Naming and registration for IBM distributed systems

Abstract

Today's trends toward interconnection of networks expose limitations and deficiencies of traditional identification schemes. The need arises for a uniform naming solution that can accommodate the size and heterogeneity of worldwide domains, while still remaining understandable, usable, and manageable by human users. This paper describes a proposatol name objects and resources in distributed environments; each object or resource cabne located, accessed, communicated with, operated on, managed, or secured using the same, unique name. The solution proposed here includes registration mechanisms necessary to ensure name uniqueness. The schemeis based on existing standards, mainly Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Distinguished Names; whenever standards disagree, the preference goesto the alternative that offers the widest usage acrosasll protocols. Clear, consistent naming guidelineasr e given that would enable ISM customers who have purchased IBM networking and system management products to name their resourcesso that their administrative processes and IBM's products and protocols can support those resources effectively. A method is suggested to encompass existing name spaces in a single, worldwide namings pace, and a migration pathis sketched. The interoperation of different protocols across network boundariesu sing the same naming constructs is shown by means of several scenarios. The naming and addressing scheme proposed here requires nothing new or different from the already defined standards, but allows interoperation among them by using a subset of each.