---
title: Profile structure
description: Describes the server profile directory hierarchy and the two methods for creating a profile, from the template or with manage-profile.
component: pingdirectory
version: 10.2
page_id: pingdirectory:pingdatasync_server_administration_guide:pd_sync_profile_structure
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingdirectory/11.1/pingdirectory_server_administration_guide/pd_ds_server_profiles.html
llms_txt: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingdirectory/llms.txt
docs_for_agents: https://developer.pingidentity.com/build-with-ai/docs-for-agents.md
revdate: 2024-07-15T00:00:00Z
---

# Profile structure

Use either of the following methods to create a server profile:

* Use the template named `server-profile-template.zip`, which is located in the `resource/` directory.

* Run the `manage-profile generate-profile` subcommand. The `manage-profile` tool references a file system directory structure rather than a ZIP file.

Files can be added to each directory as needed.

The following hierarchy represents the file structure of a basic server profile:

```
-server-profile/
  |-- dsconfig/
  |-- ldif/
      |-- userRoot/
  |-- misc-files/
  |-- pre-setup-dsconfig/
  |-- server-root/
  |   |-- post-setup/
  |   |-- pre-setup/
  |-- server-sdk-extensions/
  |-- setup-arguments.txt
  |-- variables-ignore.txt
```