Understanding Directory Services

by Beth Sheresh and Doug Sheresh

Learn the basic theory of Directory Services from a networking perspective. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0672323052
• ISBN13: 9780672323058
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Sams
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 2.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Second Edition is completely updated and excellent!

This second edition represents a major overhaul of the first edition, and addresses each of the issues cited in the previous review. The authors have done a remarkable job in this edition by clearly explaining the fundamentals of directory services in general and going into the details of specific implementations that have either a large installed base, are used by large corporations or both.Highlights include complete and clear explanations of directory services at the conceptual level, how they fit into an enterprise-wide infrastructure, and how they have evolved as the foundation of identification and authentication, as well as a more pervasive security approach.The early models, DNS and X.500, are given detailed treatment. Although DNS is not a feature rich directory service, it does qualify as a legitimate one and its inclusion is a nice touch. I liked the clear explanation of LDAP, which either is implemented in many organizations or is the basis for commercial products such as Novell's eDirectory.Two commercial products that are covered in great detail are eDirectory and Microsoft's Active Directory. Since each author has extensive experience with, and certifications in, these products the material is credible and sets the book apart by giving a balanced view of two competing products without bias towards either.Three other parts of this book are valuable:(1) Discussion of metadirectory services - this section covers the basics and contains good (but brief) material about Siemen's DirXMetahub, Sun/Netscape's iPlanet metadirectory and Microsoft's metadirectory services, Novell's DirXML and Radiant Logic's RadiantOne VDS. While these products are in many ways niche players (except for the Microsoft and Novell offerings), the description of them indicates where metadirectory services are evolving.(2) Directory mark-up languages - this section covers XML and offshoots that are specific to directory services, such as DMSL and Novell's DirXML. Given the fact that XML is a web services building block this section of the book is particularly valuable.(3) Evaluating directory services - the complete, unbiased method for evaluating directory services that the authors provide reflect their objectivity as well as a sensible approach to ensure that both business and technical factors are taken into account. If you are exploring directory services as an infrastructure component or need to understand them, this book provides the most objective and complete explanation of the fundamentals and key issues, as well as a survey of standards and products. It's up to date and easy to read.

Best intro book on dir services - Needs a major update

This book is for technical managers who are evaluating directory services, and enterprise architects who are designing the infrastructure component of an encompassing enterprise solution. Other audiences include: portal designers and developers who intend to employ directory-enabled identification and access, and IT security professionals who are designing enterprise-wide role-based access controls and application-independent security architectures.In a nutshell (with apologies to O'Reilly & Associates) this book gives a balanced view of the major directory services solutions on the market. It starts with a high-level overview of directory services, how they can fit into an enterprise architecture, and the mechanics of directory services in general. The first directory service discussed is the grandfather of them all: X.500. If you are evaluating directory services as an enterprise infrastructure component, carefully read this part because it will give a solid basis for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each approach that follows. This section of the book is suitable for "technically-challenged" managers, as are the introductions to each of the directory services discussed in the book. X.500 is followed by a detailed description and technical discussion of each of the commercially available directory services. The descriptions and technical discussions follow a fixed format and structure, making comparison easy. The directory services that this book coversare: LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol), DNS (domain naming system), Novell's NDS and Microsoft's Active Directory. It is interesting to note the order in which directory services are discussed. The authors start the book with open standards-based services (X.500, LDAP and DNS), followed by NDS, which is proprietary, but conforms to LDAP version 3. They save Active Directory, which is completely proprietary, for last. Also note that this book is written by what looks like a husband/wife team, one of whom holds Microsoft certifications and the other with Novell certifications. Both demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of directory services discussed in this book, and they have managed to give a completely unbiased view of the advantages and disadvantages of each service discussed.The reason I gave it four stars is because it badly needs to be updated to reflect what is currently happening today. I took into account the fact that this book was published in December 1999. I also took into account the fairly long lead time between the time a book is written until it is published, and the fact that the information in this book probably reflects the market and state of technology as it was in early 1999. However, the publisher should realize that this book needs to go into a second edition if it is to remain authoritative and valuable.Here are some examples of gaps: (1) Novell's NDS now goes by the name "eDirectory" and has been strengthened by their DirXML produ

Excellent overview of Directory Services

This book provides more than a theoretical overview. The authors dig deeper and explain design ideas to implementation issues. The book is written for technical professionals and not "managers". (no offense)