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 RFC1384 [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 RFC1384.

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", RFC1384, 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