1.0 Understanding Novell eDirectory

In simplest terms, Novell® eDirectory™ is a list of objects that represent network resources, such as network users, servers, printers, print queues, and applications. Novell eDirectory is a highly scalable, high-performing, secure directory service. It can store and manage millions of objects, such as users, applications, network devices, and data. Novell eDirectory offers a secure identity management solution that runs across multiple platforms, is internet-scalable, and extensible.

Novell eDirectory provides centralized identity management, infrastructure, Net-wide security, and scalability to all types of applications running behind and beyond the firewall. Novell eDirectory includes Web-based and wireless management capabilities, allowing you to access and manage the directory and users, access rights, and network resources from a Web browser and a variety of handheld devices.

Novell eDirectory natively supports the directory standard Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) 3 and provides support for TLS/SSL services based on the OpenSSL source code. For more information on the eDirectory engine, see eDirectory Process Requests.

Figure 1-1 shows a few of the objects as viewed in the Novell iManager management utility.

Figure 1-1 eDirectory Objects in iManager

Some object classes might not be available, depending on the actual schema configured on the eDirectory server and the operating system running eDirectory.

For more information on objects, see Section 1.2, Object Classes and Properties.

If you have more than one eDirectory server on the network, the directory can be replicated on multiple servers.

This chapter includes the following information: