RFC 2241 (rfc2241) - Page 1 of 5

DHCP Options for Novell Directory Services

Network Working Group                                          D. Provan
Request for Comments: 2241                                  Novell, Inc.
Category: Standards Track                                  November 1997



               DHCP Options for Novell Directory Services


Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.


Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1997).  All Rights Reserved.


Abstract

   This document defines three new DHCP options for delivering
   configuration information to clients of the Novell Directory
   Services. The first option carries a list of NDS servers. The second
   option carries the name of the client's NDS tree. The third carries
   the initial NDS context. These three options provide an NDS client
   with enough information to connect to an NDS tree without manual
   configuration of the client.

1. Introduction

   Novell Directory Services is a distributed, replicated, hierarchical
   database of objects representing network resources such as nodes,
   services, users, and applications. An NDS client must be able to
   locate an NDS server in order to authenticate itself to the network
   and gain access to the database. In addition, the node's user is
   better served if the NDS client's attention is focused on the area of
   the NDS database likely to be of the most interest to the user.  This
   specification describes DHCP options [1] that carry NDS information
   to TCP/IP clients of NDS. The first option, the NDS Servers Option,
   carries a list of NDS servers. The other two options, the NDS Tree
   Name Option and the NDS Context Option, provide the client with a
   default context within the NDS database.




Provan                      Standards Track