openldap/doc/guide/admin/slapdconfig.sdf

# Copyright 1999, The OpenLDAP Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
# COPYING RESTRICTIONS APPLY, see COPYRIGHT.
H1: The {{I: slapd}} Configuration File

Once the software has been built and installed, you are ready to configure it
for use at your site. All slapd runtime configuration is accomplished through
the {{EX: slapd.conf}} file, installed in the {{EX: ETCDIR}}
directory you specified in the {{EX: Make-common}} file.

An alternate configuration file can be specified via a
command-line option to slapd or slurpd (see Sections 5 and 8,
respectively). This section describes the general format of the config file,
followed by a detailed description of each config file option.



H2: Configuration File Format

The {{EX: slapd.conf}} file consists of a series of global configuration options
that apply to slapd as a whole (including all backends), followed by
zero or more database backend definitions that contain information
specific to a backend instance.

Global options can be overridden in a backend (for options that
appear more than once, the last appearance in the slapd.conf file is
used). Blank lines and comment lines beginning with a `#' character
are ignored. If a line begins with white space, it is considered a
continuation of the previous line. The general format of slapd.conf is
as follows:

E: # comment - these options apply to every database
E: <global config options>
E: # first database definition & config options
E: database <backend 1 type>
E: <config options specific to backend 1>
E: # second database definition & config options
E: database <backend 2 type>
E: <config options specific to backend 2>
E: # subsequent database definitions & config options
E: ...

Configuration line arguments are separated by white space. If
an argument contains white space, the argument should be
enclosed in double quotes "like this". If an argument contains
a double quote or a backslash character `\', the character
should be preceded by a backslash character `\'.

The distribution contains an example configuration file that will
be installed in the {{EX: ETCDIR}} directory. Also provided are
{{EX: slapd.at.conf}}, which contains many commonly used attribute
definitions, and {{EX: slapd.oc.conf}}, which contains many commonly
used object class definitions. These files can be included from
the slapd configuration file (see below).



H2: Configuration File Options

This section separates the configuration file options into
global and backend-specific categories, describing each
option and its default value (if any), and giving an example of
its use.



H3: Global Options

Options described in this section apply to all backends,
unless specifically overridden in a backend definition. Option
arguments that should be replaced by actual text are shown
in brackets <>.


H4: access to <what> [ by <who> <accesslevel> ]+

This option grants access (specified by <accesslevel>) to a
set of entries and/or attributes (specified by <what>) by one or
more requesters (specified by <who>). See Section 5.3 on
access control for more details and examples.


H4: attribute <name> [<name2>] { bin | ces | cis | tel | dn }

This option associates a syntax with an attribute name. By
default, an attribute is assumed to have syntax cis. An
optional alternate name can be given for an attribute. The
possible syntaxes and their meanings are

* {{EX: bin}} binary
* {{EX: ces}} case exact string (case must match during comparisons)
* {{EX: cis}} case ignore string (case is ignored during comparisons)
* {{EX: tel}} telephone number string (like cis but blanks and dashes ` '
are ignored during comparisons)
* {{EX: dn}} distinguished name


H4: defaultaccess { none | compare | search | read | write }

This option specifies the default access to grant requesters
not matched by any other access line (see Section 5.3). Note
that an access level implies all lesser access levels (e.g.,
write access implies read, search and compare).

\Default:

E: defaultaccess read

H4: include <filename>

This option specifies that slapd should read additional
configuration information from the given file before continuing
with the next line of the current file. The included file should
follow the normal slapd config file format.

Note: You should be careful when using this option - there is
no small limit on the number of nested include options, and no
loop detection is done.

H4: loglevel <integer>

This option specifies the level at which debugging statements
and operation statistics should be syslogged (currently
logged to the syslogd(8) LOG_LOCAL4 facility). You must
have compiled slapd with  DLDAP_DEBUG for this to work
(except for the two stats levels, which are always enabled).
Log levels are additive. To display what numbers correspond
to what kind of debugging, invoke slapd with the  ? flag or
consult the table below. The possible values for <integer> are:

*1 trace function calls
*2 debug packet handling
*4 heavy trace debugging
*8 connection management
*16 print out packets sent and received
*32 search filter processing
*64 configuration file processing
*128 access control list processing
*256 stats log connections/operations/results
*512 stats log entries sent
*1024 print communication with shell backends
*2048 print entry parsing debugging

\Example:

E: loglevel 255

This will cause lots and lots of debugging information to be
syslogged.

