About CoS

Imagine a directory containing thousands of entries that all have the same value for the facsimileTelephoneNumber attribute. Traditionally, to change the fax number, you would update each entry individually, a time consuming job for administrators. Using CoS, the fax number is stored in a single place, and the facsimileTelephoneNumber attribute is automatically generated on every entry as it is returned.

To client applications, a CoS attribute is generated in the same ways as any other attribute. However, directory administrators now have only a single fax value to manage. Also, because there are fewer values stored in the directory, the database uses less disk space. The CoS mechanism also allows entries to override a generated value or to generate multiple values for the same attribute.

Generated CoS attributes can be multivalued. Specifiers can designate several template entries, or there can be several CoS definitions for the same attribute. Alternatively, you can specify template priorities so that only one value is generated from all templates.

Roles and classic CoS can be used together to provide role-based attributes. These attributes appear on an entry because it possesses a particular role with an associated CoS template. You could use a role-based attribute to set the server look through limit on a role-by-role basis, for example.

CoS functionality can be used recursively; you can generate attributes through CoS that depend on other attributes generated through CoS. Complex CoS schemes can simplify client access to information and ease administration of repeated attributes, but they also increase management complexity and degrade server performance. Avoid overly complex CoS schemes; many indirect CoS schemes can be redefined as classic or pointer CoS, for example.

You should also avoid changing CoS definitions more often than necessary. Modifications to CoS definitions do not take effect immediately, because the server caches CoS information. Although caching accelerates read access to generated attributes, when changes to CoS information occur, the server must reconstruct the cache. This task can take some time, usually in the order of seconds. During cache reconstruction, read operations may still access the old cached information, rather than the newly modified information, which means that if you change CoS definitions too frequently, you are likely to be accessing outdated data.