Part I – LDAP Directory for the Cloud – Which one do you recommend?

I am planning to appear for the CISSP exam sometime this year (could be in the month of May – I believe it really needs more time to prepare). For my Exam, I just completed my reading the Access Control chapter. I am using the Shon Harris AIO guide for my CISSP Exam. Whether I take the exam or not, the more knowledge I gain, then I am good with that. Believe me “Access Control” is not an easy chapter for me (though I worked on that domain for last few years. I have to understand lot of terminologies for the CISSP Exam. I still have 9 more domains to complete before start taking other books (Access Control is just one of them). It looks like it needs a lot more preparation than I thought.

Definition of Cloud Computing

Directory as a Service

• Oracle Directory Server (ODS) – formerly Iplanet or Sun LDAP.

• Oracle Internet Directory (OID)

• Microsoft Active Directory (AD)

• IBM Tivoli Directory Server (ITDS)

• Novell’s eDirectory

• OpenLDAP

What do I think?

Anyways, I don’t want to talk about Access Control here. But it is about the webcast by Mark Wilcox from Oracle couple of weeks ago. Mark webcasted a presentation on “Choosing the right Directory for the Cloud”. You can find the recording here.

Let’s try to understand the general definition of cloud computing first. According to “The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing” Version 15, it is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

According to the definition, there should be shared pool of configurable computing resources. In this context, we are talking about LDAP Directory as a software service that can be configured to provide access through various resources through. In this webcast, Mark talked more about the OID and ODS (see below).

In this context, let’s try to understand how LDAP Directories can be a service in the cloud.

There are many LDAP Directory offerings from various vendors, such as the ones below:

I want to talk more about LDAP directories for the clouds more on covering famous Directories out there. We serve many customers and everyone has their own preference of a LDAP Directory. So, we can’t ignore the other famous LDAP Directories.

When we talk about LDAP Directory for a cloud, we are talking about an LDAP instance for the Cloud application for authentication purposes (in some cases, we can use it for authorization as well).

If you are working with Oracle Products, such as Oracle EBS etc, and you need to consider a integration with LDAP Directory, then I believe Oracle Internet Directory (OID) has more advantages than the others in the list (Also, Oracle certifies most of the Identity Management products for EBS aligning with OID). Main reason is that Oracle Products are certified with OID as a recommended LDAP Directory – they are easy to integrate with the support from the point of the Vendor. Other reasoning is because the data is stored in the database, so you can take advantage of the Database Security Features.

ODS (formerly Sun Java System Directory Server, before that Iplanet Directory Server) is a great product in itself. I am working with this directory for a long time now. The data is stored in the Operating System Files (it internally uses the database structure). ODS follows LDAP v3 protocol standard.

I don’t want to be Oracle-centric in my approach (both of the above two directory servers I mentioned are from Oracle Corp). Mark Wilcox is from Oracle, So he talked more about these two directories in general. Also,

So, how can we provide an LDAP Directory as a service in the cloud? And more importantly what are the important factors that we need to consider while providing this service?

Also, Let’s talk about other directories in coming posts.

Until then

Vijay Chinnasamy

Read More about  LDAP Directory

Business Objects File Repository Servers

Functions of File Repository server (FRS)

The BusinessObjects File Repository Servers(FRS) are responsible for listing files on the server, adding files to the repository, and removing files from the repository. FRS also responsible for the creation of file system objects such as exported reports, and imported files in non-native formats.

Default FRS location in BOE Installation?

FRS can be found on your disk at \Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Enterprise 12\FileStore (for XI 3.x) in default installation. The two main directories under this location are Input and Output. The Input directory stores the report templates and thumbnail images, while the Output directory stores the results from running those templates. Thus, the Output directory is normally many times larger than the Input directory. Each of these directories is managed by its own BO XI File Repository server.

In every BusinessObjects Enterprise implementation there is an Input and an Output File Repository Server. Both manage their respective directories and handle all aspects of file management.

Input FRS

The Input File Repository Server manages all of the report objects and program objects that have been published to the repository. It can store .RPT, .CAR, .EXE, .BAT, .JS, .XLS, .DOC, .PPT, .RTF, .TXT, .PDF, .WID files. In the case of .RPT files, they are stored as report definition files only which do not contain any data.

The Report Properties page of the CMC shows you the location of the Input report files. The RPT report template can be found at frs://Input/a_084/004/000/1108/ca067d4f1710cbc.rpt

Exploring to this location shows two files: the RPT file with the name indicated on the report properties page of the CMC and a JPEG file, which serves as the thumbnail image.

Output FRS

The Output File Repository Server manages all of the report instances (saved data copy of the report) generated by the Report Job Server or the Web Intelligence Report Server, and the program instances generated by the Program Job Server. It also manages instances generated by the Web Intelligence Report Server and the LOV Job Server. It can store the following files: .RPT, .CSV, .XLS, .DOC, .RTF, .TXT, .PDF, .WID. For .RPT and .WID files are stored as reports/documents with saved data.

Since Output FRS stores the report instances, deleting instances would remove instances not the actual reports. However the report structure will be stored in the Input FRS.

Using Query Builder we can find the location of the Output File repository files. The following query may be handy if you already know the report name.

SELECT SI_NAME, SI_KIND, SI_FILES, SI_INSTANCE from CI_INFOOBJECTS
Where SI_NAME =’xxxx’

If the SI_INSTANCE value is false then the InfoObject is the actual report and SI_PATH will be in Input FRS. If SI_INSTANCE is true then the InfoObject would be an Instance and the SI_PATH will be in Output FRS.

Exploring to this location shows the actual instance file pertaining report data with the appropriate export format based on the scheduling parameters.

Diagnosing File Repository Servers

Repository Diagnostic Tool (RDT) is a command-line tool that scans, diagnoses, and repairs inconsistencies between your Central Management Server (CMS) system database and the File Repository Servers (FRS) filestore, or inconsistencies that can occur in the metadata of InfoObjects stored in the CMS database. This inconsistencies may occur during unexpected events such as disaster recovery, back-up restoration, or network outages. During these events, the CMS system database may be interrupted while performing a task. This can cause inconsistencies with objects in the CMS system database.

List of inconsistencies that could potentially occur in repository which RDT can identify are

Inconsistency	Description	Repair Actions
InfoObject exists, but no file	It is possible that an InfoObject exists in the CMS, but there is no file FRS	Delete the InfoObject, unless otherwise told
File exists but no InfoObject	It is possible the file exists but there is no corresponding InfoObject	User is notified to republish the object
Invalid Parent ID	An InfoObject can potentially have an invalid parent reference	The object and its children will be moved Into a folder call ‘Repair’.
Last Successful Instance	The reference to the last successful scheduled instance could be invalid	Remove the ID and let the CMS automatically recalculate it
Invalid Target ID	A shortcut could be pointing to an invalid object	The shortcut object will be deleted, unless told otherwise.
File size is wrong	There can be information discrepancies between the InfoObject and actual file	Update the InfoObject
Empty folders in the system	There may be empty folders due to old objects	Remove the empty directories, unless otherwise told.

Limitations for File Repository Servers

• The Input and Output File Repository Servers cannot share the same directories. This is because one of the File Repository Servers could then delete files and directories belonging to the other.
• In larger deployments, there may be multiple Input and Output File Repository Servers, for redundancy. In this case, all Input File Repository Servers must share the same directory. Likewise, all Output File Repository Servers must share a directory.