Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition 7.0 Deployment Planning Guide

Chapter 14 Deploying a Virtual Directory

The virtual directory is an advanced feature of Directory Proxy Server that aggregates information, in real time, from multiple data repositories. This chapter describes how you can use a virtual directory in a Directory Server Enterprise Edition deployment.

The architectural concepts of a virtual directory are described in Chapter 18, Directory Proxy Server Virtualization, in Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition 7.0 Reference. Procedural information about setting up a virtual directory is provided in Chapter 22, Directory Proxy Server Virtualization, in Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition 7.0 Administration Guide.

This chapter covers the following topics:

When to Use a Virtual Directory

Virtual directory features can be deployed if your directory service has any of the following requirements:

Typical Virtual Directory Scenario

This section provides a simple scenario that shows how a virtual directory answers specific business requirements. For more complex sample scenarios, and for details of virtual directory configuration, see Sample Virtual Configurations in Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition 7.0 Administration Guide.

Connecting User Identities From Different Data Sources

Example.com stores uses three different data repositories to store user data. Example.com's Directory Server contains the bulk of the user data. User email addresses are stored in an Active Directory, and HR data is stored in a MySQL database.

Example.com has several client applications that require a complete view of all user data. The following diagram illustrates how the virtual directory provides a complete view of a user's identity to the client application.

Figure 14–1 Virtual View of Aggregated Data From Multiple Repositories

Figure shows user data taken from multiple sources