| Author | Messages | |
gabriel/tfi
Posts:387
 | | 08/07/2008 5:22 PM |
| Great stuff! What a fascinating thread!
Before reading Dons piece, I was trying to google-find some more historical
details about AD, but did not find any really interesting and when compared
to Dons they appear misleading.
1) Dead-End Road to Cairo
(http://business2-cnet.com.com/2009-1017-857509.html)
October 1998: Microsoft says it will rename Windows NT 5.0 to be called
Windows 2000. The operating system will include Active Directory, technology
originally slated for Cairo.
2) Banyan VINES (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan_VINES, as the
header tells it requires improvement)
Banyan was sharing their technological advantages with a much larger
competitor. Using that information, Microsoft soon began work on its own
implementation of a directory services model to be called Active Directory
and rolled out with its OS 5.0, Windows 2000. Even while hiring away James
Allchin, known as the "Father of StreetTalk," Microsoft ran into technical
difficulties, particularly in world-wide synchronization of Active Directory
across time zones. Not afraid to use outside expertise, Microsoft actually
partnered with Banyan in one of Banyan's last strategic and, many would
argue, ultimately fatal partnerships, as Banyan sent a team of its most
experienced StreetTalk engineers to Redmond to "fix Active Directory."
3) Cairo ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_(operating_system)>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_(operating_system)
Although Cairo never emerged as a shipping product, its main features were
shipped as parts of other Microsoft operating systems
DCE/RPC shipped in
Windows NT 3.1. X.500 shipped as part of Active Directory in Windows 2000.
Don, I think that it would be greatly valuable for the entire DS community
if you gave your contribution by correcting the misleading infos at
Wikipedia (e.g. clarifying the Cairo or StreetTalk supposed dependency).
Finally I think that an AD History piece would be a must-have among
ActiveDir.org articles, what do you think Tony? ;-)
Thank you very much Gabriele.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Don Hacherl
Sent: giovedì 7 agosto 2008 16.45
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Thanks for tipping me off to this thread, Eric. I'll see if I can clear up
the pre-history.
The oldest traceable part of AD started life at 3Com in 1988 or 1989. This
was an (incomplete!) X.500-ish directory with custom communication
protocols, built on top of a C-Tree database, running under 16-bit OS/2. By
1990 3Com had abandoned its network software efforts and the directory code
moved to Microsoft as part of some complicated deal. The LanMan group
planned to include the directory service in LanMan 3.0 and immediately
started porting it to the JET Blue ISAM and building an RPC front end
compliant with the X/Open XDS API.
At this point (in early 1991) Jim Allchin, who had recently taken over the
LanMan group, cancelled LanMan 3.0 and scrapped its directory service
project. In its place he created the Cairo project, which included a
completely non-X.500 like directory service that lived as part of OFS, the
Cairo file system.
The email group at Microsoft picked up two pieces out of the wreckage of
LanMan 3.0: the DS and an X.400 MTA. We (this is when I became dev lead of
the DS) ported the DS to Windows NT, finished the JET and XDS work, and
added a MAPI RPC interface, a query engine, the KCC, a modifiable schema,
the link table, and much, much more. This version of the DSA (plus the MTA
and a custom message store) shipped in Exchange 4.0 in 1996. By this point
there's very little of the original code left, although some elderly data
structures live on, at least in name.
Around late 1995 Cairo, and its attendant directory service, were cancelled.
This left the OS team with an urgent need for a DS (for Windows 2000) but no
plans to build one. To fill the hole, the week after Exchange 4.0 shipped
two of us from the Exchange DS dev team made a copy of the DS sources and
moved to the Windows group, where we got re-christened Active Directory, and
the rest is history.
In summary:
* AD has no relation to Novell NDS/eDirectory. Novell was a
competitor (the competitor), not a licensee/licensor.
* AD has no relation to Banyan StreetTalk. Although both Jim Allchin
and one member of the AD dev team were former Banyan employees, there was no
license or co-work between Microsoft and Banyan.
* AD has no relation to Cairo, except the relation that mammals have
to dinosaurs.
