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On Wed, May 18, 2005 1:45 pm, paul kölle said: |
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> we are in the process setting up a new server (on gentoo) for the usual |
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> web/mail/db stuff with cyrus/postfix/apache/mysql/subversion/... We'd |
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> like to store all accounts in a backend that can be shared by more than |
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> one host and run in an replicated server/slave setup so that one machine |
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> can takeover the service if the other fails. |
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> |
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> I've looked around and it seems there is a general choice of using ldap |
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> or mysql for this. |
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|
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I assume you mean OpenLDAP... |
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|
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The key difference is performance. A web application will typically do an |
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authorization every time the user hits a page. That's a lot of lookups - a |
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lot of hits to the database. On the other hand, updates to an |
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authorization database are relatively rare. OpenLDAP, as an |
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authentication/authorization tool, is tuned for extremely fast lookups. |
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The whole way the database is indexed and stored on disk is to provide |
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lightning fast lookups. However, it's quite slow for updates. Mysql is a |
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general purpose database. It is tuned quite well for both lookups and |
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updates. It is much faster than OpenLDAP for updates, but can't even come |
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close for lookups. |
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|
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That being said, with today's hardware, unless you are expecting a lot of |
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traffic, either one will do. Unless under load, mysql will respond in |
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milliseconds. However, if load is a concern, OpenLDAP might save you on |
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hardware costs (don't have to buy as many servers), and it will not add |
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any latency to you web transactions. But mysql is probably easier to |
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manage, especially if you already know SQL. |
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|
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-Eric |
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|
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-- |
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arctic bears - email and dns services |
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http://www.arcticbears.com |
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