2 draft-legg-ldap-admin-02.txt Adacel Technologies
3 Intended Category: Standards Track June 16, 2004
6 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP):
7 Directory Administrative Model
9 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). All Rights Reserved.
14 This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
15 all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
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36 This Internet-Draft expires on 16 December 2004.
41 This document adapts the X.500 directory administrative model for use
42 by the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. The administrative
43 model partitions the Directory Information Tree for various aspects
44 of directory data administration, e.g., subschema, access control and
45 collective attributes. The generic framework that applies to every
46 aspect of administration is described in this document. The
47 definitions that apply for a specific aspect of administration, e.g.,
48 access control administration, are described in other documents.
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59 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
60 2. Conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
61 3. Administrative Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
62 4. Autonomous Administrative Areas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
63 5. Specific Administrative Areas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
64 6. Inner Administrative Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
65 7. Administrative Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
66 8. Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
67 9. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
68 10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
69 10.1. Normative References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
70 10.2. Informative References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
71 11. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
72 Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
76 This document adapts the X.500 directory administrative model [X501]
77 for use by the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [LDAP].
78 The administrative model partitions the Directory Information Tree
79 (DIT) for various aspects of directory data administration, e.g.,
80 subschema, access control and collective attributes. This document
81 provides the definitions for the generic parts of the administrative
82 model that apply to every aspect of directory data administration.
84 Sections 3 to 7, in conjunction with [SUBENTRY], describe the means
85 by which administrative authority is aportioned and exercised in the
88 Aspects of administration that conform to the administrative model
89 described in this document are detailed elsewhere, e.g., access
90 control administration is described in [ACA] and collective attribute
91 administration is described in [COLLECT].
93 This document is derived from, and duplicates substantial portions
94 of, Sections 4 and 8 of X.501 [X501].
98 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
99 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
100 document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC 2119
103 3. Administrative Areas
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113 An administrative area is a subtree of the DIT considered from the
114 perspective of administration. The root entry of the subtree is an
115 administrative point. An administrative point is represented by an
116 entry holding an administrativeRole attribute [SUBENTRY]. The values
117 of this attribute identify the kind of administrative point.
119 4. Autonomous Administrative Areas
121 The DIT may be partitioned into one or more non-overlapping subtrees
122 termed autonomous administrative areas. It is expected that the
123 entries in an autonomous administrative area are all administered by
124 the same administrative authority.
126 An administrative authority may be responsible for several autonomous
127 administrative areas in separated parts of the DIT but it SHOULD NOT
128 arbitrarily partition the collection of entries under its control
129 into autonomous administrative areas (thus creating adjacent
130 autonomous areas administered by the same authority).
132 The root entry of an autonomous administrative area's subtree is
133 called an autonomous administrative point. An autonomous
134 administrative area extends from its autonomous administrative point
135 downwards until another autonomous administrative point is
136 encountered, at which point another autonomous administrative area
139 5. Specific Administrative Areas
141 Entries in an administrative area may be considered in terms of a
142 specific administrative function. When viewed in this context, an
143 administrative area is termed a specific administrative area.
145 Examples of specific administrative areas are subschema specific
146 administrative areas, access control specific areas and collective
147 attribute specific areas.
149 An autonomous administrative area may be considered as implicitly
150 defining a single specific administrative area for each specific
151 aspect of administration. In this case, there is a precise
152 correspondence between each such specific administrative area and the
153 autonomous administrative area.
155 Alternatively, for each specific aspect of administration, the
156 autonomous administrative area may be partitioned into
157 non-overlapping specific administrative areas.
159 If so partitioned for a particular aspect of administration, each
160 entry of the autonomous administrative area is contained in one and
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169 only one specific administrative area for that aspect, i.e., specific
170 administrative areas do not overlap.
172 The root entry of a specific administrative area's subtree is called
173 a specific administrative point. A specific administrative area
174 extends from its specific administrative point downwards until
175 another specific administrative point of the same administrative
176 aspect is encountered, at which point another specific administrative
177 area begins. Specific administrative areas are always bounded by the
178 autonomous administrative area they partition.
