Chapter 6: Directory Service

Chapter 6: Directory Service

Directory Service and Mail

While a directory service is really a topic for its own book, it has historically been quite closely related to discussions of mail. In fact, some mail systems, like MAILbus 400 and Microsoft Exchange, even store their configuration data in the directory tree, so we cannot avoid a short venture into the idea of directories.

The fact that an X.500 directory is distributed across the network makes it an ideal repository for mail configuration data, which must be accessed from many points in the network. Additionally, you may populate the tree with your own information. This usually includes, but is not limited to, entries for all of your users. Some of the mail users agents (like ALL-IN-1 3.2) make this easy for you by automatically adding an entry for every account created and applying subsequent changes of the account to the entry. In other cases you will have to add the users manually or write scripts to enter them.

X.500 Directory Information Tree

In theory, it would be possible to store the data for either in a relational database. This would make the implementation trivial but not the most efficient. As illustrated in Figure 6-1, organizations are typically hierarchically structured. To optimize access and maintenance of the data, a tree-structured database has been selected to store the directory entries.

Figure 6-1. Organizational Structure Tree

If you take a look at Figure 6-2, you will see what X.500 calls a directory information...

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