Category Archives: Oracle Unified Directory
Advanced Replication Setup for High availability and Performance
Introduction
- Directory Server
- Proxy Server
- Replication Server
Advanced Replication Setup for High availability and Performance
In my personal opinion, Oracle leads the market in Directory Product offerings (LDAP Directories). Starting from Oracle Internet Directory (OID), to the latest Oracle Unified Directory (OUD), Oracle definitely provides variety of LDAP Directory related products for integration.
With increasing demand for mobile computing and cloud computing offering, there is a need to standardize LDAP Deployments for Identification, Authentication and (sometimes) Authorization (IAA) services. With a highly scalable, highly performing, highly available, highly stable and highly secure LDAP Directory, these IAA services will be easier to integrate with applications in the cloud or for the mobile applications.
Introduction
Oracle Unified Directory (OUD) is a latest LDAP Directory offering from Oracle Corp. As mentioned in my previous post, OUD comes with three main components. They are:
- Directory Server
- Proxy Server
- Replication Server
Here, Directory Server provides the main LDAP functionality (I assume you already know what an LDAP Directory Server means). Proxy server is used for to proxy LDAP requests (how?). AndReplication Server is used for replicating (copying) data from one OUD to another OUD or even to ODSEE server (we will talk more about replication in this post). You can read about my first post on OUD here. In this current article, I will write about replication server and advanced replication setup for Oracle Unified Directory.
Many people want a step by step guide (kind of cheat sheet) to setup something like OUD or OID for replication. Unfortunately I am not going to give you that here. In my personal opinion, that (cheat sheet) is not a right approach at all and will not be helpful in the long run for gaining concepts or knowledge. First of all, we need to give importance to the basic concepts behind how something works.
First of all, read OUD Documentation
Product Documentation must be read before you plan your deployment. You can find the OUD Documentation here. This link is for OUD Version 11.1.1. Make sure to refer the latest product manual. Documentation provides lot of details about the product and save lot of time with investigation later. For Replication, you need to start with “Architecture Reference” Guide.
When do you want to setup replication?
There should be a reason, right? If there is no reason, then there is no need for you to setup replication at all. Instead, you can have a beer and pass the time happily doing something else.
Ideally, you need replication setup for “High Availability” and “Performance”. Usually, there will be multiple instances of OUD Directory Server processes running in Production. Let’s say we need to have around four OUD Directory Servers (and four more for Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery).
Unfortunately, there is no single process to update all the eight OUD Directory Servers in our example. We need to find a mechanism to synchronize the directory entries across these servers. For this, we need to use the OUD Replication Server Component.
Securing the Replication Traffic
We don’t want network sniffers taking away critical user information (even inside the internal network, it is possible). We need to encrypt the traffic between the replication servers. Do not consider setting up a Replication Server communication without encrypted traffic.
Since OUD provided identity data, all the network traffic is prone to sniffing attacks. Always use encrypted or secure connections to OUD or to any LDAP Directory.
Deciding a Replication Method to use
Next important thing is to decide what replication method you are going to use. This is mostly site specific and you need to know lot of details before deciding a replication method to use. I am planning to use the following sample architecture for this post. Let’s understand our sample OUD Architecture first.
Here are the quick components of the architecture:
- We have one master OUD Server called PROD-01. All the updates to the directory happens here. Most probably, HR System will update the directory. Also, Updates can happen using a custom developed application plug-in for LDAP Directory or using a Identity and Access Management System (IAM) system such as Oracle Identity Manager or Tivoli Identity Manager.
- PROD-02 will be used with PROD-01 for High Availability and Performance in this Production Deployment.
- In Disaster Recovery deployment, we have PROD-03 and PROD-04 servers. These servers need to synchronize the user data from the master server PROD-01.
One way to setup replication is by provisioning users into all the six OUD Directory Servers by an Identity and Access Management (IAM) System (such as Oracle Identity Manager or Tivoli Identity Manager). However this provisioning can be time consuming to complete because it will be treated as updating six different LDAP Directories. So a better way to achieve this is using a Replication Server.
We will continue setting up the Replication Server for this architecture. Lets meet in another post – Until then.
