Ability to identify appropriate types of information that could be managed with a directory service.
Try This: Think of a new category of basic employee data that might be included in company's online phone book.
Factoid: The performance of the Directory Server increases almost linearly with the number of CPUs.
See Chapter 3 of the Deployment Guide.
| # Appropriate Uses Directory servers can be described as network-enabled database engines optimized for fast reads. They're very good at providing certain types of information to certain types of clients. ### Basic Employee Data The most common use for directory services is to provide basic employee data like names and email addresses to client applications that need this sort of information. Basic employee data would include things like: Employee's full name User ID Telephone number Department The classic example of an application that requires this sort of information is the online phone book. In this case, the phone book would actually be a client application residing on numerous desktop systems. All these client applications would retrieve information from a single source, the corporate directory server. ### Network Resource Data Another common use for directory services is to provide network resource data to other network services, like telnet, and application sub-systems, like network printing. Network resource data would include things like: Printer names & IP addresses File server names & IP addresses Network router addresses User names & passwords The classic example of a network service that depends on this sort of information is remote login. The ability to provide this service requires a trusted source of valid user names and associated passwords. ### Physical Resource Data Directory services can also be used to provide information about physical resources. Physical resource data would include things like the following: Company mailstops & addresses Lists of conference rooms in each building Location of utility closets Inventory of capital equipment like computers and copiers ### Security-Related Data One of the most exciting new uses for directory services is their emerging role in providing security services. Directory servers can be configured to interact with servers that provides digital certificates to employees and authorized users. The combination of these two services results in something called a public-key infrastructure (PKI). Security-related data could include things like the following: public keys (special codes used for private communication) digital certificates (special codes used to authenticate electronic messages) access codes for dial-back modems badging information

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