RFC 1562

RFC 1562 💖 Naming Guidelines for the AARNet X.500 Directory Service

okay bestie, let's start with the title block 🎀 This is from the Network Working Group and it's RFC 1562, dated December 1993 ✨

• Category: Informational 🌸
• Authors: G. Michaelson from The University of Queensland and M. Prior from The University of Adelaide 🫶
• Obsoletes / Updates: the header doesn't list any RFCs this one obsoletes or updates, so it stands on its own 🦋

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Status of this Memo 💅

this memo gives info to the Internet community, fr fr 💜 It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited ✨

Background 🌈

this doc is an AARNet (Australian Academic and Research Network) Engineering Note, labelled AEN-001 🎀 AARNet Engineering Notes are engineering docs from the AARNet Engineering Working Group. They record current or proposed operational practices for Internetworking services in Australia, and AARNet in particular 💖

Abstract 🦋

AARNet is a member network of the global Internet and it takes part in the global Internet X.500 based Directory Service 🌍 A bunch of RFC's have been issued that recommend changes to, or add to, the OSI/ETU standards for X.500 [1] 🙈 Generally, AARNet's Directory Service follows these RFCs. Sometimes, though, we want to line up with our national ISO body (Standards Australia) instead of the Internet when the two clash 🔥 For naming, we picked Standards Australia, and this doc points out where we're different from the Internet guidelines in RFC 1384 [2] 💅

1. Introduction ✨

this doc is for the admins (or future admins) of an X.500 Directory System Agent (DSA) 🧚 It assumes you already know the relevant Internet docs, especially RFC 1384 📚

2. The Australian X.500 domain 🌏

Standards Australia (SAA) wrote a document [3] describing how the Australian X.500 namespace is organised 🇦🇺 As far as possible, we should line up the AARNet Directory Service with those requirements. That makes the switch to an Australian Directory Service smoother, because the OSI Registration Authority of Standards Australia is the one with naming authority for the DIT subtree under the node c=AU 👑

The SAA document only allows two types of objects directly below the c=AU node in the DIT: organisations with nationally recognised names, and localities for the states and territories of the Commonwealth of Australia 💖

We're going to follow that scheme with one change 💜 The recommendation doesn't say where ADMD and PRMD names should be registered, so those objects will be handled like organisations with nationally recognised names 🫶

3. Entries representing DSAs 🧚‍♀️

The naming convention the Internet uses right now makes a LOT of clutter, because organisational DSAs get named directly under the country node 😭 The "normal" user of a directory service doesn't care how the service works under the hood, so these entries sitting in such a prominent spot is kind of unfortunate 🙈 To get rid of the clutter and match SAA requirements, we made a pseudo organisation called DMD, and all Australian DSAs should be registered there 🎀

Instead of carrying on the Quipu tradition of naming DSAs after endangered South American animals, it's suggested that Australian DSAs get named after Australian fauna 🦘🐨 iconic

4. Entries representing the states and territories of Australia 🗺️

Right under the Australian entry, there are locality objects for the eight states and territories of the Commonwealth of Australia ✨ The RDN for these entries uses the stateOrProvinceName attribute, and the values are the standard Australian two or three letter abbreviations for each state or territory 🌸

5. Entries representing organisations 🏢

SAA recommends that organisations are registered as immediate subordinates of either the Australian entry, or one of the eight states and territories. Which one depends on how unique the organisation's name is 💅

An organisation that can show it has a name unique within Australia may be added right beneath the Australian entry. For example, it could have been given a name by an organisation that can guarantee that uniqueness, like the Australian Securities Commission 🔥 If the name is only unique within one state or territory, the entry must be added immediately beneath that state entry 🦋

The name used for an organisation's distinguished name must be its officially registered name, and it has a maximum length of 64 characters 📏 Other more familiar names can be added as extra organisation names to help with searching 🔍

6. Entries representing residential people 🏡

An individual may be registered in the directory. Their entry goes under the entry for their state of residence 🌈 The RDN for an entry like that is 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. 😬 Dramatic, I know, but that's all it says 💀

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