Techniques for parallel processing of directory searches

A machine-implemented method, comprising:

• receiving a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory search on a multicore processing architecture;
• determining that the directory search when processed returns more than one directory entry from a directory that the directory search is being requested for, wherein determining includes evaluating statistical directory information for the directory and performing an inspection of that statistical directory information to identify that more than one directory entry is returned when the directory search is executed;
• and
• deciding to process the directory search using two or more threaded directory search processes that simultaneously and concurrently process the directory search on at least two or more different cores of the multicore architecture based on configuration parameters that force concurrent processing, the decision to process the directory search uses information that identifies:
• a total number of host processors or cores available, a current workload for the host processors or the cores, a total number of active search operations within the host processors or the cores, and the configuration parameters indicating how many searches should be used at any given time, the two or more threaded directory search processes modify results retrieved from the directory search to selectively remove some results based on scope and access rights for the removed results, each thread processed on a different core of machine, the scope defines how deep to search within the directory and the two or more threaded directory search processes modify attributes in remaining results for the directory search, the scope includes a value for:
• a base scope indicating just a search of a base object only is to occur, a level one indicating a search of objects subordinate to the base object but does not include the base object, or a sub-tree level indicating a search of the base object and an entire sub-tree of which a distinguished name for the base object is a topmost object, and wherein each object includes operational attributes including values for an entry identifier, revision information, parent information, a subordinate count, partitioned information, creation time stamp, and modification time stamp.

A machine-imp.lemented method, comprising:

• receiving a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) search request for a directory within a multi processor architecture for a machine;
• determining that the LDAP search request is to be processed by threads based on evaluation of a configuration parameter to the method, the configuration parameter provided as part of the LDAP search request and the configuration parameter including a current workload for a multicore architecture and a number for active search operations processing on the multicore architecture, and a number of searches that should be executed, and each thread executing on a different processor and different core of the machine and each thread performing a different operation to satisfy the LDAP search request, one thread performs the directory search and two or more threads modify results returned from the directory search to selectively remove some of the results based on scope and access rights, the scope defines how deep to search within the directory, and the two or more threads also modify attributes of remaining results, and each thread processed in parallel within the machine with respect to remaining ones of the threads based on the configuration parameters that force parallel processing, the scope includes a value for:
• a base scope indicating just a search of a base object only is to occur, a level one indicating a search of objects subordinate to the base object but does not include the base object, or a sub-tree level indicating a search of the base object and an entire sub-tree of which a distinguished name for the base object is a topmost object;
• and
• return LDAP search results to a requestor that initially supplied the LDAP search request once the thread that performs the directory search receives notice or receives a particular event indicating that each of the two or more additional threads have completed processing, and wherein each object includes operational attributes including values for an entry identifier, revision information, parent information, a subordinate count, partitioned information, creation time stamp, and modification time stamp.

A machine-implemented system, comprising:

• a first thread implemented in a machine-accessible and readable medium and to process on a first processor of a machine;
• and
• a second thread implemented in a machine-accessible and readable medium and to process on a second processor of the machine;
• wherein a search request service initially decides that a requested lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory search is to be processed in parallel on the machine by the first and the second threads by evaluating dynamic conditions and configuration parameters, the configuration parameters part of the requested directory search and the configuration parameters including a current workload for a multicore architecture and a number for active search operations processing on the multicore architecture, and the configuration parameters force parallel processing, and a number of searches that should be executed, and the first thread processes in parallel and concurrent with the second thread on the machine, the first thread and the second thread processing in parallel on different cores of the machine, and the first thread acquires directory entries that match the requested directory search and that satisfies the search from a directory and serially and dynamically populates search results for the directory search, and the second thread accesses the serially populated search results as they are populated and filters out some of them from the search results and modifies remaining ones of them within the search results, removed ones of the search results are removed based on scope and access rights, where scope defines how deep to search within the directory, and when the second thread completes processing, the first thread returns the search results to an initial requestor that supplied the directory search once the first thread receives notice or receives a particular event indicating that the second thread has completed processing, the scope includes a value for:
• a base scope indicating just a search of a base object only is to occur, a level one indicating a search of objects subordinate to the base object but does not include the base object, or a sub-tree level indicating a search of the base object and an entire sub-tree of which a distinguished name for the base object is a topmost object, and wherein each object includes operational attributes including values for an entry identifier, revision information, parent information, a subordinate count, partitioned information, creation time stamp and modification time stamp.