Naming Guidelines for the AARNet X.500 Directory Service

Network Working Group                                      G. Michaelson
Request for Comments: 1562                  The University of Queensland
Category: Informational                                         M. Prior
                                              The University of Adelaide
                                                           December 1993


        Naming Guidelines for the AARNet X.500 Directory Service

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Background

   This document is an AARNet (Australian Academic and Research Network)
   Engineering Note (AEN-001).  AARNet Engineering Notes are engineering
   documents of the AARNet Engineering Working Group, and record current
   or proposed operational practices related to the provision of
   Internetworking services within Australia, and AARNet in particular.

Abstract

   AARNet is a member network of the global Internet and participates in
   the global Internet X.500 based Directory Service. A number of RFC's
   have been issued that make recommendations that alter or supplement
   the OSI/ETU standards for X.500 [1]. In general, these RFCs will be
   followed by the AARNet Directory Service.  However, in certain cases
   we wish to align ourselves with our national ISO body (Standards
   Australia) rather than the Internet where they conflict.  In naming,
   we have chosen to align ourselves with Standards Australia and this
   document notes the difference in our approach to the Internet
   guidelines suggested in RFC 1384 [2].

1.  Introduction

   The intended audience of this document is the administrators (or
   potential administrators) of an X.500 Directory System Agent (DSA).
   It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the relevant Internet
   documents, especially RFC 1384.

2.  The Australian X.500 domain

   Standards Australia (SAA) have produced a document [3] that describes
   the organisation of the Australian X.500 namespace. It is considered
   that, as far as possible, we should align the AARNet Directory
   Service with these requirements in order to provide a smooth
   transition to an Australian Directory Service as ultimately the OSI
   Registration Authority of Standards Australia has naming authority
   for the DIT subtree underneath the node "c=AU".

   The SAA document defines only two types of objects that can be placed
   directly below the c=AU node in the DIT, organisations with
   nationally recognised names and localities representing the states
   and territories of the Commonwealth of Australia.

   It is intended to follow this scheme with one modification. The
   recommendation doesn't indicate where ADMD and PRMD names should be
   registered and so these objects will be treated as for organisations
   with nationally recognised names.

3.  Entries representing DSAs

   The naming convention currently used by the Internet leads to a large
   amount of clutter due to organisational DSAs being named directly
   under the country node. The "normal" user of a directory service
   isn't interested in the mechanics of the service and so the presence
   of these entries in such a prominent location is unfortunate. In
   order to avoid this clutter, and to conform to SAA requirements, we
   have created a pseudo organisation called DMD where all Australian
   DSAs should be registered.

   Rather than continue the Quipu tradition of naming DSAs after
   endangered South American animals, in Australia, it is suggested that
   DSAs be named after Australian fauna.

4.  Entries representing the states and territories of Australia

   Immediately subordinate to the Australian entry are locality objects
   representing the eight states and territories of the Commonwealth of
   Australia. The RDN of these entries will use the stateOrProvinceName
   attribute and have values consisting of the standard Australian two
   or three letter abbreviations for the particular state of territory.

5.  Entries representing organisations

   SAA recommends that organisations are registered as immediate
   subordinates of either the Australian entry or of the eight states
   and territories depending on the uniqueness of the organisation's
   name.

   Organisations that can demonstrate that they have a name unique
   within Australia (for example, if it has been allocated a name by an
   organisation that can guarantee this uniqueness such as the
   Australian Securities Commission) may be added immediately beneath
   the Australian entry.  If the name is only unique within a specific
   state or territory, then the entry must be added immediately beneath
   the state entry.

   The names chosen for the distinguished name of an organisation must
   be the officially registered name of the organisation and have a
   maximum length of 64 characters, but other more familiar names can be
   added as additional organisation names to aid searching.

6.  Entries representing residential people

   An individual may be registered in the directory and their entry will
   be placed subordinate to the entry for their state of residence. The
   RDN of such an entry will be composed of a combination of their
   common name and their street address.

7.  References

   [1] CCITT: The Directory -- Overview of concepts, models and services,
       December 1988. CCITT X.500 Series Recommendations.

   [2] Barker P., and S. Hardcastle-Kille, "Naming Guidelines for
       Directory Pilots", RFC 1384, University College London, ISODE
       Consortium, January 1993.

   [3] Standards Australia: Naming and addressing in the Australian
       OSI Environment. SAA MP59-1991.

Security Considerations

   Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

Authors' Addresses

   George G. Michaelson
   The Prentice Centre
   The University of Queensland
   St Lucia, Q 4072
   AUSTRALIA

   Phone: +61 7 365 4079
   Fax:   +61 7 365 4477
   EMail: G.Michaelson@cc.uq.oz.au


   Mark R. Prior
   Information Technology Division
   The University of Adelaide
   Adelaide, SA 5005
   AUSTRALIA

   Phone: +61 8 303 5680
   Fax:   +61 8 303 4400
   EMail: mrp@itd.adelaide.edu.au