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Fwd: I-D ACTION:draft-mmeredit-rootdse-vendor-info-00.txt
I don't think the other messages had the attachment.
Please review the attached draft on vendor information to be added to the
root DSE.
This document specifies two new attributes, vendorName and vendorVersion,
that can be included in the root DSE to contain vendor-specific information.
Any comments can be sent through ietf-ldapext@netscape.com or directly to me
mark_meredith@novell.com
Mark Meredith
Novell Inc
122 E. 1700 S. Provo UT 84606
mark_meredith@novell.com
801-861-2645
---------------------
A boat in the harbor is safe,
but that is not what boats are for.
--John A. Shed
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Individual Submission to the LDAPExt Working Group Mark Meredith
Internet Draft Novell Inc.
Document: draft-mmeredith-rootdse-vendor-info-00.txt November 15, 1999
Category: Proposed Standard
LDAP Root DSE Vendor Information
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all
provisions of Section 10 of [RFC2026].
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups
may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts
are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated,
replaced, or made obsolete by other documents at any time. It is
inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite
them other than as "work in progress."
The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt
The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
Comments and suggestions on this document are encouraged.
Comments on this document should be sent to the LDAPEXT working group
discussion list ietf-ldapext@netscape.com or the author.
1. Abstract
This document specifies two new attributes, vendorName and vendorVersion,
that can be included in the root DSE to contain vendor-specific
information.
2. Conventions used in this document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2219]
3. Overview
The root DSE query is the mechanism used by clients to find out what
controls, extensions, etc. are available from a given LDAP server.
It is useful to be able to query an LDAP server to determine the vendor
of that server and see what version of that vendor?s code is currently
installed. Since vendors can implement "X-" options for attributes,
classes, and syntaxes ( described in section 4 of [RFC2251] and section 4
of [RFC2252] ) that may not be published in the root DSE, this would
allow users or applications to be able to determine if these features are
available from a given server.
M. Meredith Expires May-2000 1
LDAP Root DSE vendor information November 1999
It is also possible for vendors to have an LDAP server implementation to
be incomplete in some respect or to have implementation quirks that must
be worked around until they can be fixed in the subsequent release. The
vendorName and vendorVersion attributes allow client developers to
identify a specific implementation of LDAP and work around any
shortcomings of that implementation as needed.
4. Vendor specific information
This is an addition to the Server-specific Data Requirements defined in
section 3.4 of [RFC2251] and the associated syntaxes defined in section 4
of [RFC2252].
- vendorName
All LDAP server implementations SHOULD maintain a vendorName, which is
generally the name of the company that wrote the LDAP server code, e.g.
"Novell, Inc."
( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.27.4.43 NAME 'vendorName' SYNTAX
1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.44 NO-USER-MODIFICATION SINGLE-VALUE USAGE
dSAOperation )
- vendorVersion
All LDAP server implementations SHOULD maintain a vendorVersion, which is
the release number of the LDAP server product, (as opposed to the
supportedLDAPVersion which specifies the version of the LDAP protocol
supported by this server).
( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.27.4.44 NAME 'vendorVersion' SYNTAX
1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.44 NO-USER-MODIFICATION SINGLE-VALUE USAGE
dSAOperation )
5. Notes to Implementers
Implementers may want to consider tying the vendorVersion attribute value
to the build mechanism so that it is automatically updated when the
version number changes.
6. Security Considerations
The vendorName and vendorVersion attributes are provided only as an aid
to help client implementers assess what features may or may not exist in
a given server implementation. Server and application implementers should
realize that the existence of a given value in the vendorName or
vendorVersion attribute is no guarantee that the server was actually
built by the asserted vendor or that its version is the asserted version
and should act accordingly.
7. References
M. Meredith Expires May-2000 2
LDAP Root DSE vendor information November 1999
RFC2219
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997
RFC2026
Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process?Revision 3", BCP 9,
RFC 2026, October 1996.
RFC2251
Wahl, M., Howes, T., Kille, S., "Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997
RFC2252
Wahl, M., Coulbeck, A., Howes, T., Kille, S., "Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute Syntax Definitions", RFC
2252, December 1997
8. Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the generous input and review by
individuals at Novell including but not limited to Jim
Sermersheim, Mark Hinckley, Renea Campbell, and Roger Harrison.
9. Author's Addresses
Mark Meredith
Novell Inc.
122 E. 1700 S. Provo, UT 84606
Phone: +1 801 861 2645
Email: mark_meredith@novell.com
Full Copyright Statement
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M. Meredith Expires May-2000 3
LDAP Root DSE vendor information November 1999
INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MER-CHANTABILITY OR
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M. Meredith Expires May-2000 4