* AD did not inherit code or functionality from Site Server or MCIS.
It did inherit their customers.
* AD is a direct descendant of the DSA in Exchange 4.0 (Note that
LDAP support got added separately to the two branches of the directory in
Exchange 5.something and Windows 2000. Anything that important is clearly
worth doing twice.)
Don
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Eric Fleischman
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 9:24 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Replying to the thread again as there is probably someone that can help tell
the tale of how AD started
he can tell it from the perspective of someone
who was there
.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5:36 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
All very interesting interpretations of an LDAP directory service which
started with a minor little application known as Exchange Server.
Regards,
Michael B. Smith
MCITP:SA,EMA/MCSE/Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Gabriele Scolaro
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:21 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
What I heard about AD History is that Jim Allchin who was formerly an
architect of the Banyan Vines OS and StreetTalk Directory Service joined
Microsoft around 1990 and played a fundamental role in the Cairo project
which developed, among many other things, the X500 foundation for Active
Directory.
So I may assume AD might come - in a certain way from - StreetTalk as I was
also said that Microsoft closely partnered with Banyan whose engineers
played a fundamental role in building some AD parts.
But this is the first time I heard AD comes from NDS!!!
Gabriele
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of John Christie
Sent: mercoledì 6 agosto 2008 22.17
To: activedir
Subject: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
My colleague has made the following statements:
* Novell directory services was previously called Novell Active Directory
* Microsoft licensed/purchased a cut down version of Novell Directory
Services and then developed it.
As far as I'm aware, Novell eDirectory has only ever been marketed as Novell
NDS. He's not the type to do windups so does anyone have any knowledge which
can confirm or deny his claims?
| | | |
| listmail
Posts:764
| | 08/08/2008 12:22 AM |
|
Might be good just to copy Don's note into the AD page of Wikipedia. Anyone
have an account already?
--
O'Reilly Active Directory Third Edition -
http://www.joeware.net/win/ad3e.htm
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Gabriele Scolaro
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 5:19 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Great stuff! What a fascinating thread!
Before reading Dons piece, I was trying to google-find some more historical
details about AD, but did not find any really interesting and when compared
to Dons they appear misleading.
1) Dead-End Road to Cairo
(http://business2-cnet.com.com/2009-1017-857509.html)
October 1998: Microsoft says it will rename Windows NT 5.0 to be called
Windows 2000. The operating system will include Active Directory, technology
originally slated for Cairo.
2) Banyan VINES (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan_VINES, as the
header tells it requires improvement)
Banyan was sharing their technological advantages with a much larger
competitor. Using that information, Microsoft soon began work on its own
implementation of a directory services model to be called Active Directory
and rolled out with its OS 5.0, Windows 2000. Even while hiring away James
Allchin, known as the "Father of StreetTalk," Microsoft ran into technical
difficulties, particularly in world-wide synchronization of Active Directory
across time zones. Not afraid to use outside expertise, Microsoft actually
partnered with Banyan in one of Banyan's last strategic and, many would
argue, ultimately fatal partnerships, as Banyan sent a team of its most
experienced StreetTalk engineers to Redmond to "fix Active Directory."
3) Cairo ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_(operating_system)>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_(operating_system)
Although Cairo never emerged as a shipping product, its main features were
shipped as parts of other Microsoft operating systems
DCE/RPC shipped in
Windows NT 3.1. X.500 shipped as part of Active Directory in Windows 2000.
Don, I think that it would be greatly valuable for the entire DS community
if you gave your contribution by correcting the misleading infos at
Wikipedia (e.g. clarifying the Cairo or StreetTalk supposed dependency).
Finally I think that an AD History piece would be a must-have among
ActiveDir.org articles, what do you think Tony? ;-)
Thank you very much Gabriele.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Don Hacherl
Sent: giovedì 7 agosto 2008 16.45
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Thanks for tipping me off to this thread, Eric. I'll see if I can clear up
the pre-history.
