What Is Oracle Internet Directory?

Oracle Internet Directory is a general purpose directory service that enables fast retrieval and centralized management of information about dispersed users and network resources. It combines Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Version 3 with the high performance, scalability, robustness, and availability of Oracle9i.

This section contains these topics:

• Architecture of the Oracle Internet Directory

• Components of Oracle Internet Directory

• Advantages of Oracle Internet Directory

Architecture of the Oracle Internet Directory

Oracle Internet Directory runs as an application on Oracle9i. It communicates with the database, which may or may not be on the same operating system, by using Oracle Net Services, Oracle's operating system-independent database connectivity solution. Figure 1-1 illustrates this relationship.

Figure 1-1 Oracle Internet Directory Architecture

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Components of Oracle Internet Directory

Oracle Internet Directory includes:

• Oracle directory server, which responds to client requests for information about people and resources, and to updates of that information, by using a multitiered architecture directly over TCP/IP

• Oracle directory replication server, which replicates LDAP data between Oracle directory servers

• Directory administration tools, which include:
  • Oracle Directory Manager, which simplifies directory administration through a Java-based graphical user interface

  • A variety of command-line administration and data management tools invoked from LDAP clients

  • Directory server management tools within Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Server Control. These tools enable you to:
    • Monitor real-time events and statistics from a normal browser

    • Start the process of collecting such data into a new repository

• Oracle Internet Directory Software Developer's Kit

  See Also: Oracle Internet Directory Application Developer's Guide for information about the Oracle Internet Directory Software Developer's Kit

Advantages of Oracle Internet Directory

Among its more significant benefits, Oracle Internet Directory provides scalability, high availability, security, and tight integration with the Oracle environment.

Scalability

Oracle Internet Directory exploits the strengths of Oracle9i, enabling support for terabytes of directory information. In addition, such technologies as shared LDAP servers and database connection pooling enable it to support thousands of concurrent clients with subsecond search response times.

Oracle Internet Directory also provides data management tools, such as Oracle Directory Manager and a variety of command-line tools, for manipulating large volumes of LDAP data.

High Availability

Oracle Internet Directory is designed to meet the needs of a variety of important applications. For example, it supports full, multimaster replication between directory servers: If one server in a replication community becomes unavailable, then a user can access the data from another server. Information about changes made to directory data on a server is stored in special tables on the Oracle9i database. These are replicated throughout the directory environment by Oracle9i Advanced Replication, a robust replication mechanism.

Oracle Internet Directory also takes advantage of all the availability features of the Oracle9i. Because directory information is stored securely in the Oracle9i database, it is protected by Oracle's backup capabilities. Additionally, the Oracle9i database, running with large datastores and heavy loads, can recover from system failures quickly.

Security

Oracle Internet Directory offers comprehensive and flexible access control. An administrator can grant or restrict access to a specific directory object or to an entire directory subtree. Moreover, Oracle Internet Directory implements three levels of user authentication: anonymous, password-based, and certificate-based using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Version 3 for authenticated access and data privacy.

Integration with the Oracle Environment

Through the Oracle Directory Integration and Provisioning platform, Oracle Internet Directory provides a single point of integration between the Oracle environment and other directories such as NOS directories, third-party enterprise directories, and application-specific user repositories.