6.0 Managing Partitions and Replicas

Partitions are logical divisions of the NetIQ eDirectory database that form a distinct unit of data in the eDirectory tree for administrators to store and replicate eDirectory information. Each partition consists of a container object, all objects contained in it, and the information about those objects. Partitions do not include any information about the file system or the directories and files contained there.

Instead of storing a copy of the entire eDirectory database on each server, you can make a copy of the eDirectory partition and store it on many servers across the network. Each copy of the partition is known as a replica. You can create any number of replicas for each eDirectory partition and store them on any server. The types of replicas include master, read/write, read-only, subordinate references, filtered read/write, and filtered read-only.

The following table describes the replica types.

Replica

Description

Master, read/write, and read-only

Contain all objects and attributes for a particular partition.

Subordinate references

Used for tree connectivity.

Filtered replicas

Contains a subset of information from the entire partition, consisting of only the desired classes and attributes—which are defined by the server's replication filter. This filter is used to identify the classes and attributes allowed to pass during inbound synchronization and local changes.

Filtered replicas allow administrators to create sparse and fractional replicas.

  • Sparse replicas contain only the object classes that you specify.

  • Fractional replicas contain only the attributes you specify.

The functionality of filtered replicas enables fast response when the data stored in eDirectory is procured by applications. Filtered replicas also allow more replicas to be stored on a single server.

Read/write filtered replicas

Allows local modifications to classes and attributes that are a subset of the server's replication filter. However, these replicas can create objects only if all mandatory attributes for the class are within the replication filter.

Read-only filtered replicas

Does not allow local modifications.

Table contains a detailed overview of these four eDirectory replica types and their corresponding characteristics.

This chapter describes how to manage partitions and replicas.