Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 18:44:45 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <199901300044.SAA16774@csdsun1.arlut.utexas.edu> From: Jonathan Abbey <jonabbey@arlut.utexas.edu> To: editor@lwn.net Subject: GPL'ed network directory management system released An announcement for a possibly major new GPL'ed project, if you handle this sort of thing.. -- Hi. After 3 years of work, we're releasing Ganymede, a GPL'ed network directory management system, similar in concept to Microsoft's ActiveDirectory and Novell's Novell Directory Services. Ganymede is written entirely in Java, and includes a multithreaded server capable of handling change requests from several clients simultaneously, as well as graphical client and console applets. The server features a built-in object database system to store network data. Clients access the server using Java RMI to browse the database and make changes to the network information. The server then writes out NIS, DNS, LDAP, or other sorts of source files and runs scripts to update the directory services in use. Ganymede is completely customizable, with a graphical schema editor to define objects and fields to be held in the database. The server also has support for plug-in Java classes to provide intelligent oversight of objects held in the server. Included in the ganymede-0.96.tar.gz distribution are schema kits for LINUX and FreeBSD /etc/passwd and /etc/group management, a kit for Solaris NIS management, as well as a comprehensive kit for managing a single NIS and DNS domain, based on the older GASH network management software. The Ganymede server will run on any operating system with a Java 1.1.6 or better JDK, but the install scripts and build processes are built from a UNIX perspective, requiring Perl 5 and symlink support. There's should be nothing technical in the software to prevent the Ganymede server from working correctly on Windows NT, but as packaged, it would require a great deal of hand-configuration. We have run the server on Solaris 2.5, Solaris 2.6, Solaris 2.7, Linux 2.0.x with the Blackdown JDK port, FreeBSD with the FreeBSD JDK port, and on AIX. The Ganymede clients have been run on all of the above, as well as Windows 95 and NT using Sun's Java plug-in. Ganymede is designed to scale up to around 50,000 network object records, but may be able to go higher on a server with a large amount of memory. The Ganymede page, with documentation, screenshots, and a download link, is at http://www.arlut.utexas.edu/gash2 Or, you can download Ganymede from ftp://ftp.arlut.utexas.edu/pub/ganymede/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonathan Abbey jonabbey@arlut.utexas.edu Applied Research Laboratories The University of Texas at Austin -------------------------------------------------------------------------------