LDAP Directory Synchronizer
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Setting up the LDAP Layout File

The LDSU LDAP Layout file contains the LDAP Attributes that LDSU can access in the LDAP directory on an import or export.

By default, the LDAP layout file is named ldsu_layout.dat in the parent directory of an LDSU instance. But since LDSU may access multiple LDAP directories, and hence need multiple layout files, the name of the layout file used by any one instance can be specified by the layout_file parameter in the ldsu_config.dat file for each LDSU instance. Multiple layout files may also be necessary if only using one LDAP directory but multiple object types are being accessed by LDSU and require a different set of LDAP attribute definitions for each object type. (Although these can be combined into one layout file if the format of the DN is the same.)

LDAP Layout File Syntax Rules

LDAP Layout File RDN Field Definitions

RDN definitions list LDAP attributes that are part of the Distinguished Name (DN). These attributes are referred to as Relative Distinguished Names (RDNs). These should be listed in the Layout File in the same order that the RDNs appear in the DN (e.g. cn=name, ou=sales, o=company, c=us would result in 4 RDN definitions cn,ou,o,c in that order). When importing, the format of a DN can be overiden by the use of the dn_sequence parameter in the LDSU_CONFIG.DAT file. If using multi-part RDNs, this parameter must be used since the Layout File assumes all RDN's are not multi-part.

  1. type = RDN

  2. label = the LDAP attribute name

  3. length = maximum length in Ascii of a value for this RDN

  4. #values = maxumum number of consecutive RDN values in the DN

  5. objectclass = optional parent object class for this level. Used if LDSU is setup to create parent entries if needed. (See the create_root parameter)

LDAP Layout File ATTR Field Definitions

ATTR definitions list LDAP attributes that are NOT part of the Distinguished Name (DN). Only LDAP attributes that LDSU will ever access need to be specified. The objectclass attribute need not be listed since LDSU automatically assigns its value by use of the synch_object parameter in ldsu_config.dat.

  1. type = ATTR

  2. label = the LDAP attribute name

  3. length = maximum length in Ascii of a value for this attribute

  4. #values = maxumum number of values for this attribute

  5. data type = STRING, BINARY, NT-SID. The default type is STRING used by most LDAP Attributes.

LDAP Layout File: Multivalue Attributes

If an RDN or ATTR record has multiple attribute values, then the names used to specify these in an RDF file are:

If the same field name appears both as an RDN and an ATTR, then specify the ATTR value with _N extension, where N starts after the last RDN value. For example, in the template ldsu_layout_exchange.dat file for Exchange, there are two CN records that each specify two values:

In the RDF file, the values are referred to as:

If using subcontainers in Exchange, which would add another CN RDN to the DN, would require the number of values for the RDN definition to be 3. This would change the meanings of the values to:

Another example of fields that appear as both RDNs and ATTRs is the country or organization name in X.500. Typically both attributes are part of the DN, but can also be listed as an attribute value:

These would be referred to as:

Note: Some LDAP directories cannot guarantee the order of multivalue attributes will be preserved. For intance, if LDSU specifies two values for the telephone attributes (telephone and telephone_2) they might come back reversed. It is better to use two different attributes, if possible, to store these values (telephone and hometelephone).

LDAP Layout File: Other Notes

The format of the Layout File determines the structure of the temporary metafiles used in LDSU. Reducing the layout file to only include the attributes being used, specifying only the number of values being used, and the maximum length of the values will reduce the size of the metafiles as well as virtual memory used by the LDSU process when running.

Changing the structure of the layout file, means that any existing LDSU metafiles are no longer valid. This only affects LDSU when using basic Changes mode, since an LDSU metafile is presevered between runs. Therefore, when changing the layout file by inserting new attributes or when changing the number or length of attribtues, a new output_metafile must be generated after the change is made. Adding new attributes to the end of the Layout File or changing the names of the fields will not affect the structure of the metafile.


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