UDDI: Frequently Asked Questions

Windows Server 2003 includes Enterprise UDDI Services, a dynamic and flexible infrastructure for XML Web services. This standards-based solution enables companies to run their own UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) directory for intranet or extranet use, making it easier to discover Web services and other programmatic resources. Developers can easily and quickly find and reuse the Web services available within the organization. IT administrators can catalog and manage the programmable resources on their network. Enterprise UDDI Services also helps companies build and deploy smarter, more reliable applications.

http://uddi.microsoft.com is Microsoft's Web site that provides access to the UDDI Business Registry (UBR), a public implementation of the UDDI specifications that facilitates Web service discovery. Microsoft hosts this node of the UBR on the Internet free of charge. The UBR is available to the general public and useful for sharing information about services with business partners and customers. Enterprise UDDI Services in Windows Server 2003 is a standards-based solution that enables companies to run their own UDDI directory inside or between organizations. It is a native feature of Windows Server 2003.

Yes, Microsoft will continue to host its public node of the UDDI Business Registry.

UDDI Services provides easy discovery of Web services and other programmatic resources inside an organization. Two common scenarios for UDDI Services inside an organization are Developer Reuse and Dynamic Application Configuration:

UDDI Services is a managed code service in Windows Server 2003. It was developed using the Microsoft .NET Framework and utilizes Microsoft's experience running the Microsoft public node of the UDDI Business Registry. UDDI Services can be accessed through a Web-based user interface or programmatically through a SOAP interface.

UDDI Services automatically publishes its existence and location within UDDI Services so that it is easily discoverable as a Web service.

UDDI Services provides developers with a central repository of service description and technical binding information, making it easier to reuse existing services and publish new services based on standard and custom categorization schemes. Integrated with Visual Studio .NET and the Office Web Services Toolkit, developers can locate and reuse Web services from within their application development environment.

UDDI Services provides an efficient way to categorize programmable resources on the network.

IT administrators can configure applications based on classification schemes such as quality of service, location or organization during service deployment. For applications that check UDDI Services for binding information, only an update to UDDI Services is required to point applications to new services.

IT architects can establish and maintain a structured and standardized way to describe and discover services within an organization by applying categorization schemes in UDDI Services. UDDI Services supports multiple categorization schemes that can be layered to support rich logical queries and granular descriptions of services.

UDDI Services supports programmatic inquiries via the SOAP-based UDDI application programming interface (API) and also includes an intuitive Web interface with searching, publishing, and coordination features that are compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, or later, and Netscape Navigator 4.5, or later.

UDDI Services supports versions 1.0 and 2.0 of the UDDI Programmer's API, enabling enterprise developers to publish, discover, share, and interact with Web services directly through their development tools and business applications.

Microsoft offers UDDI client support through several tools including Visual Studio .NET, the Office XP Web Services Toolkit, and the UDDI software development kit (SDK).

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET provides native support for UDDI Services through "Add Web Reference," enabling developers to easily discover Web Services and other programmatic resources in UDDI for use in building dynamic applications.

IT administrators can easily manage access to UDDI Services functions such as searching and publishing information by assigning users to one of four roles that define the level of interaction a user is allowed in UDDI Services: User, Publisher, Coordinator, or Administrator.

UDDI Services site administrators can easily configure and remotely administer the UDDI Services server via the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) utility. Site administrators have the ability to back up and restore the UDDI Services database.

As a native feature of Windows Server 2003, UDDI Services has the same base requirements as Windows Server 2003. For more information, see System Requirements. Additional resources may be required based on workload and customer implementation requirements.

No additional software beyond what is available with Windows Server 2003 is required to deploy UDDI Services. For example, you need to be using Internet Information Services 6.0 (IIS 6), ASP.NET, .NET Runtime, and Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE). UDDI Services uses MSDE as the default store. There is also an option to use Microsoft SQL Server 2000 as the data store. This requires appropriate SQL Server licensing.

Yes. The three core components of a UDDI Services installation are database store, application, and MMC snap-in. UDDI Services uses MSDE (Microsoft Data Engine) as the default store. SQL Server 2000 is also supported for high reliability and availability scenarios.

