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Directory advice

By Ron Nutter
Network World Fusion, 11/26/01

We are Kingston University students getting a degree in business information technology. We are doing a project on directory services and our outline is to find a single tool to administer operating systems namely Windows NT, Windows 2000, Novell NetWare 4 and 5, IBM's os/400 and Oracle. The purpose is to reduce the total cost of ownership by reducing the number of people needed to administer these systems. Our research so far consists of investigating the number of different directory services that are on the market including NDS and Microsoft Active Directory. We have also found many articles detailing the differences between Novell and Microsoft.

Could you please help us clarify Directory Services? Is using one Directory Service realistic? Do you know of any good sites or books that would be of a benefit to us?
-- Tara, Miki and Diarmuid

A directory is supposed to allow you to put in user login information to access a resource on the network and also to allow servers of different operating systems access to that information. It does not require you to input that same information directly on those servers. I suggest you look at this Novell page. This will give you details on Novell's eDirectory. NDS is based on an open Internet standard X.500. Yes, it is realistic to use a Directory Service for your purposes. For example, Clemson University created a pilot project that linked Netware 3, Netware 4, IBM AS/400 and I think a 3090. This allowed for a user on Netware to be cross populated onto the AS/400 and 3090 systems.

You can link just about anything you can think of with Novell's DirXML product. This Novell page will give you some additional information as well. You can use Novell's Account Manager for Windows 2000 without going to DirXML to link in Windows 200 into a Netware network for sharing account lists and passwords. When it comes to AS/400 and Oracle, you will need to bring DirXML into the picture in order to get everything connected from a directory standpoint.

Novell has released some information about NDS into the public domain showing how their system works. Microsoft also has the potential in AD to do the same thing. It has taken Novell several years to get NDS to where it is today. MS can't expect to get to that same point overnight. Only time will tell how their system will be adopted and spread to other operating systems.