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Re: Backend DB

At 02:23 PM 4/27/99 -0700, Angela Liang wrote:
>OpenLDAP supports LDBM as backend DB. What is LDBM? 
LDBM stands for LDAP DataBase Manager.  It provides the server
and it's tools with a generic interface to common database managers,
including:
	Berkeley DB <http://www.sleepycat.com>
	GDBM (Gnu Database Manager) <http://www.gnu.org/>

>What is the difference between LDBM with RDBM?
 Remote Database Manager ?
	RDBM implements a RPC-based client/server interface
	between an application and a DBM.  An API is provided which
	is very similiar to GDBM (and other DBMs).  One could
	implement an LDBM to RDBM mapping.

 Reliable Database Manager ?
	RDBM provides a reliable database manager based upon
	CDB.  One could implement an LDBM to RDBM (or CDB) mapping.

(However, you likely meant:)
 Relational Database Management (System) ?
	An RDBMS is a family of database management systems that
	use a relational model.  LDBM is designed to use database
	systems that support key/value lookup.  LDBM is more
	suited to hash, b-tree, and similiar database architectures.

>What can I do if we want to use Sybase?

OpenLDAP does not directly support Relational Database Management
Systems.  There are many technical hurdles that must be overcome
to implement a generic RDBMS backend.  For details, see the
-devel mailing list archives.

However, OpenLDAP supports a number of backends designed for
implementating interfaces to existing databases.  Back-shell
(and soon to be released, back-perl and back-tcl) facilate
implementation of custom backends.

>How much work involved?

Depends on many factors.

Kurt