Ubuntu Documentation

Simpler LDAP setup w. ldapscripts

Bug #291779 reported by Morten Siebuhr on 2008-10-31

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	Ubuntu Documentation	Invalid	Undecided	Adam Sommer

Bug Description

In ubuntu-doc/serverguide/C/network-auth.xml there is a large amount of copy-edit-paste code that has to be 100% correct for LDAP to work.

As the package ldapscripts, also touted in the guide, has the very nice script ldapinit, that does all this and some for the user, why not use that?

It seems the script sets up a bit more stuff that otherwise described in the guide (Machines-subtree and "Idmap" OU), but either guide or script could be adapted to align better.

Tags:

Revision history for this message

Dean Sas (dsas) wrote on 2009-02-06:

Perhaps fixing bug 291779 would also fix this?

Revision history for this message

Dean Sas (dsas) wrote on 2009-02-06:

commented on wrong bug! sorry for the noise

Revision history for this message

Adam Sommer (asommer) wrote on 2009-02-19:

Thank you for reporting this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. I agree there is a large amount of copy 'n pasting involved. I'm not sure there is a good way around that, especially since moving to the cn=config method of slapd configuration.

I'm not sure recommending ldapinit is the best way for a few reasons:

1) ldapscripts are somewhat limited, and it's difficult to make a tool recommendation because the function of the directory can vary greatly. For example, if an admin wants to add the Samba schema for example, he then should really use smbldap-tools.

2) I think it's best if the guide is as generic as possible with regard to the tree structure, since there are so many ways to configure it.

3) Using ldapinit to populate the tree only really replaces one copy and paste.

4) I also think it's good to have as many examples of the native tools that ship with OpenLDAP since they should be the most reliable. At least in theory.

Anyway, those are my thoughts, but if there's strong disagreement feel free to submit a patch, or just list your ideas. I'm open to make any changes that will help simplify the guide. Also, there are blueprints for a "Ubuntu Directory Service" that would, I assume, have a pre-configured tree and customized tools.

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/ldap-defaultdit-usergrp-mgmt

And the Ubuntu Directory Services LP Team:

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-directory