Directory service is used to organize and access information in an electronic directory. It becomes one of the essential network services in today’s enterprise environment. However, there are not enough discussions on teaching directory services among computing community. This paper presents a course on directory services. Course topics include designing, implementing, administrating and troubleshooting various directory service products in an enterprise environment, as well as application integration using directory services, i.e., email and single-sign-on. Virtual machines are used to set up lab test bed. The lab assignments and semester project are designed to further students’ knowledge on directory services and gain “hands-on” experience. An assessment of the course is also discussed.
Dr. Yu Cai is an associate professor and program chair in the Computer Network and System Administration (CNSA) program at the School of Technology, Michigan Technological University. His current research interests include cyber security and medical informatics. He is particularly interested in applying his research and techniques to real-life applications. He has been a consultant to many companies including IBM and Ford. Dr. Cai serves in editorial boards of several international journals. He also serves in the program committees of many international conferences. Dr. Cai received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 2005. He is a member of IEEE and ACM.
Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.