Deployment

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 5. Defining Your Directory Needs > Choosing an Overall Directory Design and Deployment Approach

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Choosing an Overall Directory Design and Deployment Approach

In this book, we present a comprehensive approach to directory design and deployment. Our main goal is to share our experience and expose you to all the directory design and deployment issues you should consider. We purposefully break the design and deployment process down into smaller pieces from which you can pick and choose because no one approach works best in all situations. Each chapter covers one aspect of the design, deployment, and maintenance tasks that you may need to do. It is up to you to assemble the pieces in a way that fits your situation and choose an approach that will help you succeed with your own directory deployment.

Matching the Prevailing Philosophy

It is important to choose an approach that fits your philosophy as well as that of your team and your organization. Some people prefer to spend a lot of time in the design and piloting phases before moving a directory service into production. Others prefer to jump in with both feet and deploy a pilot service with the knowledge that iteration and redesign will take place in the future.

The organization in which you are deploying the directory service may also have expectations that are important to meet. For example, if most of the deployed computing services are 24 —7 services that are heavily financed and staffed, it may make little sense to deploy a directory service that is not of similar quality.

Taking Constraints into Account

Another factor in choosing an approach that works for you is to consider the constraints under which the deployment must operate . Earlier in this chapter we listed some of these deployment and environmental constraints. Resource constraints (time, money, and people) usually impact your approach the most because they tend to limit in a very real way what you can do and how fast you can do it.

For example, one of the lessons from the large university directory case study (presented in Chapter 24, "Case Study: A Large University" ) is that initially there was no official support for the directory services project, and so it took a while for a production service to emerge. It was not until the service became widely used that resources were allocated explicitly to the project.

Political constraints are also worth considering, especially if they imply a specific schedule or a specific way of doing things. For example, if there is strong political opposition to or just strong skepticism about the directory project, it may make sense to deliver a basic, useful service as soon as possible rather than trying to design a be-all, end-all directory service.

Favoring Simple Solutions over Complex Ones

Another important point is that simple solutions generally work better than complex ones. Combined with a deep knowledge of the subject matter and an incremental approach to design, a "keep it simple" approach is probably your best bet. This book provides in-depth coverage of directory services, but we encourage you to adopt an incremental approach to design and deployment combined with good knowledge of all of the issues.

In an incremental approach to design, you begin by choosing simple solutions that address your most important needs and then revisit design decisions later as necessary. In this way, you can feed real deployment experience gained during pilot or production phases of the directory service back into the design process. Finding and deploying a simple solution is not necessarily quicker than finding and deploying a complex one, but simple solutions do tend to be easier to debug, easier to understand, and more flexible.

Focusing on Your Most Important Needs

Finally, it is best to focus initially on the most important directory- related needs, perhaps the top five. If, instead, you try to meet all the needs you are aware of, you may end up not meeting any of them well. Using the process outlined in this chapter to locate and prioritize application and user needs should help you find the most important areas to focus your efforts. Having focus will also make it much easier to measure your progress, as discussed in the next section.

The Bottom Line

In summary, we recommend that you choose an approach to directory design and deployment that is founded on these principles:

  • Make sure the approach fits the philosophy of those doing the work.

  • Operate within existing constraints.

  • Be aware of political constraints and pressures.

  • When in doubt, keep it simple.

  • Favor flexible, incremental approaches over "design it once and forever" approaches.

  • Focus initially on your most important directory-related needs.

Most important of all, choose an approach that fits your way of doing things and your specific situation. That will help you to succeed ”and in the end, that is what matters the most.



Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services,  2002 New Riders Publishing
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Index terms contained in this section

approaches
          deployment
                    considering constraints 2nd
                    prevailing philosophies
                    prioritizing needs
                    simple vs. complex soutions
          design
                    considering constraints 2nd
                    prevailing philosophies
                    prioritizing needs
                    simple vs. complex solutions
constraints
          design and deployment approaches 2nd
defining
         directory needs
                    design approaches 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
deployment
          approaches
                    considering constraints 2nd
                    prevailing philosophies
                    prioritizing needs
                    simple vs. complex solutions
design
          approaches
                    considering constraints 2nd
                    prevailing philosophies
                    prioritizing needs
                    simple vs. complex solutions
environments
         constraints
                    design approaches
needs
         directories
                    design approaches 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
prioritizing
         needs
                    ;design and deployment approaches

2002, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.



Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services
Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672323168
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1997
Pages: 245

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