Vijay Chinnasamy
Read More about Advanced Replication
My exploration with Oracle Unified Directory 11g
When I read the blog post about the introduction of a new product Oracle Unified Directory, first thing that came to my mind was, why another LDAP directory from Oracle? Oracle already has two LDAP Directory offerings, ODSEE (Sun Directory) and OID. However my impression changed after attending this webcast from Oracle (which justified about the new product in general). You can find the Q & A from the webcast here. It looks like “unified” summarizes about the new product.
Personally, I have interests in all the products that deal with LDAP Protocol and LDAP Directories. So, I was interested to know more about the new product. I read about Oracle Unified Directory (OUD) 11g release notes here. You can find the OUD documentation for 11g R1 release (11.1.1.5.0) here.
OUD is one of a brand new directoty product from Oracle as part of the Fusion Middleware Identity Management. OUD comes with Oracle Directory Services Plus (ODS Plus) suite. So, if you already have a license for ODS Plus, then you already have a license to use OUD in your enterprise (Please check with Oracle Licensing before any major deployments to see the existing license covers it).
There are too many TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) used in this post – I tried to use this minimally but that was not easy. If you hate TLAs, here is a quick recap:
OUD – Oracle Unified Directory
OID – Oracle Internet Directory
ODS (ODSEE) – Oracle Directory Server (previously, Sun Java System Directory Server – also, iPlanet Directory)
DIP – Directory Integration Platform
A brand new LDAP v3 Implementation
LDAP Protocol is the standard way for storing directory entries for an enterprise. With more than 5 years of development (mentioned in the webcast), OUD is a LDAP v3 implementation from Oracle. It was also mentioned that OUD was written in Java.
OUD comes with three main components. They are:
- Directory Server
- Proxy Server
- Replication Server
Directory Server provides the main LDAP functionality. Proxy server can be used for proxy LDAP requests. And Replication Server is used for replication from one OUD to another OUD or even ODSEE server.
Embedded Berkeley DB
This is my favorite part of OUD. There is no separate Oracle Database requirement for OUD (unlike Oracle Internet Directory). Personally I like LDAP Directories embedded with an attached database such as Berkeley DB for storing the data entries. Some may argue that we can use Database features in the LDAP Directory. However I feel that we can use file based storage features for the DB files which can be better.
OUD Replication for ODSEE
Replication is one of the major requirements for LDAP Directories now. To setup high availability environments, we need replication to be setup in almost every LDAP Directory deployment. We need to propagate changes from one OUD directory to another using replication for High-Availability.
One of the important features I like about OUD is its replication gateway for ODSEE (also for OUD). Definitely this is aimed for deployments with ODSEE to migrate to the OUD easily.
Directory Integration Platform (DIP)
Oracle DIP provides functionality to synchronize data from one LDAP Directory to another, such as Active Directory (also from database to the LDAP Directory). Oracle DIP was already available earlier. Now, DIP is supported in OUD as well.
Performance and Security
In existing LDAP Directories, we face performance issues related to writing data entries. In OUD, it was mentioned in the webcast that it provides “5 times write” and “3 times read” performance.
OUD will be used for storing user information for authentication and sometimes for authorization purposes. Also, it can be used to store personnel information. So, security is one of the major concerns during the deployment. I need to explore more on this.
Some of the other features:
- dsconfig command – dsconfig command line is used to configure most of the system administration functions for OUD.
- ODSM – ODSM is a graphical utility for managing OUD.
So what’s next? Obviously it is time to download the new product and play around with its features.
Installation and Configuration
Installation is a simple task with Oracle Installers. This is no exception for OUD too. OUD installation is a simple process. We just need to download the software and run the runInstaller utility (I have Oracle Linux in my laptop – All my examples below is on Linux).
./runInstaller –jreloc /usr
[I have Oracle Linux 6.0 in my laptop. I installed OUD in this laptop with jre 1.6.0_20 installed under /usr by default. The Java executable is /usr/bin/java/]
OUD installation is a simple process with 7 step installation process:
- Welcome
- My Oracle Support Updates
- Prerequisite checks
- Installation Location
- Installation Summary
- Installation Progress
- Installation Complete
[Since the prerequisite checks failed in my laptop (Issue with Linux Version), I have to tweak little bit for the OUD installation, by editing /etc/redhat-release and /etc/oracle-release files]
Once Installation is completed, then we need to configure OUD based on what components we want to deploy.
