Chapter 3. Open Directory

3. Open Directory

A directory service is a centralized store for user accounts, groups, authentication data and security policies. Generally available over a network, this centralized storage facilitates consistent management, since administrative data only has to be managed once, rather than for multiple applications (file servers, mail servers, desktop security, etc.). The term Open Directory refers to Apple's Directory Services architectureboth its components for centrally storing administrative data (generally called Open Directory Server) and the built-in capacity of Mac OS X to access third-party directory services like Active Directory and eDirectory. Because its functionality is specific to Mac OS X Server, this chapter deals primarily with Open Directory Server, as well as configuring Mac OS X Server to access a directory service.