Overview#
A Directory Server backend provides a repository for storing data and a set of logic for interacting with that data. A backend will typically contain some kind of database and may maintain a set of LDAP Indexes that allows the backend to quickly locate entries for various operations. All backends will have the following qualities:- A backend ID, which uniquely identifies that backend among all other backends in the server.
- A set of one or more base DNs that indicate the data that the backend holds.
- A writability mode, which indicates whether the backend will accept write operations.
The logic provided by the backend includes:
- A method for determining whether a given entry exists, based on its DN
- A method for retrieving an entry, based on its DN
- A method of adding a new entry to the database (as part of processing an Add Request).
- A method for removing an existing entry from the database (as part of processing an Delete Request
- A method for replacing an entry in the database (as part of processing an Modify Request Delete Modification-type).
- A method for renaming an entry in the database (as part of processing an ModifyDNRequest).
- A method for processing an SearchRequest.
- A method for exporting the contents of the database in LDAP Data Interchange Format form.
- A method for importing data in LDAP Data Interchange Format form into the database.
- A method for performing a backup of the data.
- A method for performing a restore of a previous backup.
