Figure 9-13 Supplier architecture for Example Corp. Europe

Each locality contains two suppliers, which share master copies of the data for that site. Each locality is therefore responsible for the master copy of its own data. Using a multi-master architecture ensures the availability of the data and helps balance the workload managed by each supplier server.

To reduce the risk of total failure, Example Corp. uses multiple read-write supplier Directory Servers at each site.

The following diagram illustrates the interaction between the two supplier servers in Europe and the two supplier servers in the US:

138 Directory design examples