The oldest traceable part of AD started life at 3Com in 1988 or 1989. This
was an (incomplete!) X.500-ish directory with custom communication
protocols, built on top of a C-Tree database, running under 16-bit OS/2. By
1990 3Com had abandoned its network software efforts and the directory code
moved to Microsoft as part of some complicated deal. The LanMan group
planned to include the directory service in LanMan 3.0 and immediately
started porting it to the JET Blue ISAM and building an RPC front end
compliant with the X/Open XDS API.
At this point (in early 1991) Jim Allchin, who had recently taken over the
LanMan group, cancelled LanMan 3.0 and scrapped its directory service
project. In its place he created the Cairo project, which included a
completely non-X.500 like directory service that lived as part of OFS, the
Cairo file system.
The email group at Microsoft picked up two pieces out of the wreckage of
LanMan 3.0: the DS and an X.400 MTA. We (this is when I became dev lead of
the DS) ported the DS to Windows NT, finished the JET and XDS work, and
added a MAPI RPC interface, a query engine, the KCC, a modifiable schema,
the link table, and much, much more. This version of the DSA (plus the MTA
and a custom message store) shipped in Exchange 4.0 in 1996. By this point
there's very little of the original code left, although some elderly data
structures live on, at least in name.
Around late 1995 Cairo, and its attendant directory service, were cancelled.
This left the OS team with an urgent need for a DS (for Windows 2000) but no
plans to build one. To fill the hole, the week after Exchange 4.0 shipped
two of us from the Exchange DS dev team made a copy of the DS sources and
moved to the Windows group, where we got re-christened Active Directory, and
the rest is history.
In summary:
* AD has no relation to Novell NDS/eDirectory. Novell was a
competitor (the competitor), not a licensee/licensor.
* AD has no relation to Banyan StreetTalk. Although both Jim Allchin
and one member of the AD dev team were former Banyan employees, there was no
license or co-work between Microsoft and Banyan.
* AD has no relation to Cairo, except the relation that mammals have
to dinosaurs.
* AD did not inherit code or functionality from Site Server or MCIS.
It did inherit their customers.
* AD is a direct descendant of the DSA in Exchange 4.0 (Note that
LDAP support got added separately to the two branches of the directory in
Exchange 5.something and Windows 2000. Anything that important is clearly
worth doing twice.)
Don
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Eric Fleischman
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 9:24 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Replying to the thread again as there is probably someone that can help tell
the tale of how AD started
he can tell it from the perspective of someone
who was there
.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5:36 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
All very interesting interpretations of an LDAP directory service which
started with a minor little application known as Exchange Server.
Regards,
Michael B. Smith
MCITP:SA,EMA/MCSE/Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Gabriele Scolaro
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:21 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
What I heard about AD History is that Jim Allchin who was formerly an
architect of the Banyan Vines OS and StreetTalk Directory Service joined
Microsoft around 1990 and played a fundamental role in the Cairo project
which developed, among many other things, the X500 foundation for Active
Directory.
So I may assume AD might come - in a certain way from - StreetTalk as I was
also said that Microsoft closely partnered with Banyan whose engineers
played a fundamental role in building some AD parts.
But this is the first time I heard AD comes from NDS!!!
Gabriele
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of John Christie
Sent: mercoledì 6 agosto 2008 22.17
To: activedir
Subject: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
My colleague has made the following statements:
* Novell directory services was previously called Novell Active Directory
* Microsoft licensed/purchased a cut down version of Novell Directory
Services and then developed it.
As far as I'm aware, Novell eDirectory has only ever been marketed as Novell
NDS. He's not the type to do windups so does anyone have any knowledge which
can confirm or deny his claims?
| | | |
| DonH
Posts:55
| | 08/08/2008 12:43 AM |
| I fixed the Cairo page. The Vines article really requires a major chunk to
be thrown out, even to acheive Wikipedia's "neutral point of view" standard.
I'll see what I can do.
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of joe
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 9:20 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Might be good just to copy Don's note into the AD page of Wikipedia. Anyone
have an account already?
--
O'Reilly Active Directory Third Edition -
http://www.joeware.net/win/ad3e.htm
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Gabriele Scolaro
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 5:19 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Great stuff! What a fascinating thread!