\Default:

E: loglevel 256

H4: objectclass <name> [ requires <attrs> ] [ allows <attrs> ]

This option defines the schema rules for the given object
class. Used in conjunction with the schemacheck option. See
Section 5.4 for more details.

H4: referral <url>

This option specifies the referral to pass back when slapd
cannot find a local database to handle a request.

\Example:

E: referral ldap://ldap.openldap.org

This will refer non-local queries to the LDAP server at the
OpenLDAP Project. Smart LDAP clients can re-ask their
query at that server, but note that most of these clients are
only going to know how to handle simple LDAP URLs that
contain a host part and optionally a distinguished name part.

H4: schemacheck { on | off }

This option turns schema checking on or off. If schema
checking is on, entries added or modified through LDAP operations
will be checked to ensure they obey the schema rules implied
by their object class(es) as defined by the corresponding objectclass
option(s). If schema checking is off this check is not done.

\Default:

E: schemacheck on

H4: sizelimit <integer>

This option specifies the maximum number of entries to return
from a search operation.

\Default:

E: sizelimit 500


H4: srvtab <filename>

This option specifies the srvtab file in which slapd can find the
kerberos keys necessary for authenticating clients using
kerberos. This option is only meaningful if you are using
kerberos authentication, which must be enabled at compile
time by including the appropriate definitions in the
{{EX: Make-common}} file.

\Default:

E: srvtab /etc/srvtab

H4: timelimit <integer>

This option specifies the maximum number of seconds (in real
time) slapd will spend answering a search request. If a
request is not finished in this time, a result indicating an
exceeded timelimit will be returned.

\Default:

E: timelimit 3600



H3: General Backend Options

Options in this section only apply to the backend in which
they are defined. They are supported by every type of
backend.

H4: database <databasetype>

This option marks the beginning of a new database instance
definition. <databasetype> should be one of ldbm, shell, or
passwd, depending on which backend will serve the
database.

\Example:

E: database ldbm

This marks the beginning of a new LDBM backend database
instance definition.

H4: lastmod { on | off }

This option controls whether slapd will automatically maintain
the modifiersName, modifyTimestamp, creatorsName, and
createTimestamp attributes for entries.

\Default:

E: lastmod off

H4: readonly { on | off }

This option puts the database into "read-only" mode. Any
attempts to modify the database will return an "unwilling to
perform" error.

\Default:

E: readonly off

H4: replica
E: replica host=<hostname>[:<port>]
E: "binddn=<DN>"
E: bindmethod={ simple | kerberos }
E: \[credentials=<password>]
E: \[srvtab=<filename>]

This option specifies a replication site for this database. The
{{EX: host=}} parameter specifies a host and optionally a port where
the slave slapd instance can be found. Either a domain name
or IP address may be used for <hostname>. If <port> is not
given, the standard LDAP port number (389) is used.

The {{EX: binddn=}} parameter gives the DN to bind as for updates to
the slave slapd. It should be a DN which has read/write
access to the slave slapd's database, typically given as a
"rootdn" in the slave's config file. It must also match the
updatedn option in the slave slapd's config file. Since DNs are
likely to contain embedded spaces, the entire "{{EX: binddn=<DN>}}"
string should be enclosed in quotes.

{{EX: bindmethod}} is either simple or kerberos, depending on
whether simple password-based authentication or kerberos
authentication is to be used when connecting to the slave
slapd. Simple authentication requires a valid password be
given. Kerberos authentication requires a valid srvtab file.

The {{EX: credentials=}} parameter, which is only required if using
simple authentication, gives the password for binddn on the
slave slapd.

The {{EX: srvtab=}} parameter, which is only required if using
kerberos, specifies the filename which holds the kerberos key
for the slave slapd. If omitted, {{EX: /etc/srvtab}} is used.

See Section 10 for more details on replication.

