On Sat, 2006-12-09 at 06:35 -0500, Bryan J. Smith wrote: > I haven't seen the exams, and I wasn't involved with their development, > but I'll assume they are going to be more OpenLDAP-centric, although > OpenLDAP and Fedora (Netscape) Directory Servers are based on the same > Washington University codebase. The latter has standard replication and > GUI front-end implementation, showing some of its commercial history, > although OpenLDAP has many such options as well, and can use some of the > Fedora front-ends ones too. I'm biased with the latter, because I've > been deploying it for a long-time (and was jumping for joy when Red Hat > bought it from AOL-Netscape in 2004 and finally secured all rights to > GPL/MPL it by spring 2005).
In reading through the objectives, I think downloading the Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) evaluation would be best. It contains probably the most well-integrated OpenLDAP implementation. It's clear the exam is going to be more OpenLDAP-focused when things get implementation- specific, so that's where you want to concentrate your efforts for Exam 301. If you want to setup Fedora Directory Server (FDS) alongside to test intertree, LDIF and other exchange, even better. ADS should also be a consideration, using the 90-120 day Windows Server 2000/2003 CDs. Fedora Directory Server includes an ADS DC (Domain Controller) utility that synchronizes passwords between an open LDAP-based (using NSS or GSSAPI-Kerberos authentication) and ADS, although I don't know how well it works for OpenLDAP. I also, highly recommend you install Services for UNIX (SFU) 3.5 on Windows Server, which adds capabilities. But also understand many things go outside the realm of simple LDAP, LDIF, etc... How services are actually used make a huge difference. And that includes beyond external authentication, such as Kerberos, or related services, like proper DNS hierarchies, etc... E.g., most UNIX/Linux clients rely on automounter maps to know where and how to get to resources (such as AFS, NFS, SMB and other network filesystems) in an enterprise. Even in a Windows enterprise, relying on "broadcast discovery" is not a good practice, so even the lowest MCSAs are taught to "publish shares" in ADS (ActiveDirectory Services). Automounter maps are the equivalent in an UNIX/Linux enterprise. It's things like those common practices that will be on even Exam 301. It's really difficult to learn these concepts "from a book," and I recommend extensive use in a networked environment of several nodes. Use VMWare to minimize the number of nodes you must configure, possibly only needing 1 system overall (depending on memory). If you're questioning whether or not you should learn these concepts, you may want to question taking LPIC-3 -- at least for now. Again, there will probably be a future set of level 3 exam options for LPIC-3 which avoids Samba and related network filesystem concepts. But for even common Internet services -- like mail, Apache, etc... -- in large-scale enterprises, LDAP and related, enterprise network authentication, directory, object naming and other concepts. Every single Fortune 100 company I have worked in -- going back to the late '90s (yes, even before Windows 2000 and ADS) -- has been using LDAP with Apache and other solutions. Whether it was Netscape Directory [and Certificate] Server (NsDS), Netegrity LDAP (often to Novell Directory Services, NDS, now eDirectory) or other options (and not merely just Novell NDS), it's been largely an unavoidable concept -- even if most of the smaller-time Linux world still focuses on "standalone" Internet server configuration. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------------- Fission Power: An Inconvenient Solution _______________________________________________ lpi-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://list.lpi.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lpi-discuss
