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. Directory Server also supports mixed groups, that is groups that reference individual entries, static groups, and dynamic groups.

Imagine for example that you wanted a group containing all directory administrators, and all management employees and their assistants. You could use a combination of the two groups defined earlier to create one nested group, as shown in the following illustration.

The following LDIF extract shows how the members of this nested group would be defined.

dn: cn=Admins and 3rd Floor, ou=Groups, dc=example,dc=com
...
member: cn=Directory Administrators, ou=Groups, dc=example,dc=com
member: cn=3rd Floor, ou=Groups, dc=example,dc=com

Nested groups are not the most efficient grouping mechanism. Dynamic nested groups incur an even greater performance cost. To avoid these performance problems, consider using roles instead.