Naming Contexts

A data store can be identified by up to four suffixes. A suffix corresponds to a naming context. The term naming context also applies to any subtree under a data store suffix. In the Admin Console, the Data Store section displays the naming contexts held in the data store. This list contains the data store suffixes plus any naming contexts created under the data store suffixes.

The distinguished name of a naming context corresponds to the base DN you specify when you perform a directory operation such as a search, or when you configure an LDAP client application.

You can specify a DN that conforms to the OSI tree structure (for example o=XYZ, c=US), or a DN that reflects your organization's DNS naming structure, through a sequence of domain components (for example dc=XYZ, dc=com).

A data store can contain a mixture of master and replica (slave) naming contexts, some or all of which can be replicated to other servers. For information on replication, refer to Chapter 9, Implementing Replication.

You can modify the DN of a data store only when the data store is empty.