Before reading Dons piece, I was trying to google-find some more historical
details about AD, but did not find any really interesting and when compared
to Dons they appear misleading.
1) Dead-End Road to Cairo
(http://business2-cnet.com.com/2009-1017-857509.html)
October 1998: Microsoft says it will rename Windows NT 5.0 to be called
Windows 2000. The operating system will include Active Directory, technology
originally slated for Cairo.
2) Banyan VINES (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan_VINES, as the
header tells it requires improvement)
Banyan was sharing their technological advantages with a much larger
competitor. Using that information, Microsoft soon began work on its own
implementation of a directory services model to be called Active Directory
and rolled out with its OS 5.0, Windows 2000. Even while hiring away James
Allchin, known as the "Father of StreetTalk," Microsoft ran into technical
difficulties, particularly in world-wide synchronization of Active Directory
across time zones. Not afraid to use outside expertise, Microsoft actually
partnered with Banyan in one of Banyan's last strategic and, many would
argue, ultimately fatal partnerships, as Banyan sent a team of its most
experienced StreetTalk engineers to Redmond to "fix Active Directory."
3) Cairo ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_(operating_system)>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_(operating_system)
Although Cairo never emerged as a shipping product, its main features were
shipped as parts of other Microsoft operating systems
DCE/RPC shipped in
Windows NT 3.1. X.500 shipped as part of Active Directory in Windows 2000.
Don, I think that it would be greatly valuable for the entire DS community
if you gave your contribution by correcting the misleading infos at
Wikipedia (e.g. clarifying the Cairo or StreetTalk supposed dependency).
Finally I think that an AD History piece would be a must-have among
ActiveDir.org articles, what do you think Tony? ;-)
Thank you very much Gabriele.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Don Hacherl
Sent: giovedì 7 agosto 2008 16.45
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Thanks for tipping me off to this thread, Eric. I'll see if I can clear up
the pre-history.
The oldest traceable part of AD started life at 3Com in 1988 or 1989. This
was an (incomplete!) X.500-ish directory with custom communication
protocols, built on top of a C-Tree database, running under 16-bit OS/2. By
1990 3Com had abandoned its network software efforts and the directory code
moved to Microsoft as part of some complicated deal. The LanMan group
planned to include the directory service in LanMan 3.0 and immediately
started porting it to the JET Blue ISAM and building an RPC front end
compliant with the X/Open XDS API.
At this point (in early 1991) Jim Allchin, who had recently taken over the
LanMan group, cancelled LanMan 3.0 and scrapped its directory service
project. In its place he created the Cairo project, which included a
completely non-X.500 like directory service that lived as part of OFS, the
Cairo file system.
The email group at Microsoft picked up two pieces out of the wreckage of
LanMan 3.0: the DS and an X.400 MTA. We (this is when I became dev lead of
the DS) ported the DS to Windows NT, finished the JET and XDS work, and
added a MAPI RPC interface, a query engine, the KCC, a modifiable schema,
the link table, and much, much more. This version of the DSA (plus the MTA
and a custom message store) shipped in Exchange 4.0 in 1996. By this point
there's very little of the original code left, although some elderly data
structures live on, at least in name.
Around late 1995 Cairo, and its attendant directory service, were cancelled.
This left the OS team with an urgent need for a DS (for Windows 2000) but no
plans to build one. To fill the hole, the week after Exchange 4.0 shipped
two of us from the Exchange DS dev team made a copy of the DS sources and
moved to the Windows group, where we got re-christened Active Directory, and
the rest is history.
In summary:
* AD has no relation to Novell NDS/eDirectory. Novell was a
competitor (the competitor), not a licensee/licensor.
* AD has no relation to Banyan StreetTalk. Although both Jim Allchin
and one member of the AD dev team were former Banyan employees, there was no
license or co-work between Microsoft and Banyan.
* AD has no relation to Cairo, except the relation that mammals have
to dinosaurs.
* AD did not inherit code or functionality from Site Server or MCIS.
It did inherit their customers.
