Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 17. Maintaining Data > Handling New Data Sources |
Handling New Data SourcesUnless your directory is very special-purpose, there will come a time when you need to add more data to it. This involves integrating a new data source ”perhaps another database within your organization, a new application that needs to store things in the directory, or your users themselves . In any case, you'll need to plan to handle the new data, as outlined in the following steps:
Whatever your new data source is, you'll need to design schema to hold the information in the directory. Make sure the policy governing the maintenance of the new data is integrated into and compatible with your existing data maintenance policies. Follow the same steps you did earlier in this chapter and in Chapter 6 to design the procedure by which the new information is updated. Finally, you'll need to implement the new procedure that embodies your data maintenance policy. Following these steps should allow you to integrate new data sources with minimum disruption to the service. Make sure you have an explicit plan for handling new data sources that covers all these steps in detail. Our experience has shown that integrating new data sources is a pretty common task. If your directory service is popular and successful, many new applications will want to use it. Each application may well have some specialized data it needs to store or have available in the directory. The future success and growth of your service depend in large part on how well you respond to these needs. As with all substantial changes to your directory service, be sure to pilot the change before deploying a new data source in production. Chapter 22, "Directory Coexistence," talks about this topic in great detail. Chapters 20 and 21, "Directory-Enabling Existing Applications," talk in great detail about creating applications that use the directory.
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Index terms contained in this sectiondatamaintenance new data sources 2nd design schema data maintenance directories data maintenance new data sources 2nd maintenance data new data sources 2nd schema design data maintenance sources data maintenance designing schema |
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