H4: replogfile <filename>

This option specifies the name of the replication log file to
which slapd will log changes. The replication log is typically
written by slapd and read by slurpd. Normally, this option is
only used if slurpd is being used to replicate the database.
However, you can also use it to generate a transaction log, if
slurpd is not running. In this case, you will need to periodically
truncate the file, since it will grow indefinitely otherwise.

See Section 10 for more details on replication.

H4: rootdn <dn>

This option specifies the DN of an entry that is not subject to
access control or administrative limit restrictions for
operations on this database.

\Example:

E: rootdn "cn=Manager, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"

H4: rootkrbname <kerberosname>

This option specifies a kerberos name for the DN given above
that will always work, regardless of whether an entry with the
given DN exists or has a {{EX: krbName}} attribute. This option is
useful when creating a database and also when using slurpd
to provide replication service (see Section 10).

\Example:

E: rootkrbname admin@openldap.org

H4: rootpw <password>

This option specifies a password for the DN given above that
will always work, regardless of whether an entry with the given
DN exists or has a password. This option is useful when
creating a database and also when using slurpd to provide
replication service (see Section 10).

\Example:

E: rootpw secret

H4: suffix <dn suffix>

This option specifies the DN suffix of queries that will be
passed to this backend database. Multiple suffix lines can be
given, and at least one is required for each database
definition.

\Example:

E: suffix "o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"

Queries with a DN ending in "o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"
will be passed to this backend.

Note: when the backend to pass a query to is selected, slapd
looks at the suffix line(s) in each database definition in the
order they appear in the file. Thus, if one database suffix is a
prefix of another, it must appear after it in the config file.

H4: updatedn <dn>

This option is only applicable in a slave slapd. It specifies the
DN allowed to make changes to the replica (typically, this is
the DN slurpd binds as when making changes to the replica).



H3: LDBM Backend-Specific Options

Options in this category only apply to the LDBM backend
database. That is, they must follow a "database ldbm" line and
come before any other "database" line.

H4: cachesize <integer>

This option specifies the size in entries of the in-memory
cache maintained by the LDBM backend database instance.

\Default:

E: cachesize 1000


H4: dbcachesize <integer>

This option specifies the size in bytes of the in-memory cache
associated with each open index file. If not supported by the
underlying database method, this option is ignored without
comment. Increasing this number uses more memory but can
cause a dramatic performance increase, especially during
modifies or when building indexes.

\Default:

E: dbcachesize 100000


H4: directory <directory>

This option specifies the directory where the LDBM files
containing the database and associated indexes live.

\Default:

E: directory /usr/tmp


H4: index {<attrlist> | default} [pres,eq,approx,sub,none]

This option specifies the indexes to maintain for the given
attribute. If only an <attrlist> is given, all possible indexes are
maintained.

\Example:

E: index cn

E: index sn,uid eq,sub,approx

E: index default none

This example causes all indexes to be maintained for the cn
attribute; equality, substring, and approximate indexes for the
sn and uid attributes; and no indexes for all other attributes.


H4: mode <integer>

This option specifies the file protection mode that newly
created database index files should have.

\Default:

E: mode 0600



H3: Shell Backend-Specific Options

E: bind <pathname>

E: unbind <pathname>

E: search <pathname>

E: compare <pathname>

E: modify <pathname>

E: modrdn <pathname>

E: add <pathname>

E: delete <pathname>

E: abandon <pathname>

These options specify the pathname of the command to
execute in response to the given LDAP operation. The
command given should understand and follow the input/output
conventions described in Appendix B.

\Example:

E: search /usr/local/bin/search.sh

Note that you need only supply those commands you want the
backend to handle. Operations for which a command is not
supplied will be refused with an "unwilling to perform" error.



H3: Password Backend-Specific Options

Options in this category only apply to the PASSWD backend
database. That is, they must follow a "database passwd" line
and come before any other "database" line.

H4: file <filename>

This option specifies an alternate passwd file to use.

\Default:

E: file /etc/passwd



H3: Tcl Backend-Specific Options

H4: scriptpath <pathname>

This is the full path to a file containing the tcl command(s) to handle
the LDAP operations.