* AD is a direct descendant of the DSA in Exchange 4.0 (Note that
LDAP support got added separately to the two branches of the directory in
Exchange 5.something and Windows 2000. Anything that important is clearly
worth doing twice.)
Don
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Eric Fleischman
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 9:24 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Replying to the thread again as there is probably someone that can help tell
the tale of how AD started
he can tell it from the perspective of someone
who was there
.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5:36 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
All very interesting interpretations of an LDAP directory service which
started with a minor little application known as Exchange Server.
Regards,
Michael B. Smith
MCITP:SA,EMA/MCSE/Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Gabriele Scolaro
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:21 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
What I heard about AD History is that Jim Allchin who was formerly an
architect of the Banyan Vines OS and StreetTalk Directory Service joined
Microsoft around 1990 and played a fundamental role in the Cairo project
which developed, among many other things, the X500 foundation for Active
Directory.
So I may assume AD might come - in a certain way from - StreetTalk as I was
also said that Microsoft closely partnered with Banyan whose engineers
played a fundamental role in building some AD parts.
But this is the first time I heard AD comes from NDS!!!
Gabriele
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of John Christie
Sent: mercoledì 6 agosto 2008 22.17
To: activedir
Subject: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
My colleague has made the following statements:
* Novell directory services was previously called Novell Active Directory
* Microsoft licensed/purchased a cut down version of Novell Directory
Services and then developed it.
As far as I'm aware, Novell eDirectory has only ever been marketed as Novell
NDS. He's not the type to do windups so does anyone have any knowledge which
can confirm or deny his claims?
| | | |
| DonH
Posts:55
| | 08/08/2008 12:43 PM |
| I fixed the two Wikipedia articles.
The CNet article is really just the standard corporate marketing form of
historical revisionism that I used to complain about but long ago learned to
tune out. I can almost hear a marketeer telling me "We always intended to
include directory services in Cairo. 'Active Directory' is the marketing
label we put on a directory service technology as we brought it to market.
Therefore, had we brought Cairo to market it would have contained directory
service technology that would have been labelled 'Active Directory'. The
fact that the underlying technology of 'Active Directory' in that
hypothetical Cairo universe is different than the underlying technology of
'Active Directory' in this universe is interesting, but fundamentally
unimportant, and drawing fine distinctions like that would just muddy the
message we're trying to get through to customers." Then I'd roll my eyes
and go back to my office, thankful that I was in development.
Don
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Gabriele Scolaro
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 2:19 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Great stuff! What a fascinating thread!
Before reading Dons piece, I was trying to google-find some more historical
details about AD, but did not find any really interesting and when compared
to Dons they appear misleading.
1) Dead-End Road to Cairo
(http://business2-cnet.com.com/2009-1017-857509.html)
October 1998: Microsoft says it will rename Windows NT 5.0 to be called
Windows 2000. The operating system will include Active Directory, technology
originally slated for Cairo.
2) Banyan VINES (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan_VINES, as the
header tells it requires improvement)
Banyan was sharing their technological advantages with a much larger
competitor. Using that information, Microsoft soon began work on its own
implementation of a directory services model to be called Active Directory
and rolled out with its OS 5.0, Windows 2000. Even while hiring away James
Allchin, known as the "Father of StreetTalk," Microsoft ran into technical
difficulties, particularly in world-wide synchronization of Active Directory
across time zones. Not afraid to use outside expertise, Microsoft actually
partnered with Banyan in one of Banyan's last strategic and, many would
argue, ultimately fatal partnerships, as Banyan sent a team of its most
experienced StreetTalk engineers to Redmond to "fix Active Directory."
3) Cairo ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_(operating_system)>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_(operating_system)
Although Cairo never emerged as a shipping product, its main features were
shipped as parts of other Microsoft operating systems
DCE/RPC shipped in
Windows NT 3.1. X.500 shipped as part of Active Directory in Windows 2000.
Don, I think that it would be greatly valuable for the entire DS community
if you gave your contribution by correcting the misleading infos at
Wikipedia (e.g. clarifying the Cairo or StreetTalk supposed dependency).
