17.1 Defining User Containers
The User Containers configuration of the LDAP User Source is the first configuration choice an administrator must make that will greatly impact how ZENworks interacts with LDAP. For many user-related functions, the ZENworks Primary Server will send an LDAP search for each OU defined, which will include all child OUs. In general, ZENworks is most efficient if a single high-level O or OU is defined. This results in a single LDAP query (even if it encompasses some unnecessary OUs), versus creating multiple lower-level OU entries, resulting in multiple smaller queries.
In many cases, the number of LDAP requests is directly proportional to the number of OUs defined. For example, 20 separate OUs will often generate 20 times more LDAP requests.
Therefore, defining multiple OUs should be avoided if possible.
The following screen shows the recommended configuration:
The following figure shows the other, less efficient configuration:
If multiple low-level OUs are defined, it is possible in ZENworks to collapse multiple low-level OU definitions to a single higher-level O/OU, while retaining all associations. The reverse, however, is not possible without deleting and recreating the user source and losing the associations.
IMPORTANT:If a High-level container is defined, ZCM does not contain any mechanism to allow any lower-level containers to be excluded if desired. After a top-level container is configured, reconfiguring to the use of lower-level containers is difficult; however the need for lower-level containers in lieu of a top-level container is generally not required or preferred.
Even if there is a single OU with a single user who never logs on to ZCM and every OU is listed separately, the ZCM server will still query that OU for every user who does log in. This generates chaining, which can significantly impact the performance, because the LDAP server now needs to generate its own request and send it to the remote server and wait for a response.
This will significantly delay the completion of the request and cause requests to pile up.