H4: Proc specifiers

E: bind <proc>

E: unbind <proc>

E: search <proc>

E: compare <proc>

E: modify <proc>

E: modrdn <proc>

E: add <proc>

E: delete <proc>

E: abandon <proc>

These options specify the name of the proc (function) in the tcl script
specified in 'scriptpath' to execute in response to the given LDAP
operation.

\Example:

E: search proc_search

Note that you need only supply those commands you want the
tcl backend to handle. Operations for which a command is not
supplied will be refused with an "unwilling to perform" error.

H4: tclrealm <name>

This is one of the biggest pluses of using the tcl backend.
The realm let's you group several databases to the same interpretor.
This basically means they share the same global variables and proc
space. So global variables, as well as all the procs are callable
between databases. If no tclrealm is specified, it is put into the
"default" realm.



H2: Access Control

Access to slapd entries and attributes is controlled by the
access configuration file directive. The general form of an
access line is:

E: <access directive> ::= access to <what>
E: [ by <who> <access> ]+
E: <what> ::= * | [ dn=<regex> ] [ filter=<ldapfilter> ]
E: [ attrs=<attrlist> ]
E: <who> ::= * | self | dn=<regex> | addr=<regex> |
E: domain=<regex> | dnattr=<dn attribute>
E: <access> ::= [self]none | [self]compare | [self]search
E: | [self]read | [self]write

where the <what> part selects the entries and/or attributes to
which the access applies, the <who> part specifies which
entities are granted access, and the <access> part specifies
the access granted. Multiple <who> <access> pairs are
supported, allowing many entities to be granted different
access to the same set of entries and attributes.


H3: What to control access to

The <what> part of an access specification determines the
entries and attributes to which the access control applies.
Entries can be selected in two ways: by a regular expression
matching the entry's distinguished name:

E: dn=<regular expression>

Note: The DN pattern specified should be "normalized",
meaning that there should be no extra spaces, and commas
should be used to separate components. An example
normalized DN is "cn=Babs Jensen,o=OpenLDAP Project,c=US".
An example of a non-normalized DN is
"cn=Babs Jensen; o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US".

Or, entries may be selected by a filter matching some
attribute(s) in the entry:

E: filter=<ldap filter>

where <ldap filter> is a string representation of an LDAP
search filter, as described in RFC 1588. The special entry
selector "*" is used to select any entry, and is a convenient
shorthand for the equivalent "dn=.*" selector.

Attributes within an entry are selected by including a
comma-separated list of attribute names in the <what>
selector:

E: attrs=<attribute list>

Access to the entry itself must be granted or denied using the
special attribute name "entry". Note that giving access to an
attribute is not enough; access to the entry itself through the
"entry" attribute is also required. The complete examples at
the end of this section should help clear things up.



H2: Who to grant access to

The <who> part identifies the entity or entities being granted
access. Note that access is granted to "entities" not "entries."
Entities can be specified by the special "*" identifier, matching
any entry, the keyword "self" matching the entry protected by
the access, or by a regular expression matching an entry's
distinguished name:

E: dn=<regular expression>

Note:  The DN pattern specified should be "normalized",
meaning that there should be no extra spaces, and commas
should be used to separate components.

Or entities can be specified by a regular expression matching
the client's IP address or domain name:

E: addr=<regular expression>
E: domain=<regular expression>

or by an entry listed in a DN-valued attribute in the entry to
which the access applies:

E: dnattr=<dn-valued attribute name>

The dnattr specification is used to give access to an entry
whose DN is listed in an attribute of the entry (e.g., give
access to a group entry to whoever is listed as the owner of
the group entry).



H3: The access to grant


The kind of <access> granted can be one of the following:

E: none | compare | search | read | write

Note that each level implies all lower levels of access. So, for
example, granting someone write access to an entry also
grants them read, search, and compare access.



H3: Access Control Evaluation

When evaluating whether some requester should be given
access to an entry and/or attribute, slapd compares the entry
and/or attribute to the {{EX: <what>}} selectors given in the
configuration file. Access directives local to the current
database are examined first, followed by global access
directives. Within this priority, access directives are
examined in the order in which they appear in the config file.
Slapd stops with the first {{EX: <what>}} selector that matches the
entry and/or attribute. The corresponding access directive is
the one slapd will use to evaluate access.