UDDI Services can be deployed on a single machine or across multiple machines. One option is to distribute the Web-based user interface (UI) and APIs across one or more machines in a typical Web farm configuration and run the database on a separate dedicated machine with SQL Server 2000. Alternatively, the Web based GUI and APIs can be distributed across one or more machines in a typical Web farm configuration and the database installed and run on a clustered instance of SQL Server 2000 using Microsoft's clustering technology. This configuration provides great scalability and reliability.

UDDI Services is a native feature of Windows Server 2003. Licensing is part of the Windows Server 2003 product family licenses.

Support for UDDI Services is available through standard Windows Server 2003 channels and Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) contracts. Users can also obtain assistance from the public newsgroups dedicated to UDDI:

Yes. UDDI Services will be available in all the languages supported by Windows Server 2003.

Yes. UDDI Services in Windows Server 2003 is fully compliant with the UDDI version 1.0 and version 2.0 programmers API specifications (available at the UDDI.org Web site), therefore any tools written in compliance with the version 1 or version 2 specification can be used to access UDDI Services.

OASIS is the standards body responsible for creation and maintenance of UDDI specifications. The specifications and ongoing standards work were transitioned to OASIS from UDDI.org in July 2002. Microsoft was one of the founders of UDDI.org and actively participates in the ongoing UDDI standards process at OASIS. For more information about OASIS, UDDI.org, and general UDDI information, see the UDDI.org Web site.

Yes. UDDI Services supports the ability to import data into its store. However, there is currently no automated ability to maintain synchronization between imported entries and the original entries in the UBR. In other words, if the data from the source registry changes, there is not an automated process to update the copy of that entry.

No, the UBR does not support the ability to copy entries into it.

UDDI Services supports replication through SQL Server 2000 replication. This is available when SQL Server 2000 is used as the UDDI Services data store.

Yes. UDDI Services includes the core canonical tModels identified in the UDDI specification. It also includes a lightweight application classification scheme from Visual Studio .NET.

The Active Directory service provides the authentication and authorization backbone for UDDI Services. All access and permissions to UDDI Services, whether for reading, publishing, or coordination, are assigned through a set of roles defined during installation within Active Directory. Furthermore, Active Directory provides one of the means for finding servers on the network that run UDDI Services. In addition, UDDI Services can optionally be installed as a service within Active Directory, enabling IT administrators, users, or applications to perform a simple query to obtain a list of all UDDI Services on the network. This feature provides the option to publish the existence and location of a UDDI Services instance in Active Directory if a suitable domain is available.

Yes. Accounts can be configured in Active Directory for business partners to access UDDI Services.

UDDI Services supports native UDDI authentication and native Windows authentication. Each method uses Active Directory to determine a list of users. Windows authentication relies on Kerberos tickets and all native Windows security capabilities. UDDI authentication uses authorization tokens as defined by the UDDI specifications. An administrator has the option to enable or disable any combination of these capabilities.

Although Active Directory is recommended as the technology for managing access to UDDI Services, Windows NT domain security or local server accounts can be used as well.

Microsoft offers UDDI client support through several tools including Visual Studio .NET, the Office XP Web Services Toolkit, and the UDDI SDK.

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (provides native support for UDDI Services through the "Add Web Reference" feature, enabling developers to easily discover Web Services and other programmatic resources in UDDI Services for use in building dynamic applications. By navigating the http://<machinename>/uddipublic/addwebreference, a developer is presented with a user interface from which UDDI can be queried directly from Visual Studio .NET. For more information, see the Visual Studio .NET Web site.

Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications provides an add-in that supports UDDI discovery as well. This tool works slightly differently, in that the access point for UDDI Services must be provided (that is, http://<machinename>/uddipublic/inquire.asmx).

The UDDI SDK is a collection of UDDI client development components, sample code, and reference documentation that enables programmers to interact with UDDI-compliant registries. It allows a developer to write code that interacts with any UDDI compliant node. For more information, see Version History of the Microsoft UDDI Software Development Kit.