Directory assistance

Directory assistance allows a server to look up information in a directory other than a local primary Domino® Directory (NAMES.NSF).

You can configure directory assistance to use a particular directory for any of these services:

  • Client authentication
  • Group lookups for database authorization
  • Notes® mail addressing
  • LDAP service searches or referrals

You can set up directory assistance for a remote LDAP directory or a Domino directory. A remote LDAP directory can be any remote LDAP-compliant directory, either one on a foreign LDAP directory server or one on a Domino server that runs the LDAP service.

A Domino directory is a directory created from the PUBNAMES.NTF template and accessed via NAMELookup calls. Servers can use directory assistance to do lookups in either local or remote replicas of a Domino directory. A Domino directory configured for directory assistance can be a secondary Domino Directory, an extended directory catalog, or a primary Domino Directory.

A secondary Domino Directory is any Domino Directory that is not a server's primary Domino Directory. A secondary Domino Directory can be a directory associated with another Domino domain. A secondary Domino Directory can also be a Domino Directory created manually from the PUBNAMES.NTF template that is not associated with a Domino Domain, used, for example, to store and track Web user information.

An extended directory catalog contains documents aggregated from multiple secondary Domino directories. A server must use directory assistance to look up information in an extended directory catalog, unless you integrate the extended directory catalog directly into the primary Domino Directory.

The primary Domino Directory is the directory a server searches first that describes the Domino domain of the server. You can set up directory assistance for a primary Domino Directory, usually to specify which replicas of primary Domino Directories that servers with configuration directories can use.