I have always looked for a good way to explain to people what LDAP
directories essentially are. I discovered that the file system analogy
works very well.
This is my working version, as synthesised on my blog
(http://blog.dzhuvinov.com/?p=1085).
Feel welcome to use it in your own presentations. If you have
suggestions for improvement I'd be glad to receive them.
Vladimir
***
*Overall organisation*
* A file system consists of files in a tree-like structure.
* An LDAP directory consists of *entries* in a tree-like structure.
*Data types*
* A file in a file system is an arbitrary blob of text or binary data.
* A directory entry is a collection of *attributes*, or name / value
pairs. Attributes may be *text* or *binary*. They may be
*mandatory* or *optional*, *single* or *multi-valued*.
*Naming*
* A file in a file system has a name, e.g. "tax-report-2010.xml".
The file name must be unique within the containing folder.
* An entry in a directory branch has a *relative distinct name*
(*RDN*), e.g. "cn=Alice Wonderland". The RDN comes from an
existing name/value pair in the entry that was chosen to become
the entry's name (or title). RDNs must also be unique within the
containing directory branch.
*Global naming*
* A file in a file system is uniquely identified by its path, e.g.
"/home/vladimir/taxes/tax-report-2010.xml".
* An entry in a directory is identified by its *distinct name*
(*DN*), which is formed by the chain of RDNs leading all the way
to the directory root, e.g. "cn=Alice Wonderland, ou=people,
dc=wonderland, dc=net".
--
Vladimir Dzhuvinov :: www.nimbusds.com <http://nimbusds.com> ::
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