Next, slapd compares the entity requesting access to the
{{EX: <who>}} selectors within the access directive selected above,
in the order in which they appear. It stops with the first {{EX: <who>}}
selector that matches the requester. This determines the
access the entity requesting access has to the entry and/or
attribute.

Finally, slapd compares the access granted in the selected
{{EX: <access>}} clause to the access requested by the client. If it
allows greater or equal access, access is granted. Otherwise,
access is denied.

The order of evaluation of access directives makes their
placement in the configuration file important. If one access
directive is more specific than another in terms of the entries
it selects, it should appear first in the config file. Similarly, if
one {{EX: <who>}} selector is more specific than another it should
come first in the access directive. The access control
examples given below should help make this clear.



H3: Access Control Examples



The access control facility described above is quite powerful.
This section shows some examples of its use. First, some
simple examples:

E: access to * by * read

This access directive grants read access to everyone. If it
appears alone it is the same as the following defaultaccess
line.

E: defaultaccess read

The following example shows the use of a regular expression
to select the entries by DN in two access directives where
ordering is significant.

E: access to dn=".*, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"
E: 	by * search
E: access to dn=".*, c=US"
E: 	by * read

Read access is granted to entries under the c=US subtree,
except for those entries under the "o=OpenLDAP Project,
c=US" subtree, to which search access is granted. If the
order of these access directives was reversed, the
OpenLDAP-specific directive would never be matched, since all
OpenLDAP entries are also c=US entries.

The next example again shows the importance of ordering,
both of the access directives and the "by" clauses. It also
shows the use of an attribute selector to grant access to a
specific attribute and various <who> selectors.

E:access to dn=".*, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US" attr=homePhone
E:	by self write
E:	by dn=".*, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US" search
E:	by domain=.*\.openldap\.org read
E:	by * compare
E:access to dn=".*, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"
E:	by self write
E:	by dn=".*, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US" search
E:	by * none

This example applies to entries in the "o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"
subtree. To all attributes except homePhone, the entry itself
can write them, other OpenLDAP entries can search by them,
anybody else has no access. The homePhone attribute is
writable by the entry, searchable by other OpenLDAP entries,
readable by clients connecting from somewhere in the
OpenLDAP.org domain, and comparable by everybody else.

Sometimes it is useful to permit a particular DN to add or
remove itself from an attribute. For example, if you would like to
create a group and allow people too add and remove only
their own DN from the member attribute, you could accomplish
it with an access directive like this:

E: access to attr=member,entry
E: 	by dnattr=member selfwrite

The dnattr {{EX: <who>}} selector says that the access applies to
entries listed in the member attribute. The selfwrite access
selector says that such members can only add or delete their
own DN from the attribute, not other values. The addition of
the entry attribute is required because access to the entry is
required to access any of the entry's attributes.

Note that the attr=member construct in the {{EX: <what>}} clause is a
shorthand for the clause "dn=* attr=member" (i.e., it matches
the member attribute in all entries).



H2: Schema Enforcement



The {{EX: objectclass}} and schemacheck configuration file options
can be used to enforce schema rules on entries in the
directory. The schema rules are defined by one or more
objectclass lines, and enforcement is turned on or off via the
schemacheck option. The format of an {{EX: objectclass}} line is:

E: objectclass <name>
E: 	[ requires <attrs> ]
E: 	[ allows <attrs> ]

This option defines the schema rules for the object class
given by {{EX: <name>}}. Schema rules consist of the attributes the
entry is required to have (given by the requires {{EX: <attrs>}}
clause) and those attributes that it may optionally have (given
by the allows {{EX: <attrs>}} clause). In both clauses, {{EX: <attrs>}} is a
comma-separated list of attribute names.

Note that object class inheritance (that is, defining one object
class in terms of another) is not supported directly. All of an
object class's required and allowed attributes must be listed
in the objectclass definition.

