The Open Directory Service (OpenDS) is a Java directory service implementation project hosted on java.net. Initially a Sun project, the code base is currently available under Sun's CDDL license. The project released its 0.9 version last week, with significant new features.

In addition to being a directory server, OpenDS's goal is to offer additional directory service functionality:

The directory service includes not only the Directory Server, but also other essential directory-related services like directory proxy, virtual directory, namespace distribution and data synchronization. The Directory Server is a network-accessible database that is able to store information in a hierarchical form. Clients may communicate with it using standard network protocols (at present LDAP and DSML are supported) to retrieve and update information in a variety of ways.

The current release, however, is focused on the directory server component, and additional features are slated for post-1.0 releases. The main capabilities supported in the 0.9 release include:

• Basic support for all core LDAPv3 operations, including search, bind, modify, add, delete, modify DN, compare, abandon, and extended operations.
• Basic support for a number of controls, including proxied authorization, persistent search, LDAP pre-read and post-read controls, LDAP assertions, retrieving matched values, paged results, authorization identity request, password policy controls, and account usability controls.
• Basic support for several SASL authentication mechanisms, including ANONYMOUS, CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, EXTERNAL, GSSAPI, and PLAIN. There is also an API to add support for new SASL mechanisms.
• Support for the "Who Am I?", StartTLS, password modify, and cancel extended operations, and an API to add support for new extended operations.
• A number of APIs to add components to the server, including plugins, password storage schemes, password validators, password generators, monitor providers, logging subsystems.
• A DSEE-compatible access control implementation.
• A full-featured password policy implementation.
• A virtual attribute subsystem, including support for isMemberOf (which lists the DNs of the groups in which a user is a member), virtual static groups, and user-defined virtual attributes. LDIF import and export capabilities.
• Backend backup and restore capabilities.

Do you think it's important to have a Java implementation of a directory service? In what situations would you favor a Java-based directory implementation over a native LDAP or DSML server?