Dynamic management of groups

• US 20080098009A1
• Filed: 10/24/2006
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Rowley, Peter Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,606,832 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/282 Hierarchical databases, e.g. IMS, LDAP data stores or Lotus Notes

Abstract

A method and apparatus for managing groups in a directory server is described. In one embodiment, an addition of an identifier of a group to an entry in the directory server is received. A value of an attribute in the entry is updated with the identifier of the group. A content of the group is dynamically changed based on the addition of the identifier of the group to the entry in the directory server.

Claims

1. A computer-implement method for managing a directory server, the method comprising:

receiving an addition of an identifier of a group to an entry in the directory server;

updating a value of an attribute in the entry with the identifier of the group; and

dynamically changing a content of the group based on the addition of the identifier of the group to the entry in the directory server.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the content comprises a membership.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the directory server comprises a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) repository.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the attribute comprises a memberof attribute.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the group comprises a static group or a dynamic group.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the content of the group is dynamically changed such that the entry does not have to be manually added in the group.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein dynamically changing the content of the group comprises:

determining that the value of the attribute of the entry corresponds to the group; and

adding an identifier of the entry to the content of the group.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein dynamically changing the content of the group comprises:

determining that the value of the attribute of the entry no longer corresponds to the group; and

deleting an identifier of the entry from the content of the group.

9. A computer-implement method for managing a directory server, the method comprising:

receiving an addition of an identifier of a group to an entry in the directory server;

updating a value of an attribute in the entry with the identifier of the group; and

creating the group based on the addition of the identifier of the group to the entry in the directory server.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the content comprises a membership.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the directory server comprises a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) repository.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the attribute comprises a memberof attribute.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the identifier of the group does not correspond to an existing group in the directory server.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the group comprises a static group or a dynamic group.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the content of the group is dynamically changed such that the entry does not have to be manually added in the group.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a directory server to receive an addition of an identifier of a group to an entry in the directory server, to update a value of an attribute in the entry with the identifier of the group, and to dynamically change a content of the group based on the addition of the identifier of the group to the entry in the directory server.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the content comprises a membership.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the directory server comprises a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) repository.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the attribute comprises a memberof attribute.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the group comprises a static group or a dynamic group.

21. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the directory server dynamically changes the content of the group such that the entry does not have to be manually added in the group.

22. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising;

receiving an addition of an identifier of a group to an entry in a directory server;

updating a value of an attribute in the entry with the identifier of the group; and

dynamically changing a content of the group based on the addition of the identifier of the group to the entry in the directory server.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 22 wherein the content comprises a membership.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 22 wherein the directory server comprises a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) repository.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 22 wherein the attribute comprises a memberof attribute.

26. The article of manufacture of claim 22 wherein the group comprises a static group or a dynamic group.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 22 wherein the content of the group is dynamically changed such that the entry does not have to be manually added in the group.