Users and administrators run Ganymede clients (GUI or XML based) to create, modify, or delete objects in the database.

Whenever a user commits a transaction, the Ganymede server schedules a number of background threads to write out updated network source files and run whatever system scripts are required to propagate the new data into the managed network directory services.

If multiple users are working concurrently, the scheduler makes sure that the entire network environment is updated with transactionally consistent directory images as builds finish and new ones are issued.

Importing XML will typically result in the creation, modification, or deletion of database objects, and will trigger one or more network directory service rebuilds just as using the GUI client would do.

Owner Groups can be granted authority over arbitrary subsets of the object database, making it easy to slice up the network directory space in any fashion that may be desired.