MAC and Network Asset Inventory on LDAP

[Nick Milas <nick@eurobjects.com>]

Hello,

We are planning on using FreeRadius for MAC-auth based on MAC addresses 
(to be) stored on our OpenLDAP (in parallel to 802.1x using our 
ldap-stored users).

With that opportunity we would be aiming at starting a comprehensive 
network asset inventory. So, I would like to ask people to share their 
experience regarding storing MAC addresses and other device info on LDAP.

If using LDAP for device inventory, are you simply using device and 
ieee802Device object classes (in core.schema and nis.schema 
respectively), or you would suggest a more specialized/extensive schema 
to be used instead or additionally (auxiliary object class(es))? Which?

An example method (found with some googling):
http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/articles/SA/v13/i09/a5.htm

Of course, one could try to re-invent the wheel (custom schema, custom 
apps), but I am sure there should be some well designed schema(s) around 
for this purpose.

I think that it would also make sense, if possible, to be able to use a 
storage format that can be leveraged by other open-source network assets 
management software (like ocsinventory-ng or openipam, which however use 
SQL backends).

Any experiences/suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Thanks and Regards,
Nick