Today, we are going to setup LDAP server in CentOS 7 using 389 Directory Server. We already have posted the steps to install and configure LDAP server in CentOS 6.x server. For more details, check the following link.
Let us start to deploy 389 DS in CentOS 7. This guide was tested in CentOS 7 64 bit server, however these steps are same for Fedora, Scientific Linux, and RHEL etc.
Here is my test box details:
- Operating system : CentOS 7 64 bit minimal installation
- IP address : 192.168.1.150/24
- Hostname : server.ostechnix.lan
Table of Contents
Prerequistes
Before installing LDAP, we need to perform the following tasks.
Configure DNS server (Optional)
Make sure you have the IPA address and FQDN of your CentOS server in DNS server. Refer this link to know how to records in DNS server. However, this is optional. You can skip this if you intend to use the LDAP server in your local area network.
Configure FQDN in /etc/hosts file
Edit /etc/hosts file:
vi /etc/hosts
Enter your server's fully qualified domain name. This is important.
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4 ::1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6 192.168.1.150 server.ostechnix.lan server
Save and close the file.
Configure the firewall or router
We need to allow LDAP server's default ports via firewall or router in order to access the LDAP server from a remote system.
To do so, run the following commands one by one:
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=389/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=636/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9830/tcp
Restart firewalld service to save the changes.
firewall-cmd --reload
Add EPEL repository
389 ds is not available in the CentOS official repositories. So, let us add and enable EPEL repository to install 389 ds.
To install EPEL repository, run:
yum install epel-release
Tweak system performance and security tuning
We have to do some security tuning tweaks to enhance the performance of the LDAP server.
To do so, edit /etc/sysctl.conf file :
vi /etc/sysctl.conf
Add the following lines:
net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time = 300 net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000 fs.file-max = 64000
Verify the settings:
sysctl -p
Sample output:
net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time = 300 net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000 fs.file-max = 64000
Edit /etc/security/limits.conf file:
vi /etc/security/limits.conf
Add the following lines at the bottom:
* soft nofile 8192 * hard nofile 8192
Save and close the file.
Edit /etc/profile file:
vi /etc/profile
Add the following line:
ulimit -n 8192
Edit /etc/pam.d/login file:
vi /etc/pam.d/login
Add the following line at end:
session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so
Save and close the file.
Create a LDAP user account
Create a new user called ldapuser.
useradd ldapuser
Set password for the new user.:
passwd ldapuser
Restart the CentOS server to take effect all changes.
Install LDAP server
Make sure you have added EPEL repository and run the following command to install 389 DS server:
yum install 389-ds-base 389-admin
Configure 389 Directory server
After installing it, run the following command to configure our LDAP server.
setup-ds-admin.pl
Sample output:
============================================================================== This program will set up the 389 Directory and Administration Servers. It is recommended that you have "root" privilege to set up the software. Tips for using this program: - Press "Enter" to choose the default and go to the next screen - Type "Control-B" then "Enter" to go back to the previous screen - Type "Control-C" to cancel the setup program Would you like to continue with set up? [yes]: ## Press Enter ============================================================================== Your system has been scanned for potential problems, missing patches, etc. The following output is a report of the items found that need to be addressed before running this software in a production environment. 389 Directory Server system tuning analysis version 23-FEBRUARY-2012. NOTICE : System is x86_64-unknown-linux3.10.0-327.22.2.el7.x86_64 (1 processor). Would you like to continue? [yes]: ## Press Enter ============================================================================== Choose a setup type: 1. Express Allows you to quickly set up the servers using the most common options and pre-defined defaults. Useful for quick evaluation of the products. 2. Typical Allows you to specify common defaults and options. 3. Custom Allows you to specify more advanced options. This is recommended for experienced server administrators only. To accept the default shown in brackets, press the Enter key. Choose a setup type [2]: ## Press ENTER ============================================================================== Enter the fully qualified domain name of the computer on which you're setting up server software. Using the form <hostname>.