[ppml] Directory Services - Take 2

[Andrew Newton]

On Jun 13, 2005, at 9:26 AM, Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com wrote:

> I'm suggesting that ARIN map it's existing backend database into
> an LDAP schema

This is much easier said than done.  By its very nature of being  
rooted in X.500 DAP and the X.500 tree structure, LDAP imposes a  
hierarchical tree structure on any data model.  Trying to take a  
highly relational data set and putting into a tree causes many nodes  
to be replicated (leading to bloat due to multiple copies of the same  
data).  I once had a relational data set of 6 million objects that  
exploded into 115 million objects when I tried to load it into an  
LDAP server.

There are ways around it, as the FIRS proposal proves.  Again, the  
CRISP wg looked at both methods.  It concluded that both would work.   
However, the LDAP approach required so much engineering on top of  
LDAP that it made the point of re-use questionable.

-andy