Novell eDirectory Design and Implementation

Chapter 7: Plan, Design, and Implement an eDirectory Tree for E-Business

 

Objectives:

This chapter explains the steps to implement the design created in previous chapters. The objectives important to this chapter are on page 7-1:

1. Explain Why eDirectory Design Is Important to the Success of Your E-Business
2. Complete a Needs Analysis
3. Implement the Network Infrastructure
4. Create a User Accessibility Needs Strategy for E-Business
5. Implement the eDirectory Tree Structure
6. Implement a Partition and Replica Strategy for Your eDirectory Tree

Concepts:

Explain Why eDirectory Design Is Important to the Success of Your E-Business

The chapter begins with a summary of what e-Business is and why the features of eDirectory 8.5 that support it are important:

• purchasing products and services from other companies through the Internet: Business to Business (B2B)
• linking web pages to a customer database, an online catalog, or order processing functions: Business to Customer (B2C)

The eDirectory concerns that relate to e-Business are those that relate to having a larger network, one that is open to links from the Internet. An example is given of an airline customer who can access the product information of a vendor, make a purchase, and receive a confirmation of the purchase through web and email access. Opening your business to electronic commerce requires you to think in larger terms: more users, more and new objects in the tree, and running applications over the Internet.

A good design is important so that you do not drive away business. Just think about the last web site you visited that did not inspire you to buy anything. Slow, illogical, unresponsive, and inaccessible are all qualities to avoid.

The text discusses two specific technologies that are supported by eDirectory.

DirXML is Extended Markup Language for Directories. XML is an enhancement of HTML that is meant to support sharing of data between vendors and customers. DirXML is a variant that is supported in Novell's eDirectory environment. A selling point is that it supports communication of data between separate trees, which you will want when sharing data between two companies. DirXML can enhance eDirectory communication with Active Directory trees. While this is presented as a standard in the text, it is also suggested that you will need someone on staff who can actually write driver programs for DirXML.

Tree federation is another technology that supports having an object in one tree that can access the information in other trees (eDirectory or otherwise). It requires that access be granted through any relevant firewalls, and that a Virtual Private Network be joined by the entities sharing data.

Novell notes that not all products currently in use support the use of these technologies. A list of products from Novell that do support them is provided in the text, and may be found online at the Novell web site.

The text offers guidelines for tree design in an e-Business environment that differ from the standard guidelines in the preceding chapters.

• Trees - Use one tree if your users and customers all share a lot of the same data. Design more trees if you need to keep data separated from some users. DirXML will allow data flow between the trees, but will not allow users in one tree to access objects they have no rights to in the other trees. As an example, you might want one tree for your main company operations, and another for your web presence and web applications. Tree federation give more access to objects in separate trees.
• Tree structure - Novell recommends a flatter tree structure to support applications searching for data. They mean that you may wish to deviate from the usual pyramid structure, since applications may not like searching through layers. You will use containers to assign rights, as well as to create partitions. However, remember that you will need more layers the more your tree grows.
• Loading users - It is possible to place user objects in your tree one at a time, or to use a bulk load process. Be aware that the bulk load process now uses LDIF data files, which is a change from some previous versions of NetWare.
• Auxiliary classes - It is possible to amend the schema in NetWare 5.1, to create a new object class based on an old one, or not based on an old one. The text suggests that you may wish to do this in an e-Business environment. For example, you may want a new type of user, with new attributes that describe what that kind of user is allowed to do.
• Partitions - The only new advice here is to set up partitions before adding many objects to the tree.
• Replicas - The text suggests that it will help applications to place a full replica of every partition on a common server. If applications need specific information, filtered replicas may meet that need.
• Firewalls - Some advice is offered about firewalls. Novell suggests that they may be set up with the tree itself extending beyond the firewall, with only public data outside the firewall, or with only a web server outside the firewall. This third suggestion is preferred, because it will enable you to restrict requests through the firewall to the web server only.

Four job specialties are listed in the text that may be needed in your e-Business environment: Directory Integration Expert, Internet Application and Database Expert, DirXML Driver Writer, and Security Expert.

Complete a Needs Analysis

As covered in earlier chapters, you must have information about the company handy to do a needs analysis. In this scenario, you need information about customers and other business contacts as well.

A case study is offered in the chapter, which should be discussed in class. The course asks you to make a plan based on the case study.

Implement the Network Infrastructure

The implementation section of this chapter asks you to remove the tree from your current server, remove eDirectory, reinstall eDirectory, then build a tree based on the plan made above.

Create a User Accessibility Needs Strategy for E-Business

This section of the chapter repeats the activity performed in an earlier chapter, with the added concerns of e-Business. For example, will you use applications that use LDAP or DirXML access to data? How will users access the applications? How will the firewall operate?

Implement the eDirectory Tree Structure

The text directs you to consult chapter 2, as well as the tree structure guidelines in this chapter.

Implement a Partition and Replica Strategy for Your eDirectory Tree

The text directs you to consult chapter 4, as well as the partition and replica guidelines in this chapter.