Re: Building an LDAP database "for dummies"

[pkoelle <paul@subsignal.org>]

> Have you ever used the Domain Name System? (Yes, obviously.) Do you 
> understand the notion of a "hierarchical namespace"? Surely you've 
> already been heavily exposed to it, the filesystem on the computer 
> you're typing on is most likely hierarchical as well. LDAP/X.500 is no 
> different, these are all directories of one form or another and they 
> all  store data in a similar fashion.
>
> In DNS there are "TLDs" (Top Level Domains) - .com, .edu, .org, .us, 
> etc... Other subdomains are created underneath these domains, e.g. 
> openldap.org. There can be arbitrarily many subdomains nested in this 
> fashion, e.g. "room8.level6.LosAngeles.ca.MyCompany.com" and there can 
> be various other entries inside a subdomain e.g. 
> "printer1.room8.level6.LosAngeles.ca.MyCompany.com", printer2..., and 
> so on.
>
> In creating any hierarchical tree, you have to start at the root node 
> and work your way down. You can't create "MyCompany.com" if ".com" 
> doesn't exist yet. You can't create "CA.MyCompany.com" until 
> "MyCompany.com" has been created.
>
> Just like in a filesystem directory - to create /usr/local/lib/gcc you 
> first have to make sure that /usr, /usr/local, and /usr/local/lib 
> exist first, in that order.
>
> So - "What is this tree?" - the tree is the structure you design to 
> contain the data you're going to store. Schema is just a description 
> of what kinds of data will be recognized by the server, but it doesn't 
> say anything about the location of the data. The tree structure gives 
> you the location.

This should probably be added here :
http://www.openldap.org/faq/data/cache/595.html

May I?
Paul