Chapter 6   iPlanet Directory Server Information


This chapter covers information provided by the iPlanet Directory Server, and includes the following sections:

• Monitoring Using SNMP

• Monitoring Using LDAP

• Root DSE

• Change Log

• Subschema

• Operational Attributes in Entries

  
  

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  Note	The iPlanet Directory Server automatically maintains certain attributes and entries that are available for clients to search. This information is read-only.

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Monitoring Using SNMP

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iPlanet Directory Server contains an SNMP subagent for UNIX platforms, and integrates with Windows NT and Windows 2000 SNMP framework. iPlanet Directory Server provides a MIB that is similar to that of RFC 2248 Network Services Monitoring MIB; however, it does not entirely support RFC 2248, because the OIDs of the management variables are different.

Monitoring Using LDAP

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iPlanet Directory Server supports a monitoring interface you can use to find out many useful bits of information about what the server is currently doing, how many connections it has, how many threads are working, etc. You can access the monitor feature by doing a search of "cn=monitor" with the filter "(objectclass=*)". Additional entries are located below this entry.

Root DSE

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The root DSE is the entry at the base of the tree that has no name. The attributes of this entry are defined in RFC 2251 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3) and describe the configuration and capabilities of the server itself.

The following attributes of the root DSE are of interest to client writers:

namingContexts

Each value of this attribute specifies the suffix of a database.

changelog

This attribute is present if the change log is defined.

subschemaSubentry

The value of this attribute is the location of the subschema entry.

supportedExtension

This attribute lists the protocol extensions known to the server.

supportedControl

This attribute lists the controls implemented by the server.

supportedSASLMechanisms

This attribute lists the SASL mechanisms implemented by the server, including "DIGEST-MD5" and "EXTERNAL" for TLS.

Change Log

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The change log allows specialized LDAPv3 clients to retrieve a listing of modifications which have been made to the portions of the directory tree held by the server. The change log is present if the Retro Changelog plug-in is enabled and the server restarted.

Entries are only added to the change log when changes are received over protocol. The change log is not supported on a replication consumer or in a multi-master deployment.

Subschema

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As described in RFC 2251 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3) and RFC 2252 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute Syntax Definitions, the server constructs a subschema subentry automatically. This allows clients to determine the schema supported by the server.

In order for user-defined schema to be listed in the subschema subentry, the administrator must assign OBJECT IDENTIFIERs for all attribute types and object classes. This entry is read-only.

The location of the subschema subentry is given as a value of the subschemaSubentry attribute in the root DSE. The values of this attribute are distinguished names, such as "cn=schema,dc=ldap,dc=innosoft,dc=com". The subschema subentry can then be retrieved by performing a base object search of the entry by that name with filter "(objectclass=*)".

The subschema subentry provides the following attributes, whose syntaxes are defined in RFC 2252 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute Syntax Definitions: attributeTypes, objectClasses and matchingRules.

Operational Attributes in Entries

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In iPlanet Directory Server, the attributes creatorsName, createTimestamp, modifiersName and modifyTimestamp are maintained with each entry and held on disk.

Creator and Modifier's Names and Timestamps

When an entry is created using an Add operation or through ldif2ldbm, iPlanet Directory Server automatically includes the attributes creatorsName and createTimestamp in the entry. When an entry is modified, iPlanet Directory Server automatically includes the attributes modifiersName and modifyTimestamp in the entry.

dseType

This attribute is not provided by iPlanet Directory Server.

subschemaSubentry

The subschemaSubentry attribute is defined in X.501(1993). The value of the attribute is the Distinguished Name of the subschema entry, as described in the previous section.

modifyRights

The modifyRights attribute allows a client to determine whether it is permitted to remove the entry, or modify the attributes of an entry. This feature is not supported in iPlanet Directory Server.

fromEntry

The fromEntry attribute specifies whether the returned search result is taken from a master copy of the directory entry. This feature is not supported in iPlanet Directory Server.