Why Novell Virtual Directory Services is a good idea

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: DAVE KEARNS ON NOVELL NETWARE TIPS
08/18/05
Today's focus: Why Novell Virtual Directory Services is a good
idea

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Getting past the deceptive name, Novell Virtual Directory
  Services is a good idea
* Links related to Novell NetWare Tips
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Why Novell Virtual Directory Services is a good
idea

By Dave Kearns

Over in the identity management newsletter I've been recently
talking about "virtual directories" and their uses. As part of
the discussion, I listed the four virtual directory vendors I
was aware of: Radiant Logic, OctetString, MaXware and SymLabs.
Some folks wrote to me wondering why Novell wasn't listed.
They'd remembered some news stories coming out of last year's
BrainShare Europe touting the release of Novell Virtual
Directory Services
<http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2004/09/pr04061.html>.

Unfortunately, there's nothing "virtual" about this service.

A virtual directory is one without its own datastore. It's what
the database people call a "join engine," taking data from
disparate directories and tying them together by synchronizing
the various accounts that a person has. That is oversimplified.
If you want to know more about virtual directories, you could
benefit by starting with some of the writings of OctetString
CTO, Clayton Donley. His "Directories, Metadirectories and
Virtual Directories"
<http://www.octetstring.com/pdf/DirMetaVir_Brochure.pdf> white
paper is an excellent treatise on the differences between
virtual directories and meta directories. It's something
Novell's marketing folk should have read before naming their
embeddable identity store service because Novell's product much
more closely resembles a metadirectory service.

A virtual directory should not impose a requirement to establish
yet another directory store. It should help you consolidate the
existing identity storage systems you already have. But Novell's
Virtual Directory Services does create yet another datastore.

<aside> How would you like to be the "manager of VD Services"?
As I said, marketing didn't think this one through. </aside>

In fact, the one thing that VD Services does resemble is
Microsoft's Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) product.
It's a way to create a local directory for use by a specific
application that may or may not be connected to the workgroup,
department or enterprise directory system. There's nothing wrong
with that. In the Active Directory world, administrators are
even more reluctant than eDirectory administrators to authorize
schema changes. Application developers are then forced to either
forego using the directory for storing information or, worse,
are forced to use existing attributes for purposes other than
that for which they were intended.

For example, suppose there was a field called "home phone" to
list a user's home phone number. Your organization doesn't use
it but an enterprising programmer on your staff realizes that
it's the right size and format for storing a social security
number (which his app needs in order to allow a user to access
their 401k plan). Some time later a new administrator, who's
just come in and wants to roll out a quick and dirty application
so folks know he's doing something, notices that the "home
phone" field is populated so publishes a report listing
everyone's "home phone" number. Both ADAM and VD Services allow
you to safeguard the intended purpose of all the attributes in
your directory while allowing the software engineers to most
effectively use a directory structure for their apps.

Virtual Directory Services is a good idea. Too bad it has such a
deceptive name.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Windows worm beginning to spread
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell5434>

2. Cisco to juice 6500 switch
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell5203>

3. Help Desk: Sniffing on a switch
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell5435>

4. Zotob worm exploits Windows 2000 Plug and Play
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell5436>

5. Google goes berserk
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell5409>

Today's most-forwarded story:

Cisco to juice 6500 switch
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell5207>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Dave Kearns

Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's
written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print
"Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be
found at Virtual Quill <http://www.vquill.com/>.

Kearns is the author of three Network World Newsletters: Windows
Networking Tips, Novell NetWare Tips, and Identity Management.
Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these

respective addresses: <mailto:windows@vquill.com>,
<mailto:netware@vquill.com>, <mailto:identity@vquill.com>.

Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books,
manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing,
technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill
provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail at
<mailto:info@vquill.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Nokia
Empower Your Mobile Enterprise

Nokia believes that business mobility will fundamentally change
the way work gets done-and for the better. To allow the entire
organization to get the most from this paradigm shift in
productivity, Nokia Enterprise Solutions focuses on delivering
increased efficiency through enhanced mobility. Learn more by
downloading this white paper today!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=110471
_______________________________________________________________
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