Sun Java System Communications Services 6 2005Q4 Deployment Planning Guide

Directory Server Considerations

Sun Java System Directory Server provides flexible, multi-tiered data storage for intranet, network, and extranet information. Directory Server integrates with existing systems and acts as a centralized repository for the consolidation of employee, customer, supplier, and partner information. You can extend Directory Server to manage user profiles and preferences, as well as extranet user authentication.

All custom LDAP schemas, such as those from Portal Server, Access Manager, Messaging Server, Calendar Server, and Instant Messaging, install into a single Directory.

There are many ways to architect your data environment and many factors to consider that depend on your business objective and expected usage patterns. Your directory design should address the following areas:

See the Sun Java System Directory Server 5 2005Q1 Administration Guide for a complete description of these factors and suggestions about how to architect your data environment.

Directory Server and Tiered Architecture Considerations

In moving from a single-tiered architecture to a multiple-tiered architecture, Directory Server should be the first component that you “split out” onto its own machine. At a certain point of load, Directory Server and Messaging Server on the same host have inherent performance impacts. This is due to the way Messaging Server is architected to work with Directory Server. Separating Directory Server onto its own machine is the first step to improve performance for a deployment.

See Chapter 5, Developing a Communications Services Logical Architecture for more information on tiered architectures.


Note –

You can install Directory Server in such a way to have a clear separation between the directory user management and the software application configuration. In this architecture, there are two directories: a user/group directory on a directory host, and a configuration directory on a separate host. Should you want to remove the software application configuration piece, this separation provides a cleaner way of removing that information from Directory Server.


Directory Server Topology Considerations

Though it is feasible to build a deployment around an instance of Directory Server installed on a single machine, the other Communications Services components depend upon the directory as a core service to function. Thus, beyond trivial deployments, you should plan to deploy Directory Server in a redundant or highly availability configuration.

The first step toward making Directory Server more available is to establish a pair of master directory servers. Next, multimaster replication can be used to improve the LDAP write throughput and availability. If Sun Cluster is used for a high-availability deployment, then the two LDAP masters are clustered together. See Directory Server and High Availability for more information.

Directory Server Capacity Planning

While there are no hard and fast rules for Directory Server capacity planning, actively monitoring the directory is essential to ensure that performance metrics are met. When the system is not meeting these metrics, then it is time to add an additional directory consumer. Typically, you will want to monitor:

Evaluate the above metrics against a target response time of 10 Milliseconds. The IOWAIT should not exceed 10 Milliseconds, and the sum of the CPU utilization in this tier should not exceed 70 percent.

Directory Server and Calendar Server Interaction Considerations

Calendar Server performs multiple writes to user entries stored in Directory Server. The bulk of these writes occur when the user logs into Calendar Server for the first time and when the user performs certain actions. These actions include creating a calendar, subscribing to a calendar, changing a preference, and so on. If you do not take these actions into consideration, the Directory Master Server can experience heavy loads.

If you use Directory replication, the LDAP Master Server is replicating entries to the LDAP Replica servers. As Calendar users perform one of these actions, Calendar Server will only be able to write changes to the Master Directory Server. This is because the Replicas are read-only.

A second interaction consideration exists in these replicated Directory structures. As users make preference changes, their changes might not be rendered successful until the change is successfully replicated from the Master Directory Server to the Directory Replica, which is in use by the Calendar Server. A workaround is available, in which you configure Calendar Express (cshttpd) attempts to cache the change locally to avoid this latency delay. See Planning for the Calendar Server LDAP Data Cache for more information.

Directory Server and Personal Address Book Considerations

The Messenger Express Client supports the concept of a Personal Address Book (PAB). This enables users to store personal contacts (for example, business contacts, friends, and family) in the Directory Server. Each time a new personal contact is added to the user’s PAB, a write is made on the Directory Server. If you do not take these actions into consideration, the LDAP Master Server can face heavy loads (regardless of the Directory replication strategy).

One method to avoid performance issues on the User and Group Directory Server is to place the PAB information on a separate Directory Server. This enables PAB interactions to avoid placing a load on the LDAP Master Server.


Note –

If you are running both the current Communications Express client and also the deprecated Messenger Express Web mail interface, the address books used by these two clients do not share information. If end users switch between the two client interfaces, the two address books will contain different entries.