RFC 2657 (rfc2657) - Page 1 of 12
LDAPv2 Client vs
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group R. Hedberg
Request for Comment: 2657 Catalogix
Category: Experimental August 1999
LDAPv2 Client vs. the Index Mesh
Status of this Memo
This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
LDAPv2 clients as implemented according to RFC 1777 [1] have no
notion on referral. The integration between such a client and an
Index Mesh, as defined by the Common Indexing Protocol [2], heavily
depends on referrals and therefore needs to be handled in a special
way. This document defines one possible way of doing this.
1. Background
During the development of the Common Indexing Protocol (CIP), one of
the underlying assumptions was that the interaction between clients
and the Index Mesh Servers [1] would heavily depend on the passing of
referrals. Protocols like LDAPv2 [2] that lack this functionality
need to compensate for it by some means. The way chosen in this memo
is to add more intelligence into the client. There are two reasons
behind this decision. First, this is not a major enhancement that is
needed and secondly, that the intelligence when dealing with the
Index Mesh, with or the knowledge about referrals, eventually has to
go into the client.
2. The clients view of the Index Mesh
If a LDAPv2 client is going to be able to interact with the Index
Mesh, the Mesh has to appear as something that is understandable to
the client. Basically, this consists of representing the index
servers and their contained indexes in a defined directory
information tree (DIT) [3,4] structure and a set of object classes
and attribute types that have been proven to be useful in this
context.
Hedberg Experimental