The schema of your Novell® eDirectoryTM tree defines the classes of objects that the tree can contain, such as Users, Groups, and Printers. It specifies the attributes (properties) that comprise each object type, including those that are required when creating the object and those that are optional. The maximum number of characters in a class name or an attribute name is limited to 32 characters of any language.
Each eDirectory object belongs to an object class that specifies which attributes can be associated with the object. All attributes are based on a set of attribute types that are, in turn, based on a standard set of attribute syntaxes.
The eDirectory schema not only controls the structure of individual objects, but it also controls the relationship among objects in the eDirectory tree. The schema rules allow some objects to contain other subordinate objects. Thus the schema gives structure to the eDirectory tree.
You might need to make changes to your schema as your organization's informational needs change. For example, if you never required a fax number on your User object before but you need one now, you can create a new User class that has Fax Number as a mandatory attribute, then begin using the new User class to create User objects.
The Schema Management role in Novell iManager lets those with the Supervisor right to a tree customize the schema of that tree and perform the following tasks:
This chapter contains information on the following topics:
For more detailed schema information, see the NDS Schema Reference.