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.