Designing Your Directory TreeChapter 4 Designing the Directory Tree 65Branching Your DirectoryDesign your hierarchy to avoid problematic name changes. The flatter a namespaceis, the less likely the names are to change. The likelihood of a name changing isroughly proportional to the number of components in the name that canpotentially change. The more hierarchical the directory tree, the more componentsin the names, and the more likely the names are to change.Following are some guidelines for designing your directory tree hierarchy:• Branch your tree to represent only the largest organizational subdivisions inyour enterprise.Any such branch points should be limited to divisions (Corporate InformationServices, Customer Support, Sales and Professional Services, and so forth).Make sure that divisions you use to branch your directory tree are stable; donot perform this kind of branching if your enterprise reorganizes frequently.• Use functional or generic names rather than actual organizational names foryour branch points.Names change, and you do not want to have to change your directory treeevery time your enterprise renames its divisions. Instead, use generic namesthat represent the function of the organization (for example, use Engineeringinstead of Widget Research and Development).• If you have multiple organizations that perform similar functions, try creatinga single branch point for that function instead of branching based alongdivisional lines.For example, even if you have multiple marketing organizations, each of whichis responsible for a specific product line, create a single Marketing subtree. Allmarketing entries then belong to that tree.Following are specific guidelines for the enterprise and hosting environment.Branching in an Enterprise EnvironmentName changes can be avoided if you base your directory tree structure oninformation that is not likely to change. For example, base the structure on types ofobjects in the tree rather than organizations. Some of the objects you might use todefine your structure are:• ou=people• ou=groups• ou=contractors• ou=employees