For example, to define an objectclass called myPerson, you
might include a definition like this:

E: objectclass myperson
E: 	requires cn, sn, objectclass
E: 	allows mail, phone, fax

To then enforce this rule (i.e., to make sure an entry with an
objectclass of myperson contains the cn, sn and objectclass
attributes, and that it contains no other attributes besides
mail, phone, and fax), turn on schema checking with a line like
this:

E: schemacheck on



H2: Configuration File Example



The following is an example configuration file, interspersed
with explanatory text. It defines two databases to handle
different parts of the X.500 tree; both are LDBM database
instances. The line numbers shown are provided for
reference only and are not included in the actual file. First, the
global configuration section:

E: 1. # example config file - global configuration section
E: 2. include /usr/local/etc/slapd.at.conf
E: 3. include /usr/local/etc/slapd.oc.conf
E: 4. schemacheck on
E: 5. referral ldap://ldap.openldap.org

Line 1 is a comment. Lines 2 and 3 include other config files
containing attribute and object class definitions, respectively.
Line 4 turns on schema checking. The {{EX: referral}} option on line 5
means that queries not local to one of the databases defined
below will be referred to the LDAP server running on the
standard port (389) at the host {{EX: ldap.openldap.org}}.

The next section of the configuration file defines an LDBM
backend that will handle queries for things in the
"o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US" portion of the tree. The
database is to be replicated to two slave slapds, one on
truelies, the other on judgmentday. Indexes are to be
maintained for several attributes, and the {{EX: userPassword}}
attribute is to be protected from unauthorized access.

E: 1. # ldbm definition for the U-M database
E: 2. database ldbm
E: 3. suffix "o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"
E: 4. directory /usr/local/var/openldap
E: 6. rootdn "cn=Manager, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"
E: 7. rootpw secret
E: 8. replogfile /usr/local/var/openldap/slapd.replog
E: 9. replica host=slave1.openldap.org:389
E: 10. binddn="cn=Replicator, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"
E: 11. bindmethod=simple credentials=secret
E: 12.replica host=slave2.openldap.org
E: 13. binddn="cn=Replicator, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US"
E: 14. bindmethod=kerberos
E: 15. srvtab=/etc/srvtab.slave2
E: 16.# ldbm indexed attribute definitions
E: 17.index cn,sn,uid pres,eq,approx,sub
E: 18.index objectclass pres,eq
E: 19.index default none
E: 20.# ldbm access control definitions
E: 21.defaultaccess read
E: 22.access to attr=userpassword
E: 23. by self write
E: 24. by dn="cn=Admin, o=OpenLDAP Project, c=US" write
E: 25. by * compare

Line 1 is a comment. The start of the database definition is
marked by the database keyword on line 2. Line 3 specifies
the DN suffix for queries to pass to this database. Line 4
specifies the directory in which the database files will live

Lines 6 and 7 identify the database "super user" entry and
associated password. This entry is not subject to access
control or size or time limit restrictions.

Lines 8 through 15 are for replication. Line 8 specifies the
replication log file (where changes to the database are logged
\- this file is written by slapd and read by slurpd). Lines 9
through 11 specify the hostname and port for a replicated
host, the DN to bind as when performing updates, the bind
method (simple) and the credentials (password) for the
binddn. Lines 12 through 15 specify a second replication site,
using kerberos instead of simple authentication. See Section
10 on slurpd for more information on these options.

Lines 16 through 19 indicate the indexes to maintain for
various attributes. The default is not to maintain any indexes
(line 19).

Lines 20 through 25 specify access control for entries in the
database. For all entries, the {{EX: userPassword}} attribute is
writable by the entry and the "admin" entry, comparable by
everyone else. All other attributes allow read access by
default (line 21). Note that the special "entry" attribute is not
required in the access directive beginning on line 22. This is
because the default access is read.

The next section of the example configuration file defines
another LDBM database. This one handles queries involving
the "o="Babs, Inc.", c=US" subtree.

E: 1. # ldbm definition for Babs, Inc. database
E: 2. database ldbm
E: 3. suffix "o=\"Babs, Inc.\", c=US"
E: 4. directory /usr/local/ldbm-babs
E: 5. rootdn "cn=Babs, o=\"Babs, Inc.\", c=US"
E: 6. index default

Note the use of `\' to escape the quotes necessary in the
distinguished names given on lines 3 and 5. By default, all
indexes are maintained for every attribute in an entry.