Novell Delivers Directory Enabled IP Managment and Proposes Standard to DMTF, IETF
Articles and Tips: article
01 Jul 1998
Novell, Inc. recently announced that it will submit a standards proposal for directory integration with the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP.) The implementation provides an easy and cost effective way for network administrators to implement directory-based management of IP addresses and will be submitted to both the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF), for development in association with the industry initiative for Directory Enabled Networks (DEN). Novell will also deliver the first commercial implementation of directory-enabled IP management within NDS in NetWare 5 later this year.
"As large enterprise networks grow and deploy more IP users, IP-based services and IP applications, the value of providing DHCP integration with a directory service becomes critical to eliminating redundancy in data and improving efficiency," said Michael Simpson, director of marketing, Novell, Inc. "As the industry directory services leader with almost 40 million users, we will continue to deliver real solutions for our customers today, as well as influence emerging standards. With NetWare 5 and NDS integration with DHCP later this year, we are bringing IP management to the masses."
"I am pleased to see Novell delivering a public domain schema extension for implementing DHCP within a directory enabled network and extending the availability of IP management within the industry," said L.D. Weller, DMTF Chairman. "This type of proposal will greatly advance the standardized integration of physical network devices and directory servers."
"Novell's announcement today is in keeping with our two companies' desire to see the directory become standardized for storage of IP address, DHCP, and DNS information" said Rod Anderson, Director of the NetID Group at Bay Networks, Inc. "We continue to further our collaboration in this area, building on Novell's considerable experience with large scale directory deployments and Bay Networks' expertise in business class IP networking and IP address management."
Directory Enabling Networks
The purpose of the industry's Directory Enabled Networks specification is to provide a schema and informational model for representing network elements and services in a directory. This involves developing the Service Class hierarchy for defining objects that enable developers to represent services of different types that are available on the network. Among these services are authentication services via Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) protocol, IP management services and Quality of Service (QoS) services. The DEN Working Group is currently transitioning the DEN proposal to the DMTF, where it, along with related proposals like Novell's will be refined to represent industry-wide standards.
Novell's Directory-Enabled DHCP Implementation
Novell's DHCP reference implementation provides examples of how to represent DHCP configuration data in a directory. The DHCP configuration information, accessible via LDAP, can be consumed by DHCP servers directly, or by network administrators through a management tool. The directory enabled DHCP schema submitted by Novell solves problems that exist within current DHCP solutions such as DHCP server replacement, server grouping, authorization and enumeration, global configuration, error checking, and multiple viewing and configurations, which allows network administrators to view and configure the DHCP service at both the enterprise network and individual server levels.
Novell also plans to submit a reference implementation for DNS to the relevant standards bodies this year.
Novell's IP Management Solution in NetWare 5
Novell will deliver a complete directory-enabled IP management solution in NetWare 5, including DHCP as well as the Domain Naming System (DNS) and Dynamic DNS. This will allow network administrators to eliminate the cost and complexity of managing each user account separately on different servers. This simplifies administration of corporate intranets and Internet access for more efficient use of network resources and better user productivity.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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