Tokyo, JAPAN - November 24, 2004 --
VA Linux Systems Japan K.K. (VA Linux), a leading provider of Linux solutions for the telecommunications and enterprise system markets, today announced it will release 'VA Directory', a new LDAP directory service server software for large-scale enterprise systems. Advance sales of the VA Directory solution will begin immediately, while delivery and full customer support for the system will be available from January, 2005.

VA Directory consists of 'UltraPossum' (*1), a open source directory solution, and 'VA Core' (*2), a GNU/Linux foundation system, both developed by VA Linux. These two main components are highly integrated, and it will assure customers of robustness, high-availability and extensibility while being easy to manage. VA Linux's full and detailed customer support will ensure to materialize practical LDAP directory solution.

"VA Linux has been committed to the LDAP technology and its open source implementations such as OpenLDAP or UltraPossum for a long time" said Tetsuya Ueda, President and CEO of VA Linux in Tokyo. "VA Directory is the first fruit of our hard labor. We will keep improving it to meet high demands of enterprise or career use, increasing services or applications based on VA Directory, and vigorously pushing the adaptation of VA Directory in the targeted market."

VA Directory's key features are:

Secure Transaction
	Implemented security measures such as LDAPv3 startTLS extension or LDAP over SSL (*4).
A Variety of Replication Methods
	Supports the search load balancing by replication and synchronized replication, ensures robust replication of the master server.
Failover support
	Supports failover by the Active-Standby method for master server assures the safety of your precious data.
Generation of and Recovery from DB backup files
	Generation of / recovery from backup files are possible on servers on which VA Directory runs.
Monitoring of the LDAP server status
	Provides LDAP server status monitoring via SNMP or full statistic reports, useful for administrators.
Extensible system design
	Adopted plugin architecture - core components are all plugins, thus very easy to add needed functions.
Flexible configuration / management framework
	Standardized configuration / management framework brings customized easy management, and various management utilities will be available by request.

The minimum configuration of VA Directory is composed of a master server and a slave, and the price will start at 880k Japanese Yen. In this case, the annual maintenance support fee is 17.6k Japanese Yen. VA Linux's consulting services such as schema design, directory tree design and performance tuning are also available. VA Linux will aggressively promote VA Directory to telecommunication carriers, data center providers, ISPs, ASPs. Also, VA Linux seeks partners engaged in deploying solutions based on VA Directory.

* VA Directory product page: http://www.valinux.co.jp/en/products/directory/
* VA Core product page: http://www.valinux.co.jp/en/products/core/
* UltraPossum Project: http://ultrapossum.org/

About VA Linux Systems Japan K.K.

Founded in September 2000, VA Linux Systems Japan K.K. (VA Linux), which has based its operations on the development of Linux and Open Source, has become one of the premier providers of Linux kernel, technological, and software solutions in the Japanese domestic market. From March 2004 onward, VA Linux has been the recipient of funding from NTT Comware and NTT Data. VA Linux is currently at the forefront of implementing Linux solutions for telecommunication and enterprise system markets.
http://www.valinux.co.jp/en/

About Trademarks

UltraPossum and VA Directory are trademarks of VA Linux.
OpenLDAP is a registered trademark OpenLDAP Foundation.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Contact

Orie Tsuzuno
Public Relations
VA Linux Systems Japan K.K.
phone: +81-3-3293-5151
fax: +81-3-3293-5152
Email: mktg at valinux.co.jp

correction and apology Some misleading statements have been found in earlier English translation of this press release. OpenLDAP Project is not participated in the development of UltraPossum. VA Linux apologizes the mistranslation and would like to thank Kurt Zeilenga for pointing it out to us.

Notes

*1: About UltraPossum
UltraPossum is a directory solution oriented towards large-scale systems. It incorporates the OpenLDAP (*3) standard open source directory server implementation, and integrated Heartbeat and mon status monitoring software. By combining this software with the LDAP server functionality provided by OpenLDAP and maintenance and configuration components, a multi-function directory solution framework can be provided. Also, UltraPossum also supports "syncbackup" released by VA Linux in December 2003, which implements the OpenLDAP synchronizing replication necessary for high-availability and stability in large-scale systems. Further, UltraPossum's flexible plug-in architecture allows easy implementation of LDAPv3 startTLS extensions and LDAP over SSL security functionality.
UltraPossum supports Linux and all major UNIX-like OSes. For detailed information, please refer to the UltraPossum web site: http://ultrapossum.org/

*2: About VA Core
VA Core is an OS based on Debian GNU/Linux with packages, kernel extensions, security updates and an improved installer maintained by VA Linux. It includes the management and configuration framework used in all of the VA Linux Debian-framework-based products.

*3: About OpenLDAP
VA Linux's UltraPossum includes OpenLDAP Software. OpenLDAP is open source software, managed and developed by the OpenLDAP Foundation (http://www.openldap.org/), which provides LDAP Directory Services. LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a directory service protocol developed based on X.500 directory services. The core specification is defined in RFC2251, "The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3)". OpenLDAP conforms to LDAP v3, alongside Microsoft's Active Directory and Novell's eDirectory.
VA Linux has been active in internationalization and debugging of OpenLDAP from the early stages, and actively participates in the OpenLDAP Developers Conference. VA Linux has shown a continuing commitment to the development of OpenLDAP, including providing the server system for the OpenLDAP Foundation's web site.

*4: About OpenSSL
This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit(http://www.openssl.org/).