Oracle Directory Synchronization Service

In the Oracle Directory Integration and Provisioning platform environment, the contents of connected directories are synchronized with Oracle Internet Directory through the Oracle Directory Synchronization Service.

For Oracle Application Server components, Oracle Internet Directory is the central directory for all information, and all other directories are synchronized with it. This synchronization can be:

• One-way: Some connected directories only supply changes to Oracle Internet Directory and do not receive changes from it. This is the case, for example, with Oracle Human Resources, the primary repository and "source of truth" for employee information.

• Two-way: Changes in Oracle Internet Directory can be exported to connected directories, and changes in connected directories can be imported into Oracle Internet Directory.

Certain attributes can be targeted or ignored by the synchronization service. For example, the attribute for the employee badge number in Oracle Human Resources may not be of interest to Oracle Internet Directory, its connected directories or client applications. You might not want to synchronize it. On the other hand, the employee identification number may be of interest to those components, so you might want to synchronize it.

Figure 32-2 shows the interactions between components in the Oracle Directory Synchronization Service in a sample deployment.

Figure 32-2 Interactions of the Oracle Directory Synchronization Service

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The central mechanism triggering all such synchronization activities is the Oracle Internet Directory change log. It adds one or more entries for every change to any connected directory, including Oracle Internet Directory. The Oracle Directory Synchronization Service:

• Monitors the change log

• Takes action whenever a change corresponds to one or more synchronization profiles

• Supplies the appropriate change to all other connected directories whose individual profiles correspond to the logged change. Such directories could include, for example, relational databases, Oracle Human Resources, Microsoft Active Directory, or SunONE Directory Server. It supplies these changes using the interface and format required by the connected directory. Synchronization through the Oracle Directory Integration and Provisioning platform connectors ensures that Oracle Internet Directory remains up-to-date with all the information that Oracle Internet Directory clients need.