server configuration.
• Support for SNMP—Permits you to monitor your directory server in real time using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
• NT Synchronization Service—Allows you to synchronize the entries in your Windows NT directory with the entries in your Netscape Directory Server directory.
• Password Policy and Account Lockout—Allows you to define a set of rules that govern how passwords and accounts are managed in the directory server.
• Plug-in interface—Allows you to replace the back-end data store, set up triggers that provide data validation and notification, customize the authentication process, and extend the functionality of the server through custom plug-ins.
• Online backup and restore—Allows you to create backups and restore from backups while the server is running.
• Additional SSL encryption cipher support; up to 168 bit.

After you are familiar with directory server concepts and have done some preliminary planning for your directory service, you can install the Netscape Directory Server. The instructions for installing the various Directory Server components are contained in the Netscape Directory Server Installation Guide.

Also, Managing Servers with Netscape Console contains general background information on how to use Netscape servers. You should read and understand the concepts in that book before you attempt to administer the Netscape Directory Server.

After configuring your server, use this manual to help maintain your server.

Monospaced font—This typeface is used for any text that appears on the computer screen or text that you should type. It is also used for filenames, functions, and examples.

Note. Notes and Warnings mark important information. Make sure you read the information before continuing with a task.

|—The vertical bar is used as a separator for user interface elements. For example, Configuration|Logs means you should go to the Configuration tab on the Directory Server Console and then select the Logs icon.

Throughout this book you will see path references of the form

<NSHOME>/slapd-<serverID>/...

In these situations, <NSHOME> represents the directory where you installed the server, and <serverID> represents the server identifier you gave the server when you installed it. For example, if you installed your server in /export/ns-home and gave the server an identifier of phonebook, then the actual path would be

/export/ns-home/slapd-phonebook/. . .

Also, all paths specified in this manual are in Unix format. If you are using a Windows NT-based directory server, you should assume the NT equivalent file paths whenever Unix file paths are shown in this book.