| Chapter 1, "The Four Basics of eDirectory Troubleshooting," defines Novell's directory services (DS) implementation as a loosely consistent distributed database. Several autonomous background processes ensure the integrity of the data in the DS database and must run smoothly to provide consistent operation. There are also several processes you initiate with administration tools such as ConsoleOne and NDS iMonitor when managing objects, partitions, and replicas. This chapter looks at the most common of these processes, to help you develop a better understanding of how they work. A thorough understanding of how they work makes it easier to determine a proper course of action to take to resolve DS problems. NOTE The various DS processes discussed in this chapter exist in all versions of NDS , including eDirectory. There are some subtle differences in how the processes function internally (such as the frequency at which a process runs) depending on the version of DS in question. These differences are highlighted in this chapter as applicable .
TIP This chapter goes into some detail about the DS processes themselves . For step-by-step detail of the operation of a specific process, refer to Novell's CD-ROMs LogicSource II for NDS and LogicSource for eDirectory. These CD-ROMs were once available for purchase as part of the LogicSource offering, but now are offered as part of the Novell Professional Resource Suite and as part of the Novell Product Toolkits. For more information about Novell Technical Subscriptions, visit http://support.novell.com/subscriptions.
Before we talk about the background processes, we need to discuss DS name resolution, tree-walking , and obituaries , which DS uses to locate information in the tree and to keep track of the state of some of the operations, respectively. | 