Network Working Group M. Wahl
Internet-Draft Informed Control Inc.
Intended status: Standards Track December 12, 2006
Expires: June 15, 2007
LDAP Subtree Data Source URI Attribute
draft-wahl-ldap-subtree-source-01
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
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Abstract
This document defines an attribute that enables administrative
clients using the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to
determine the source of directory entries.
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1. Introduction
This document defines an optional attribute for use in LDAP [1] to
indicate the source of data in a directory server naming context.
In many organizations, the user data entries which can be obtained
via LDAP from a directory service are not mastered in that directory
service, but are made available by translation from another directory
service format or database format. This translation function is
typically provided by virtual directory and meta directory
implementations.
Administrative clients which are managing a distributed directory
service deployment might need to determine whether the directory
server they are communicating with holds directory data which is
predominately mastered in an external service. If that external
service were to become unavailable, the directory server might itself
become unavailable, or hold outdated information.
This document defines an attribute that SHOULD be used when a naming
context in a directory server's directory information tree is
constructed from information obtained from an external network
resource, such as another directory server using a different schema,
or a database.
This attribute SHOULD NOT be used to represent directory replication
topology, as other attributes are defined for this purpose.
This attribute SHOULD NOT be used to indicate another directory
server which provides substantially identical directory service as
this server, as the altServer root DSE attribute has already been
defined for that purpose [2].
This attribute SHOULD NOT be used in situations where only a few,
optional, attributes of each directory entry are obtained by the
directory server from an external data source (e.g. a status
attribute). Determining the sources of these attributes is out of
scope for this specification.
The words "MUST", "SHOULD" and "MAY" are used as defined in RFC 2119
[3].
Please send comments to the author at mark.wahl@informed-control.com.
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2. Subtree data source attribute
The subtreeDataSourceURI attribute is defined to be placed at the
base of a naming context, or other subtree context, in which the
entries at or subordinate to the entry containing this attribute are
being generated based on one or more external data sources.
The attribute is defined as follows (with lines wrapped for
readability):
( 1.3.6.1.4.1.21008.97.74.2.1 NAME 'subtreeDataSourceURI'
SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.15
EQUALITY caseExactMatch
USAGE directoryOperation )
This attribute can contain one or more values, and each value is a
URI [4]. Each URI is encoded using the Directory string syntax. The
caseExactMatch and Directory String syntax are defined in RFC 4517
[5].
Unlike the labeledURI attribute [6], these values do not have a
label.
In many implementations, the URI might be of the LDAP or HTTP [7]
forms.
This document only specifies how a client can read this attribute.
Some servers MAY support updating this attribute over protocol,
subject to access control, however for many servers it is anticipated
that the values of this attribute would be configured through the
server's out-of-band management interface, such as in a configuration
file. The semantics of comparison of values of this attribute for
equality is outside of the scope of this document.
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3. Security Considerations
The subtreeDataSourceURI attribute SHOULD be protected by access
control, and SHOULD NOT be accessible to clients which are not
administrative tools authenticated to the directory service.
It is expected that the administrative tools accessing this directory
will need to obtain authentication credentials to access the external
data source through out of band means. The URIs in values in the
subtreeDataSourceURI attribute SHOULD NOT contain authentication
credentials, such as passwords.
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4. IANA Considerations
This attribute will be registered as follows:
Subject: Request for LDAP Descriptor Registration
Descriptor: subtreeDataSourceURI
Object Identifier: 1.3.6.1.4.1.21008.97.74.2.1
Person & email address to contact for further information:
Mark Wahl <Mark.Wahl@informed-control.com>
Usage: attribute type
Specification: (I-D) RFC XXXX
Author/Change Controller: Mark Wahl
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5. References
5.1. Normative References
[1] Zeilenga, K., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP):
Technical Specification Road Map", RFC 4510, June 2006.
[2] Zeilenga, K., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP):
Directory Information Models", RFC 4512, June 2006.
[3] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", RFC 2119, BCP 14, March 1997.
[4] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 3986,
January 2005.
[5] Legg, S., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP):
Syntaxes and Matching Rules", RFC 4517, June 2006.
5.2. Informative References
[6] Smith, M., "Definition of an X.500 Attribute Type and Object
Class to Hold Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)", RFC 2079.
[7] "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999.
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Appendix A. Copyright
Copyright (C) The Internet Society 2006. This document is subject to
the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except
as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. This
document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS
IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR
IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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Author's Address
Mark Wahl
Informed Control Inc.
PO Box 90626
Austin, TX 78709
US
Email: mark.wahl@informed-control.com
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Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
retain all their rights.
This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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