Understanding Partitioning

Entire Net-Work supports partitioning of Adabas Directory Server entries. Partitioning enhances your ability to use one Directory Server for your whole enterprise, rather than separate Directory Servers for different departments within your enterprise. The partitions need to be managed separately, but only one Directory Server needs to be installed.

Once you have defined an Entire Net-Work Client or Entire Net-Work Kernel, you can assign it to a specific partition. If you specify one for an Entire Net-Work Kernel, the Directory Server entries created for that Kernel are stored in a partition by that name in the Directory Server configuration or in the Entire Net-Work Kernel configuration file (depending on where the partition is defined); the entries in the partition are maintained separately from the other entries in the appropriate configuration. The Kernel is only able to direct requests to databases, classic Entire Net-Work nodes, and other Kernels that have entries in this partition. Likewise, when you specify a partition name for an Entire Net-Work Client, the client can only direct requests to databases for which there are Directory Server entries in the specified partition.

Here are some of the advantages of partitioning:

  • You can use partitioning to direct Entire Net-Work Clients and Kernels to specific databases.

  • If you have created Adabas databases with identical database IDs, you can use partitioning to correctly identify which client calls get directed to which Adabas database.

  • You can use partitioning to group client calls to an Adabas database, thus reducing the number of actual connections required for that database. This can be especially useful if you are using an Entire Net-Work mainframe product to access a specific Adabas database. It also provides you with some level of client control: if you want to remove access to a specific database for clients in a given partition, simply remove the access URL entry for that database (using the Adabas Manager) or stop the Kernel in that partition.

  • Using SSL, you can use impose real security requirements on calls made by clients in specific partitions.

For complete information about partitioning, including an example, read Partitioning a Directory Server in the Software AG Directory Server Installation and Administration Guide.