Directory Server Groups

A group is an entry that identifies the other entries that are in the group. The group mechanism makes it easy to retrieve a list of entries that are members of a given group. Directory Server supports static and dynamic groups.

Static Groups

Static groups specify the DN of each member of the group. Static groups use one of the following object class and attribute pairs:

• The groupOfNames object class, with a multivalued member attribute

• The groupOfUniqueNames object class, with a multivalued uniqueMember attribute

The member attribute and uniqueMember attribute contain the DN for every entry that is a member of the group. The uniqueMember attribute value for the DN is optionally followed by a hash, #, and a unique identifier label to guarantee uniqueness.

Dynamic Groups

Dynamic groups specify one or more URL search filters. All entries that match the URL search filters are members of the group. Membership of a dynamic group is defined each time the filters are evaluated. Dynamic groups use one of the following object class and attribute pairs:

• The groupOfURLs object class, with the memberURL attribute

• The groupOfUniqueNames object class, with the uniqueMember attribute

The group members are listed either by one or more filters represented as LDAP URL values of the memberURL attribute or by one or more DNs as values of the uniqueMember attribute.

Nested Groups

Static and dynamic groups can be nested by specifying the DN of another group as a value for the member attribute or uniqueMember attribute. The depth to which nested groups are supported by ACIs is controlled by the nsslapd-groupevalnestlevel configuration parameter.