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Superior referrals deal with requests concerning objects that are in a higher or contiguous non-
eDirectory partition of a multi-vendor tree.
To enable an eDirectory server to participate in this type of tree, eDirectory holds the hierarchical
data above it in a partition marked as “nonauthoritative.” The objects in the non-authoritative area
consist only of those entries needed to build the correct DN hierarchy. These entries are analogous to
X.500 “Glue” entries.
eDirectory allows the placement of knowledge information in the form of LDAP referral data within
the nonauthoritative area. This information is used to return referrals to the LDAP client.
When an LDAP operation takes place in a nonauthoritative area of the eDirectory tree, the LDAP
server locates the correct reference data and returns a referral to the client.
Chaining—
A server-based name-resolution protocol.
An LDAP client issues a request to an LDAP server, but the server can't find the target entry of the
operation locally. Using the knowledge references that it has about partitions and other servers in the
eDirectory tree, the LDAP server identifies another LDAP server that knows more about the DN.
The first LDAP server then contacts the identified (second) LDAP server.
If necessary, this process continues until the first server contacts a server that holds a replica of the
entry. eDirectory then handles all the details to complete the operation. Unaware of the server-to-
server operations, the client assumes that the first server completed the request.
Through chaining, an LDAP server provides the following advantages:
• Hides all name-resolution details from the client
• Automatically takes care of reauthentication
• Acts as a proxy for the client
• Works seamlessly, even when some servers in the eDirectory tree don't support LDAP
Services.
Chaining has the following disadvantages:
• The client might have to wait for some time without any feedback from the server, while the
server chains to resolve the name.
• If the operation requires the LDAP server to send many entries across a WAN link, the
operation might be very time consuming.
• If several servers are equally capable of progressing the operation, different servers might
process two requests to operate on the same entry.
eDirectory attempts to sort the servers by the cost associated with contacting them. For load
balancing, eDirectory randomly selects among servers with the lowest cost.
12.2 Understanding How LDAP Works with
eDirectory
This section explains the following:
•
“Connecting to eDirectory from LDAP” on page 313
•
“Class and Attribute Mappings” on page 316
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