Since the Directory is the main role that manages all entity configuration in your system, you must ensure that the Directory service is always available, and does not become overloaded.
- Directory role
- Manages your system configuration, and handles failover for all other roles.
- Directory database
- Stores your system configuration.
Differences between Directory servers and the main server
- Directory server
- Servers assigned to host the Directory role. The Directory role can run on five
Directory servers simultaneously for load balancing. They distribute the
workload for credential authentication, software license enforcement, Directory
database report queries, and so on.
Users can log on to Security Center through any of the Directory servers. By default, the Directory Manager redirects the connection requests across all Directory servers in a round robin fashion, but you can bypass load balancing on specific workstations as needed.
- Main server
- The primary Directory server in your system (
). It has full read/write access to the Directory database. If your system is
configured for Directory failover and load balancing, the additional Directory servers
(
) only have read access to the database.
When a Directory server fails, only the client applications connected to Security Center through that server must reconnect. If the main server fails, then all clients on the system must reconnect, and the responsibility of being the main server is passed down to the next Directory server in the failover list.