Finally I think that an AD History piece would be a must-have among
ActiveDir.org articles, what do you think Tony? ;-)
Thank you very much Gabriele.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Don Hacherl
Sent: giovedì 7 agosto 2008 16.45
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Thanks for tipping me off to this thread, Eric. I'll see if I can clear up
the pre-history.
The oldest traceable part of AD started life at 3Com in 1988 or 1989. This
was an (incomplete!) X.500-ish directory with custom communication
protocols, built on top of a C-Tree database, running under 16-bit OS/2. By
1990 3Com had abandoned its network software efforts and the directory code
moved to Microsoft as part of some complicated deal. The LanMan group
planned to include the directory service in LanMan 3.0 and immediately
started porting it to the JET Blue ISAM and building an RPC front end
compliant with the X/Open XDS API.
At this point (in early 1991) Jim Allchin, who had recently taken over the
LanMan group, cancelled LanMan 3.0 and scrapped its directory service
project. In its place he created the Cairo project, which included a
completely non-X.500 like directory service that lived as part of OFS, the
Cairo file system.
The email group at Microsoft picked up two pieces out of the wreckage of
LanMan 3.0: the DS and an X.400 MTA. We (this is when I became dev lead of
the DS) ported the DS to Windows NT, finished the JET and XDS work, and
added a MAPI RPC interface, a query engine, the KCC, a modifiable schema,
the link table, and much, much more. This version of the DSA (plus the MTA
and a custom message store) shipped in Exchange 4.0 in 1996. By this point
there's very little of the original code left, although some elderly data
structures live on, at least in name.
Around late 1995 Cairo, and its attendant directory service, were cancelled.
This left the OS team with an urgent need for a DS (for Windows 2000) but no
plans to build one. To fill the hole, the week after Exchange 4.0 shipped
two of us from the Exchange DS dev team made a copy of the DS sources and
moved to the Windows group, where we got re-christened Active Directory, and
the rest is history.
In summary:
* AD has no relation to Novell NDS/eDirectory. Novell was a
competitor (the competitor), not a licensee/licensor.
* AD has no relation to Banyan StreetTalk. Although both Jim Allchin
and one member of the AD dev team were former Banyan employees, there was no
license or co-work between Microsoft and Banyan.
* AD has no relation to Cairo, except the relation that mammals have
to dinosaurs.
* AD did not inherit code or functionality from Site Server or MCIS.
It did inherit their customers.
* AD is a direct descendant of the DSA in Exchange 4.0 (Note that
LDAP support got added separately to the two branches of the directory in
Exchange 5.something and Windows 2000. Anything that important is clearly
worth doing twice.)
Don
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Eric Fleischman
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 9:24 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Replying to the thread again as there is probably someone that can help tell
the tale of how AD started
he can tell it from the perspective of someone
who was there
.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5:36 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
All very interesting interpretations of an LDAP directory service which
started with a minor little application known as Exchange Server.
Regards,
Michael B. Smith
MCITP:SA,EMA/MCSE/Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Gabriele Scolaro
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:21 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
What I heard about AD History is that Jim Allchin who was formerly an
architect of the Banyan Vines OS and StreetTalk Directory Service joined
Microsoft around 1990 and played a fundamental role in the Cairo project
which developed, among many other things, the X500 foundation for Active
Directory.
So I may assume AD might come - in a certain way from - StreetTalk as I was
also said that Microsoft closely partnered with Banyan whose engineers
played a fundamental role in building some AD parts.
But this is the first time I heard AD comes from NDS!!!
Gabriele
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of John Christie
Sent: mercoledì 6 agosto 2008 22.17
To: activedir
Subject: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
My colleague has made the following statements:
* Novell directory services was previously called Novell Active Directory
* Microsoft licensed/purchased a cut down version of Novell Directory
Services and then developed it.
As far as I'm aware, Novell eDirectory has only ever been marketed as Novell
NDS. He's not the type to do windups so does anyone have any knowledge which
can confirm or deny his claims?
| | | |
| HarveyK
Posts:0
| | 08/08/2008 3:26 PM |
| Don,
Awesome to see you post this. I did a double-take when I saw your name in my
inbox J. I agree a History of AD piece is appropriate, now that its been
around long enough for its history to not seem obvious.
