Advantages Of Using Virtual Dit Views - Red Hat DIRECTORY SERVER 8.1 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Chapter 4. Designing the Directory Tree
Figure 4.12. A DIT with a Virtual DIT View Hierarchy
• The sub-tree ou=People contains the real Entry A and Entry B entries.
• The sub-tree ou=Location Views is a view hierarchy.
• The leaf nodes ou=Sunnyvale and ou=Mountain View each contain an attribute,
nsviewfilter, which describes the view.
These are leaf nodes because they do not contain the real entries. However, when a client
application searches these views, it finds Entry A under ou=Sunnyvale and Entry B under
ou=Mountain View. This virtual search space is described by the nsviewfilter attributes of all
ancestor views. A search made from a view returns both entries from the virtual search space and
those from the actual search space. This enables the view hierarchies to function as a conventional
DIT or change a conventional DIT into a view hierarchy.

4.4.2. Advantages of Using Virtual DIT Views

The deployment decisions become easier with virtual DIT views because:
• Views facilitate the use of a flat namespace for entries, because virtual DIT views provide
navigational and managerial support similar to those provided by traditional hierarchies.
In addition, whenever there is a change to the DIT, the entries never need to be moved; only the
virtual DIT view hierarchies change. Because these hierarchies contain no real entries, they are
simple and quick to modify.
• Oversights during deployment planning are less catastrophic with virtual DIT views. If the hierarchy
is not developed correctly in the first instance, it can be changed easily and quickly without
disrupting the service.
• View hierarchies can be completely revised in minutes and the results instantly realized, significantly
reducing the cost of directory maintenance.
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