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Introduction to NDS v8

Articles and Tips: article

CYDNI ROGERS TETRO
NDS Product Manager
Product Management

DOUG JONES
Documentation Technician
Documentation

01 Mar 1999


This article provides a brief introduction to the next generation of NDS. NDS v8 is an enhancement for NetWare 5 customers and is focused on enterprise customers, ISPs, and ISVs.

Introduction

NDS v8 is an enhancement to the current Novell Directory Services (NDS). It is based on the mature, proven technology of NDS. NDS v8 extends the directory provides enhancments focused on the internet, extranet and enterprise markets. NDS v8 is centered around scalability, performance, LightWeight Directory Access Protocol v3 (LDAP), and management.

The NDS v8 offers the following enhancements:

  • Increased performance for directory reads, writes, and searches

  • Enhanced directory scalability, such that trees can have millions of objects

  • ConsoleOne Management

  • Improved LDAPv3 functionality

  • LDIF support for adding, modifying, and deleting directory objects

  • Extended DNS naming support

  • LDAPv3 controls, such as server-side sorting, paged results and virtual lists

NDS v8 is the next generation of the directory. NDS v8 will initially be available on NetWare 5 and shortly after on NT and Solaris. NDS v8 is available from Novell's product download site http://www.novell.com/download

NDS v8 Development Criteria

NDS v8 development has been centered around providing solutions for our customers via the directory. NDS v8 is focused on allowing businesses to grow and take advantage of the Internet without worrying about the directory infrastructure. The development of this product has been focused on the following:

Scalability

  • Billions of objects per tree

  • Millions of objects per server

  • Hundred of thousands of objects per container

Performance

  • 200 LDAPv3 reads per second

  • Accelerated search performance through indexes

NDS v8 Administration

ConsoleOne is Novell's management and administration utility for NDS as well as an ISV-extensible environment that consists of a shell and a set of programming interfaces. The ConsoleOne containing enhancements for NDS v8 runs only on a client workstation.

ConsoleOne product objectives included the following:

  • Support for scalability, performance, and LDAP v3

  • Achieve base NWADMIN parity

  • Improve product performance over previous versions of ConsoleOne

  • Provide a common snap-in architecture for internal and external developers

ConsoleOne: Enhancements

ConsoleOne has the following new features:

  • Enhanced Search. User can visually construct a complex search query.

  • Multiple Object Details. User can select multiple objects of the same type and can modify those objects at one time.

  • Simplified Rights Management. New interface to rights management simplifies user experience in setting and modifying rights.

  • Complete Attribute Editing. User can modify all attributes of any NDS object without any new snap-ins.

  • Universal Object Creation. User can create any NDS object without any new snap-in.

NDS v8 Quick Reference Page

The quick reference page will be available as online support for NDS v8. It includes information in the following areas:

  • Minimum Requirements

  • Preparing Your NDS Tree for NDS v8

  • Upgrading a NetWare 5 Server to NDS v8

  • Using BULKLOAD.NLM

  • NDS Administrative Utility

  • NDS Replicas

  • Domain Containment

Minimum Requirements

  • NetWare 5 server

  • NetWare 5 Service Pack 1

  • Administrative rights to the root of the tree to modify the schema

Preparing Your NDS Tree for NDS v8

If your first installation of NDS v8 is on a server holding a replica (master or read/write) of the [Root] partition, proceed with upgrading that server. It doesn't matter which [Root] server you upgrade first.

If your first installation of NDS v8 is on a server that does not hold a replica of [Root], follow the steps below before upgrading to NDS v8.

This procedure enhances the schema by adding the uniqueID and dc attributes and the Domain class.

  1. From the product download page, download DSREPAIR.

  2. Expand the DSREPAIR files from a workstation.

  3. Copy appropriate version of DSREPAIR to the sys:system directory of a server holding a replica of the [Root] partition. For NetWare 4.10 or 4.11, copy DSREPAIR.NLM from \DSREPAIR\4X. For NetWare 5, copy DSREPAIR.NLM from \DSREPAIR\5X

  4. From the server console, run DSREPAIR and select Advanced Options Menu > Global Schema Operations > Post NetWare 5 Schema Update. You will be prompted for the distinguished name (example: .CN=Admin.O=Company) and password of user Admin.

Upgrading a NetWare 5 Server to NDS v8

The installation scripts automatically restart the server during the upgrade process. Therefore, if you install the product using remote console, make sure you include the following commands in the server's AUTOEXEC.NCF file:

REMOTE password RSPX

To upgrade NDS:

  1. Download and expand the Support Pack 1 software to a directory on the NetWare 5 server.

  2. Download the NDS v8 files and expand them to a single directory on the NetWare 5 server.

  3. Start NWCONFIG.NLM at the server's console.

  4. Select Product Options > Install a Product Not Listed.

  5. Press F3 (F4 if you're using RCONSOLE) and specify the path to the expanded Support Pack 1 files.

  6. Follow the online instructions. If you are upgrading remotely, you will need to re-establish the remote connection when the server reboots.

  7. Reboot the server.

  8. Start NWCONFIG and select Product Options > Install a Product Not Listed.

  9. Press F3 (F4 if you're using RCONSOLE) and specify the path to the expanded NDS v8 files.

  10. Follow the online instructions. The server will automatically reboot during the process.

  11. After the server reboots, press Ctrl+Esc and switch to the NWConfig Screen to continue the installation. If you are upgrading remotely, you will need to re-establish the remote connection when the server reboots.

