Tuesday August 01, 2006
Tuesday August 01, 2006 Introducing the OpenDS Directory Service
The Sun Java System Directory Server has a distinguished heritage and a proven track record, with thousands of customers and billions of entries deployed. However the codebase is over ten years old and its origins are from a time when performance, scalability, and feature set requirements then were very different from what we're seeing today and expect to see in the future. It has also grown quite complex, and making a change to one area of the code may require an in-depth understanding of several other components. We're still working on improving this code, and the upcoming Directory Server 6.0 release will be the best we've had yet, but we are also preparing for the future and we think that an open development model needs to be a big part of that.Last year, we decided to start from scratch, designing a new server from the ground up. Drawing from our years of experience, customer feedback, and some of our own ideas, we began working on what we hope will become even more enduring and successful than our current Directory Server. We're calling the new codebase OpenDS, and last Friday we rather quietly pushed the code out to https://opends.dev.java.net/.
OpenDS is an open source Directory Service written entirely in Java. I say "Directory Service" because we will include more than just the core LDAP-accessible database. Much like our current Directory Server Enterprise Edition, we'll also include directory proxy functionality (including virtual directory and data distribution capabilities), the ability to synchronize with Active Directory and potentially other sources, and various client-side tools.
To date, our development has primarily focused on the Directory Server itself, and we have basic support for all core LDAPv3 operations, and several extensions like controls, extended operations, and SASL mechanisms. However there are still a number of components to be added, like the access control subsystem, virtual attribute capabilities, and administrative interfaces, and there is significant work to be done in other areas like password policy and logging. We very much wish to have an open development process, and we welcome community participation. You can provide comments and feedback, file bugs and enhancement requests, participate in mailing lists, or even write code.
I'm sure that there will be a lot of questions about OpenDS, and our FAQ (I suppose in this case, that's "Frequently Anticipated Questions") at https://opends.dev.java.net/public/docs/OpenDS-FAQ.html aims to address many of them. If you still have other questions, then check out other parts of the site like our Documentation Depot or join our mailing lists. We'd love to have you help us achieve our goal of making OpenDS better than any other directory product out there.
Posted by cn_equals_directory_manager ( Aug 01 2006, 03:33:21 PM CDT ) Permalink Comments [12]
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