Messaging and Directory Server software used around the world in the Government, Military, Aviation and Commercial sectors.
Significant performance improvements, hot standby (clustering) support and ACP 133 (Military X.500 Specifications) support added to M-Vault.
(LONDON. - May 16, 2003) -, Isode announced today Release 10.1 of its M-Vault LDAP Directory Server. The major changes in this release are:
- Significant performance improvements
- Support for hot standby (clustering)
- ACP 133 (Military X.500 specifications)
M-Vault is a high performance LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) Directory Server, including replication, high functionality access control and security management, graphical administration tools, and Web access. M-Vault supports the full X.500 architecture, management capabilities, access control and protocols including Directory System Protocol (DSP) and Directory Information System Protocol (DISP) for replication. M-Vault is available for Solaris, Linux and Windows.
Performances improvements in R10.1 make M-Vault one of the fastest LDAP servers available. Benchmarking information will be published shortly.
The X.500 single master approach to directory, used by M-Vault, has significant advantages, including:
- Straightforward to integrate with other data feeds and directory synchronization.
- Can guarantee that an update has been accepted: changes to the master are atomic.
- Fits with standard approaches to corporate Web site design.
M-Vault, Isode's Directory Server provides access using both LDAP (the Internet Standard Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and X.500 DAP (Directory Access Protocol). M-Vault supports the full X.500 architecture, management capabilities, access control and protocols including Directory System Protocol (DSP) and Directory Information System Protocol (DISP) for replication. M-Vault has an integrated approach to LDAP, and supports LDAP chaining to enable integration of standalone LDAP directories into a distributed X.500 directory. The integration of ACP 133 is available through both the X.500 protocols and LDAP, which enables ACP 133 deployments to make full use of LDAP.
A consequence of this replication architecture is that the master server is a single point of failure for directory writes; while shadowing provides redundancy for reads/searches, it does not help with writes. For most directory deployments, care needs to be taken to minimize risks from failure of the single directory master. A typical approach with M-Vault has been to have spare hardware that can be used to replace the master directory in event of a hardware failure. A better approach is to provide a hot standby directory server, using clustered hardware. This capability is added to R10.1 for Solaris and Linux platforms, and will be added to Windows in a future release.
To provide a clustered standby system, three things are needed:
To provide a clustered standby system, three things are needed:
- Two computers, and a shared file system (typically a RAID system). This will usually be a relatively expensive underlying hardware system.
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An operating system that supports clustering. For M-Vault this will be one of:
- Solaris Sun Cluster
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS
- A copy of M-Vault for each system.
In this configuration, one system will operate as the active server. The second server will be running in parallel, but not dealing with any external queries. In the event of the primary system failing, the hot standby will automatically switch in.
Steve Kille, Isode CEO, said "The addition of clustering support is an important new feature for our directory product, which will be useful for Isode customer deployments in operational situations where the very highest level of availability is needed."
Release 10.1 also adds ACP 133 support to its M-Vault X.500 and LDAP Directory Server product. ACP 133, "Common Directory Services and Procedures", is an unclassified Allied Communication Publication (ACP), part of a series of specification issued by NATO and used by military organizations in all NATO countries. Isode has developed extensions to its M-Vault product so that it conforms to these core military directory requirements. ACP133 defines the Directory services, architecture, protocols, schema, policies, and procedures to support Allied communications, including Military Message Handling System (MMHS) services based on ACP 123, in both the strategic and tactical environments. The Directory services are based on the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU T) X.500 Series of Recommendations. The integration of ACP 133 is available through both the X.500 protocols and LDAP, which enables ACP 133 deployments to make full use of LDAP.
About Isode
Isode is a software product company, originally established in 1992. Its M-Vault (LDAP Directory Server) and M-Switch (SMTP Message Switch) are used around the world by Multinational Corporations, Government Departments, ISPs, and Universities including BT Ignite, Federal Bridge Certification Authority, Novis Telecom, EDS, PTM.com, Queens University Belfast, Steria Limited, Her Majestys Government Computing Centre (HMGCC), Leeds Learning and The Government of Alberta.
Contact Information
Isode
Hannah Gibbs
marketing@isode.com
