RE: Specifying non-tcp transports referrals

["Chris Apple" <capple@dsi-consulting.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ietf-ldapbis@OpenLDAP.org
[mailto:owner-ietf-ldapbis@OpenLDAP.org] On Behalf Of Jim Sermersheim
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 2:13 PM
To: ietf-ldapbis@OpenLDAP.org
Cc: Steve McLain; Tom Doman
Subject: Specifying non-tcp transports referrals


All,

Currently, either an LDAPURL or "Other kind of URL" may be specified in
an LDAP referral.

I believe it's assumed that the address in an LDAP URL
(draft-ietf-ldapbis-url-03.txt) points to an LDAP server capable of
communicating over TCP/IP. This is probably a bad assumption.

If/when someone wants to specify a non-TCP transport be used to follow
a referral, how would that be done? So far, all I can think of is to use
different URI schemes like:

ldap.udp
ldap.mobileip

Is there another way I'm not seeing?

==============================================================

Not if you want to comply with the specs as written.

The only other way I can think of is to use a labeledURI
such as ldap://host.name[udp] or ldap://host.name[mobileip].
The drawback is that you have to analyze content further
down in the string to determine what transport to use.

I acknowledge that this could represent significant
changes to various documents (and implementations)
including [LDAPURL]. But it is another way of solving
the general problem you describe below.

And I haven't sorted through the non-referral-related
issues with using the label in this way. It may make
more sense to use something like:

ldap://host.name[transport-udp]

That would seem to solve the more general problem below and
avoid confusion over more human-friendly uses of the label
value.


Chris Apple - Principal Architect

DSI Consulting, Inc.

mailto:capple@dsi-consulting.net

http://www.dsi-consulting.com

==============================================================
Also, in [Protocol], there is this wording (Section 4.1.10)
>URLs for servers implementing the LDAP protocol are written according

>to [LDAPURL]. 

and

>Other kinds of URLs may be returned, so long as the operation could 
>be performed using that protocol. 

This implies (maybe it's more than an implication) that if the LDAP
protocol is to be used, the Referral will adhere to [LDAPURL]. This
means an ldap referral shouldn't contain a scheme like "ldaps". I think
the wording is either unclear or too restrictive. Why shouldn't I be
able to name a server supporting the LDAP protocol using some non
[LDAPURL] URI?

Jim