Smart Referrals - Red Hat DIRECTORY SERVER 8.1 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Using Referrals
For example, a directory client requests the following directory entry: uid=bjensen,
ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
However, the server only manages entries stored under the dc=europe,dc=example,dc=com
suffix. The directory returns a referral to the client that indicates which server to contact for entries
stored under the dc=example,dc=com suffix. The client then contacts the appropriate server and
resubmits the original request.
Configure the default referral to point to a Directory Server that has more information about the
distribution of the directory service. Default referrals for the server are set by the nsslapd-referral
attribute. Default referrals for each database in the directory installation are set by the nsslapd-
referral attribute in the database entry in the configuration. These attribute values are stored in the
dse.ldif file.
For information on configuring default referrals, refer to the Red Hat Directory Server Administrator's
Guide.

5.3.1.3. Smart Referrals

The Directory Server can also use smart referrals. Smart referrals associate a directory entry or
directory tree to a specific LDAP URL. This means that requests can be forwarded to any of the
following:
• The same namespace contained on a different server.
• Different namespaces on a local server.
• Different namespaces on the same server.
Unlike default referrals, smart referrals are stored within the directory service itself. For information on
configuring and managing smart referrals, refer to the Red Hat Directory Server Administrator's Guide.
For example, the directory service for the American office of the Example Corp. contains the
ou=people,dc=example,dc=com directory branch point.
Redirect all requests on this branch to the ou=people branch of the European office of Example
Corp. by specifying a smart referral on the ou=people entry itself. The smart referral is ldap://
europe.example.com:389/ou=people,dc=example,dc=com.
Any requests made to the people branch of the American directory service are redirected to the
European directory. This is illustrated below:
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