• Oracle Internet Directory Release 9.0.2 is a critical component of the Oracle9iAS management and security infrastructure. Oracle Internet Directory ensures that user accounts and groups are managed centrally and securely via the LDAP v3 standard. Oracle9iAS now enables users to be created centrally in Oracle Internet Directory, and shared across components such as Oracle9iAS Portal and Oracle9iAS Unified Messaging. When users log in, they are authenticated once by the Oracle9iAS Single Sign-on Server against their Oracle Internet Directory credential, and can thereby access multiple applications seamlessly.

• Oracle Internet Directory now includes the Self-Service Console, which is an easy-to-use, web-based interface which allows end-users and application administrators to search for and manage data in the directory. Combined with the new Delegated Administration Service, this console provides Oracle9iAS component administrators with a means of provisioning end-users in the Oracle9iAS environment. Oracle Internet Directory also enables components of Oracle9iAS to synchronize data about user and group events, so that those components can update any user information stored in their local application instances.

• Oracle Internet Directory offers sophisticated password policy management capabilities (e.g., control over expiration times and password length) and the ability to store passwords using a variety of hashing schemes. These features allow administrators to define consistent security policies across applications and easily share passwords with other systems.

• New with Oracle9iAS Release 2, Oracle Internet Directory provides a plug-in framework for applications that require customized functionality, such as referential integrity of data. The plug-in framework is delivered as a highly-flexible PL/SQL interface, allowing user-defined operations to be invoked by the directory server before or after LDAP commands.

The Oracle Directory Integration Platform enables customers to synchronize data between various directories and Oracle Internet Directory. It is a set of services and interfaces which makes it possible to develop synchronization solutions with third party metadirectories and other enterprise repositories, such as iPlanet. With Oracle9iAS Release 2, Oracle Internet Directory includes an agent for out-of-the-box synchronization with Oracle Human Resources and an agent for synchronizing information with selected third-party LDAP servers. 

For Oracle9iAS Release 2, search performance against directory data in Oracle Internet Directory has been greatly improved through the use of sophisticated server-side caching capabilities. 

Oracle Internet Directory now supports alias de-referencing. When a user or an application searches on an alias, Oracle Internet Directory automatically de-references the alias and returns the entry to which it refers. This feature enables administrators to change the names of objects in ways that are transparent to users and applications.

In Oracle9iAS Release 2, enhanced proxy capabilities allow administrators to safely establish performant, auditable middle-tier application access to the directory "on behalf of" end user communities.