What You ve Learned | Apple Training Series: Mac OS X System Administration Reference, Volume 1

Every user account on the computer must contain enough information to uniquely identify the user account, authenticate a user using the account, and identify what authority the user has.
Open Directory is the Apple implementation of directory services in Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server.
Every Mac OS X computer has a local directory called the local NetInfo database; it can also retrieve administrative data from BDS configuration files.
Mac OS X v10.4 can use crypt passwords to authenticate a user account, but all new user accounts use shadow hash passwords, which are more secure on a local system.
The DirectoryService process handles directory-service calls.
The lookupd process provides support for requests from BDS command-line tools and performs the DNS resolution for the operating system.
To resolve directory-service issues, you should first plan, and then configure, test, and modify.
DSAgent is the lookupd agent that retrieves information from the DirectoryService process.
Use the Directory Access tool to configure directory services on Mac OS X and define custom search paths for authentication and contact information.

"Mac OS X Server Open Directory Administration": http://images.apple.com/server/pdfs/Open_Directory_v10.4.pdf

"Mac OS X Server User Management": http://images.apple.com/server/pdfs/User_Management_Admin_v10.4.pdf

"Mac OS X Server Command-Line Administration": http://images.apple.com/server/pdfs/Command_Line_v10.4.pdf

The following Knowledge Base documents (located at www.apple.com/support) provide further information on lookupd and local directories.

Document 30770, "Mac OS X: What is lookupd?"

Document 106499, "Mac OS X 10.1: Binding Local NetInfo Database to an NIS Domain"

Document 60038, "Mac OS X Server 1.x: What Is NetInfo?"

Document 107210, "Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server: How to Replace the NetInfo Database"

Carter, Gerald. LDAP System Administration (O'Reilly, 2003).

Apple Developer Documentation on Open Directory: http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/opendirectory

Open Directory concepts and structure: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/networking/Conceptual/Open_Directory