- Sean
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Don Hacherl
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 9:45 AM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Thanks for tipping me off to this thread, Eric. I'll see if I can clear up
the pre-history.
The oldest traceable part of AD started life at 3Com in 1988 or 1989. This
was an (incomplete!) X.500-ish directory with custom communication
protocols, built on top of a C-Tree database, running under 16-bit OS/2. By
1990 3Com had abandoned its network software efforts and the directory code
moved to Microsoft as part of some complicated deal. The LanMan group
planned to include the directory service in LanMan 3.0 and immediately
started porting it to the JET Blue ISAM and building an RPC front end
compliant with the X/Open XDS API.
At this point (in early 1991) Jim Allchin, who had recently taken over the
LanMan group, cancelled LanMan 3.0 and scrapped its directory service
project. In its place he created the Cairo project, which included a
completely non-X.500 like directory service that lived as part of OFS, the
Cairo file system.
The email group at Microsoft picked up two pieces out of the wreckage of
LanMan 3.0: the DS and an X.400 MTA. We (this is when I became dev lead of
the DS) ported the DS to Windows NT, finished the JET and XDS work, and
added a MAPI RPC interface, a query engine, the KCC, a modifiable schema,
the link table, and much, much more. This version of the DSA (plus the MTA
and a custom message store) shipped in Exchange 4.0 in 1996. By this point
there's very little of the original code left, although some elderly data
structures live on, at least in name.
Around late 1995 Cairo, and its attendant directory service, were cancelled.
This left the OS team with an urgent need for a DS (for Windows 2000) but no
plans to build one. To fill the hole, the week after Exchange 4.0 shipped
two of us from the Exchange DS dev team made a copy of the DS sources and
moved to the Windows group, where we got re-christened Active Directory, and
the rest is history.
In summary:
* AD has no relation to Novell NDS/eDirectory. Novell was a
competitor (the competitor), not a licensee/licensor.
* AD has no relation to Banyan StreetTalk. Although both Jim Allchin
and one member of the AD dev team were former Banyan employees, there was no
license or co-work between Microsoft and Banyan.
* AD has no relation to Cairo, except the relation that mammals have
to dinosaurs.
* AD did not inherit code or functionality from Site Server or MCIS.
It did inherit their customers.
* AD is a direct descendant of the DSA in Exchange 4.0 (Note that
LDAP support got added separately to the two branches of the directory in
Exchange 5.something and Windows 2000. Anything that important is clearly
worth doing twice.)
Don
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Eric Fleischman
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 9:24 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
Replying to the thread again as there is probably someone that can help tell
the tale of how AD started
he can tell it from the perspective of someone
who was there
.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5:36 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
All very interesting interpretations of an LDAP directory service which
started with a minor little application known as Exchange Server.
Regards,
Michael B. Smith
MCITP:SA,EMA/MCSE/Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Gabriele Scolaro
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:21 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
What I heard about AD History is that Jim Allchin who was formerly an
architect of the Banyan Vines OS and StreetTalk Directory Service joined
Microsoft around 1990 and played a fundamental role in the Cairo project
which developed, among many other things, the X500 foundation for Active
Directory.
So I may assume AD might come - in a certain way from - StreetTalk as I was
also said that Microsoft closely partnered with Banyan whose engineers
played a fundamental role in building some AD parts.
But this is the first time I heard AD comes from NDS!!!
Gabriele
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of John Christie
Sent: mercoledì 6 agosto 2008 22.17
To: activedir
Subject: [ActiveDir] History of AD...
My colleague has made the following statements:
* Novell directory services was previously called Novell Active Directory
* Microsoft licensed/purchased a cut down version of Novell Directory
Services and then developed it.
As far as I'm aware, Novell eDirectory has only ever been marketed as Novell
NDS. He's not the type to do windups so does anyone have any knowledge which
can confirm or deny his claims?
| | | |
|
|