  12. After the process has completed, accept the prompt to reboot the server again.

Using BULKLOAD.NLM

You can use BULKLOAD.NLM to create, modify, and/or delete NDS objects in a batch process. BULKLOAD.NLM uses LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) files for batch processing. To run BULKLOAD.NLM, you must have created your LDIF file and downloaded the latest BULKLOAD from this site. Make sure you read the README.TXT file zipped up in BULKLOAD.

After you have created your LDIF file, follow the steps below:

  1. Copy BULKLOAD.NLM to the SYS:SYSTEM directory of a server running NDS v8.

  2. Start BULKLOAD.NLM at the server console.

  3. When prompted, log in as user Admin or equivalent.

  4. (Optional) Select Set Map File and specify the schema map file name. This text file maps LDAP object classes to NDS object classes. The file must exist in the server's SYS:SYSTEM directory. The default file for schema mapping is DEFAULT.MAP. You can edit DEFAULT.MAP to add mappings or you can create a new file and specify it with the Set Map File option.

  5. Select Apply LDIF File to run the batch process.

Errors are written to a log file named after the LDIF file. For instance, if the LDIF file is NEWUSERS.LDIF, the log file will be NEWUSERS.LOG.

LDIF Format. BULKLOAD supports LDIF version 0 files for adding objects, and it supports version 1 files for adding, deleting, and modifying objects. For information on LDIF file formats, see the following site:

IETF: http://search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-good-ldap-ldif-01.txt

Version O.(4) You can export data in LDIF version 0 format from most E-mail and directory systems. Version 0 requires a separate LDIF file for each change type. BULKLOAD supports only additions from LDIF version 0 files.

BULKLOAD assumes the LDIF file is version 0 and that all objects in the file are to be added unless the first line of the file reads

version: 1

Version 1. BULKLOAD can produce keypairs for each user when the userPassword field is included. (The process runs considerably slower when you include the userPassword field.) LDIF version 1 files must begin with the following line:

version: 1

LDIF version 1 files may contain additions, modifications, and deletions in the same file.

LDIF Version 1 File Format for Adding Entries (4)

dn: cn=Patrick Milliken, o=Someorg

changetype:add

cn: Patrick Milliken

sn: Milliken 

givenname: Patrick 

objectclass: inetorgperson 

telephonenumber: +1 999 222 2222 

title: Developer 

dn: cn=Susan Moller, o=Someorg 

changetype:add 

cn: Susan Moller 

sn: Moller

givenname: Susan 

objectclass: inetorgperson 

telephonenumber: +1 999 222 2222 

title: Director

LDIF Version 1 File Format for Modifying Entries (4)

dn: cn=Patrick Milliken, o=Someorg 

changetype:modify 

add:postaladdress 

postaladdress: 999 W 555 E $ Sometown, UT $ USA 

- 

delete:description 

- 

delete: telephonenumber 

telephonenumber: 1-999-999-9999 -

Note: The dashes are required.

LDIF Version 1 File Format for Deleting Entries (4)

dn: cn=Patrick Milliken, o=Someorg 

changetype:delete 

dn: cn=Susan Moller, o=Someorg 

changetype:delete

Note: Deleting entries is done by specifying the distinguished names to be deleted with no leading qualifier.

NDS Management Issues

ConsoleOne is the NDS administrative utility for NDS v8. You can set up ConsoleOne on a workstation by running SYS\PUBLIC\MGMT\CONSOLEONE\1.2\INSTALL\SETUP.EXE.

You can also use NetWare Administrator (NWADMN32.EXE) to manage NDS objects. However, NetWare Administrator has the following limitations relative to scalability and performance:

  • Viewing of large data sets (50,000 or more) will be slow because NWAdmin does not take advantage of the NDS v8 scalability

  • Schema Manager in NDS Manager does not support the creation of auxiliary classes

Compatibility Issues

To get the full performance and scalability of this product, update all servers in a replica ring to NetWare 5 with Support Pack 1 and NDS v8.

Domain Containment

Installing this update does not automatically provide LDAP support for containment of base level container objects in a "domain" container (e.g. O, OU, L, and C). To enable this functionality, before or after installing NDS v8, perform the following steps:

  1. Ensure that replica-holding 4.x servers have the latest version of NDS NetWare 4.11 must have NDS version 6.01 or later. NetWare 4.10 must have NDS version 5.17 or later. (The earlier versions of NDS will receive schema changes properly but will not propagate them to child replicas.) NetWare 5 servers do not require an NDS update.

  2. From the expanded product image, copy the appropriate version of DSREPAIR to the SYS:SYSTEM directory of a server holding a replica of the [Root] partition. For NetWare 4.10 or 4.11, copy the DSREPAIR.NLM from \DSREPAIR\4X. For NetWare 5, copy the DSREPAIR.NLM from \DSREPAIR\5X

  3. From the server console, run DSREPAIR and select Advanced Options Menu > Global Schema Operations > Optional Schema Enhancements. Run this option after any extensions to the schema to ensure propagation throughout the NDS tree.

* Originally published in Novell AppNotes

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The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.

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