For each component, OUD comes with a GUI utility for configuration. We can configure OUD for Directory Server, Proxy Server and/or Replication Server. We can run these utilities using command line options for configuration too. The utilities are located under the install folder:
oud-setup
oud-proxy-setup
oud-replication-setup
Once configuration is completed using these utilities, you can use the commands in bin folder to start or stop the components. You can refer the installation guide for more details on this.
Note:
I faced issues during the Server Startup for using the jre in /usr (delivered with Oracle Linux). I will write about it in my next post.
All right… that’s all for now. I will continue to write more on OUD for advanced options for deployment. Also, I will be deploying the ODS connector in OIM to integrate with OUD. We will meet in another post with more details on them. Until then
Vijay Chinnasamy
Read More about Oracle Unified Directory
Part I – LDAP Directory for the Cloud – Which one do you recommend?
I am planning to appear for the CISSP exam sometime this year (could be in the month of May – I believe it really needs more time to prepare). For my Exam, I just completed my reading the Access Control chapter. I am using the Shon Harris AIO guide for my CISSP Exam. Whether I take the exam or not, the more knowledge I gain, then I am good with that. Believe me “Access Control” is not an easy chapter for me (though I worked on that domain for last few years. I have to understand lot of terminologies for the CISSP Exam. I still have 9 more domains to complete before start taking other books (Access Control is just one of them). It looks like it needs a lot more preparation than I thought.
Definition of Cloud Computing
Directory as a Service
- Oracle Directory Server (ODS) – formerly Iplanet or Sun LDAP.
- Oracle Internet Directory (OID)
- Microsoft Active Directory (AD)
- IBM Tivoli Directory Server (ITDS)
- Novell’s eDirectory
- OpenLDAP
What do I think?
Anyways, I don’t want to talk about Access Control here. But it is about the webcast by Mark Wilcox from Oracle couple of weeks ago. Mark webcasted a presentation on “Choosing the right Directory for the Cloud”. You can find the recording here.
Let’s try to understand the general definition of cloud computing first. According to “The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing” Version 15, it is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.
According to the definition, there should be shared pool of configurable computing resources. In this context, we are talking about LDAP Directory as a software service that can be configured to provide access through various resources through. In this webcast, Mark talked more about the OID and ODS (see below).
In this context, let’s try to understand how LDAP Directories can be a service in the cloud.
There are many LDAP Directory offerings from various vendors, such as the ones below:
I want to talk more about LDAP directories for the clouds more on covering famous Directories out there. We serve many customers and everyone has their own preference of a LDAP Directory. So, we can’t ignore the other famous LDAP Directories.
When we talk about LDAP Directory for a cloud, we are talking about an LDAP instance for the Cloud application for authentication purposes (in some cases, we can use it for authorization as well).
If you are working with Oracle Products, such as Oracle EBS etc, and you need to consider a integration with LDAP Directory, then I believe Oracle Internet Directory (OID) has more advantages than the others in the list (Also, Oracle certifies most of the Identity Management products for EBS aligning with OID). Main reason is that Oracle Products are certified with OID as a recommended LDAP Directory – they are easy to integrate with the support from the point of the Vendor. Other reasoning is because the data is stored in the database, so you can take advantage of the Database Security Features.
ODS (formerly Sun Java System Directory Server, before that Iplanet Directory Server) is a great product in itself. I am working with this directory for a long time now. The data is stored in the Operating System Files (it internally uses the database structure). ODS follows LDAP v3 protocol standard.
I don’t want to be Oracle-centric in my approach (both of the above two directory servers I mentioned are from Oracle Corp). Mark Wilcox is from Oracle, So he talked more about these two directories in general. Also,
So, how can we provide an LDAP Directory as a service in the cloud? And more importantly what are the important factors that we need to consider while providing this service?
Also, Let’s talk about other directories in coming posts.
Until then
Vijay Chinnasamy
Read More about LDAP Directory
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