180 Where an autonomous administrative area is not partitioned for a
181 specific aspect of administration, the specific administrative area
182 for that aspect coincides with the autonomous administrative area.
183 In this case, the autonomous administrative point is also the
184 specific administrative point for this aspect of administration. A
185 particular administrative point may be the root of an autonomous
186 administrative area and may be the root of one or more specific
187 administrative areas for different aspects of administration.
189 It is not necessary for an administrative point to represent each
190 specific aspect of administrative authority. For example, there
191 might be an administrative point, subordinate to the root of the
192 autonomous administrative area, which is used for access control
195 6. Inner Administrative Areas
197 For some aspects of administration, e.g., access control or
198 collective attributes, inner administrative areas may be defined
199 within the specific administrative areas, to allow a limited form of
200 delegation, or for administrative or operational convenience.
202 An inner administrative area may be nested within another inner
203 administrative area. The rules for nested inner areas are defined as
204 part of the definition of the specific administrative aspect for
205 which they are allowed.
207 The root entry of an inner administrative area's subtree is called an
208 inner administrative point. An inner administrative area (within a
209 specific administrative area) extends from its inner administrative
210 point downwards until a specific administrative point of the same
211 administrative aspect is encountered. An inner administrative area
212 is bounded by the specific administrative area within which it is
215 7. Administrative Entries
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225 An entry located at an administrative point is an administrative
226 entry. Administrative entries MAY have subentries [SUBENTRY] as
227 immediate subordinates. The administrative entry and its associated
228 subentries are used to control the entries encompassed by the
229 associated administrative area. Where inner administrative areas are
230 used, the scopes of these areas may overlap. Therefore, for each
231 specific aspect of administrative authority, a definition is required
232 of the method of combination of administrative information when it is
233 possible for entries to be included in more than one subtree or
234 subtree refinement associated with an inner area defined for that
237 8. Security Considerations
239 This document defines a generic framework for employing policy of
240 various kinds, e.g., access controls, to entries in the DIT. Such
241 policy can only be correctly enforced at a directory server holding a
242 replica of a portion of the DIT if the administrative entries for
243 administrative areas that overlap the portion of the DIT being
244 replicated, and the subentries of those administrative entries
245 relevant to any aspect of policy that is required to be enforced at
246 the replica, are included in the replicated information.
248 Administrative entries and subentries SHOULD be protected from
249 unauthorized examination or changes by appropriate access controls.
253 This document is derived from, and duplicates substantial portions
254 of, Sections 4 and 8 of X.501 [X501].
258 10.1. Normative References
260 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
261 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
263 [LDAP] Hodges, J. and R. Morgan, "Lightweight Directory Access
264 Protocol (v3): Technical Specification", RFC 3377,
267 [SUBENTRY] Zeilenga, K. and S. Legg, "Subentries in the Lightweight
268 Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)", RFC 3672, December
271 10.2. Informative References
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278 INTERNET-DRAFT Directory Administrative Model June 16, 2004
281 [COLLECT] Zeilenga, K., "Collective Attributes in the Lightweight
282 Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)", RFC 3671, December
285 [ACA] Legg, S., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP):
286 Access Control Administration",
287 draft-legg-ldap-acm-admin-xx.txt, a work in progress, June
290 [X501] ITU-T Recommendation X.501 (02/01) | ISO/IEC 9594-2:2001,
291 Information technology - Open Systems Interconnection -
292 The Directory: Models
297 Adacel Technologies Ltd.
299 Brighton, Victoria 3186
302 Phone: +61 3 8530 7710
304 EMail: steven.legg@adacel.com.au
306 Full Copyright Statement
308 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). This document is subject
309 to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and
310 except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.
312 This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
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314 OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
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316 INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
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318 WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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354 This document reproduces Section 4 from
355 draft-legg-ldap-acm-admin-00.txt as a standalone document. All
356 changes made are purely editorial. No technical changes have been
361 RFC 3377 replaces RFC 2251 as the reference for LDAP.
365 The document has been reformatted in line with current practice.
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