Novell eDirectory (formerly called Novell Directory Services) is an X.500 compatible directory service software product released in 1993 by Novell, Inc. for centrally managing access to resources on multiple servers and computers within a given network. It is used in over 80% of Fortune 1000 companies and competes with Microsoft's Active Directory, Sun's Java System Directory Server and Red Hat's Fedora Directory Server. X.500 is the set of ITU-T computer networking standards covering electronic directory services such as white pages, Knowbot and whois. ... A directory service organizes computerized content and runs on a directory server computer. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Novell, Inc. ... In computing, a server is: A computer software application that carries out some task (i. ... A computer is a device or machine for processing information according to a program — a compiled list of instructions. ... It has been suggested that networking be merged into this article or section. ... Active Directory (codename Cascade) is an implementation of LDAP directory services by Microsoft for use in Windows environments. ...

eDirectory is a hierarchical, object oriented database that represents all the assets in an organisation in a logical tree. Assets can include people, positions, servers, workstations, applications, printers, services, groups, etc. The use of dynamic rights inheritance and equivalence allows both global and fine grained access controls to be implemented efficiently. Access rights between objects in the tree are determined at the time of the request and is determined by the rights assigned to the objects by virtue of their location in the tree, any security equivalences and individual assignments.

eDirectory supports partitioning at any point in the tree and replication of that partition to any number of servers. Replication between each server occurs periodically using deltas of the objects to reduce LAN/WAN traffic. Each server can act as a master of the information it holds (providing the replica is not read only). Additionally, replicas may be filtered to only include defined attributes to increase speed (eg a replica may be configured to only include a users name and phone number for use in a corporate address book).

Referential integrity, multi-master replication and the modular authentication architecture are other major advantages.

eDirectory can be accessed via LDAP, XML, DSML, SOAP, OBDC, JDBC, JNDI, EJB, Active X and ADSI and has been proven to scale to over 1 billion objects. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a protocol for accessing on-line directory services. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages. ... Directory Service Markup Language (DSML) is a representation of directory service information in an XML syntax. ... This article is about a common cleaning mixture. ... ... Java Database Connectivity, or JDBC, is an API for the Java programming language that defines how a client may access a database. ... The Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) is an API for directory services. ... The Enterprise Java Beans specification is one of the several Java APIs in the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition. ... In programming, the Component Object Model (COM), also known as ActiveX, is a Microsoft technology for software components. ... ADSI is an acronym that can stand for: Active Directory Service Interfaces; a technology introduced by you-know-who in the Windows 2000 Operating System or Analog Display Services Interface; the application used by many screen-based analog, POTS-compatible telephones to work with optional calling services offered through North...

eDirectory runs on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Sun Microsystems's Solaris, Linux, IBM's AIX and HP's HP-UX as well as under Novell's own NetWare so it can easily be deployed in a heterogeneous network environment. Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, and was succeeded by Windows 2000 (still based on Windows NT). ... Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K, W2K or Windows NT 5. ... Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 logo The successor to Windows 2000 Server, Microsofts Windows Server 2003 (codename Whistler Server, also known as Windows NT 5. ... Sun Microsystems (Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... The Solaris Operating Environment is a computer operating system, based on the open-source UNIX SunOS developed by Sun Microsystems. ... This article is about Linux-based operating systems, GNU/Linux, and related topics. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, NY, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... Advanced Interactive eXecutive (AIX) is the brand name of IBMs proprietary UNIX operating system. ... ... HP-UX is Hewlett-Packards proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system. ... Novell, Inc. ... NetWare is a network operating system and the set of network protocols it uses to talk to client machines on the network. ...

As of early 2005, eDirectory was still powering CNN's website. [1] Look at the bottom of their website. Personalizing and Customizing Web Content Using NDS eDirectory at CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a cable television network that was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner & Reese Schonfeld [1] [2] (although the latter currently is not recognized in CNNs official history). ...

Direction Générale des Impôts, the French Tax Authority, uses Novell eDirectory as the identity repository for taxpayers. Today the directory hosts several hundred thousand identities and will grow to accommodate 35 million (encompassing virtually all French taxpayers) when the project is complete.

TransUnion, one of the world’s largest credit reporting agencies, has deployed eDirectory to personalize the Web experience for 10 to 12 million customers annually.

External links

• http://www.novell.com/products/edirectory/