<domainname> Example: eros.example.com. To accept the default shown in brackets, press the Enter key. Warning: This step may take a few minutes if your DNS servers can not be reached or if DNS is not configured correctly. If you would rather not wait, hit Ctrl-C and run this program again with the following command line option to specify the hostname: General.FullMachineName=your.hostname.domain.name Computer name [server.ostechnix.lan]: ## Press ENTER ============================================================================== The servers must run as a specific user in a specific group. It is strongly recommended that this user should have no privileges on the computer (i.e. a non-root user). The setup procedure will give this user/group some permissions in specific paths/files to perform server-specific operations. If you have not yet created a user and group for the servers, create this user and group using your native operating system utilities. System User [nobody]: ldapuser ## Enter Ldap username which we created earlier System Group [nobody]: ldapuser ## Enter LDAP group name (It is same as username) ============================================================================== Server information is stored in the configuration directory server. This information is used by the console and administration server to configure and manage your servers. If you have already set up a configuration directory server, you should register any servers you set up or create with the configuration server. To do so, the following information about the configuration server is required: the fully qualified host name of the form <hostname>.<domainname>(e.g. hostname.example.com), the port number (default 389), the suffix, the DN and password of a user having permission to write the configuration information, usually the configuration directory administrator, and if you are using security (TLS/SSL). If you are using TLS/SSL, specify the TLS/SSL (LDAPS) port number (default 636) instead of the regular LDAP port number, and provide the CA certificate (in PEM/ASCII format). If you do not yet have a configuration directory server, enter 'No' to be prompted to set up one. Do you want to register this software with an existing configuration directory server? [no]: ## Press ENTER ============================================================================== Please enter the administrator ID for the configuration directory server. This is the ID typically used to log in to the console. You will also be prompted for the password. Configuration directory server administrator ID [admin]: ## Press ENTER Password: ## Enter LDAP administrative user password Password (confirm): ## Re-enter password ============================================================================== The information stored in the configuration directory server can be separated into different Administration Domains. If you are managing multiple software releases at the same time, or managing information about multiple domains, you may use the Administration Domain to keep them separate. If you are not using administrative domains, press Enter to select the default. Otherwise, enter some descriptive, unique name for the administration domain, such as the name of the organization responsible for managing the domain. Administration Domain [ostechnix.lan]: ## Press ENTER ============================================================================== The standard directory server network port number is 389. However, if you are not logged as the superuser, or port 389 is in use, the default value will be a random unused port number greater than 1024. If you want to use port 389, make sure that you are logged in as the superuser, that port 389 is not in use. Directory server network port [389]: ## Press ENTER ============================================================================== Each instance of a directory server requires a unique identifier. This identifier is used to name the various instance specific files and directories in the file system, as well as for other uses as a server instance identifier. Directory server identifier [server]: ## Press ENTER ============================================================================== The suffix is the root of your directory tree. The suffix must be a valid DN. It is recommended that you use the dc=domaincomponent suffix convention. For example, if your domain is example.com, you should use dc=example,dc=com for your suffix. Setup will create this initial suffix for you, but you may have more than one suffix. Use the directory server utilities to create additional suffixes. Suffix [dc=ostechnix, dc=lan]: ## Press ENTER ============================================================================== Certain directory server operations require an administrative user. This user is referred to as the Directory Manager and typically has a bind Distinguished Name (DN) of cn=Directory Manager. You will also be prompted for the password for this user. The password must be at least 8 characters long, and contain no spaces. Press Control-B or type the word "back", then Enter to back up and start over. Directory Manager DN [cn=Directory Manager]: ## Press ENTER ============================================================================== Certain directory server operations require an administrative user. This user is referred to as the Directory Manager and typically has a bind Distinguished Name (DN) of cn=Directory Manager. You will also be prompted for the password for this user. The password must be at least 8 characters long, and contain no spaces. Press Control-B or type the word "back", then Enter to back up and start over. Directory Manager DN [cn=Directory Manager]: ## Press ENTER Password: ## Enter Password for directory manager Password (confirm): ## Re-enter password ============================================================================== The Administration Server is separate from any of your web or application servers since it listens to a different port and access to it is restricted. Pick a port number between 1024 and 65535 to run your Administration Server on. You should NOT use a port number which you plan to run a web or application server on, rather, select a number which you will remember and which will not be used for anything else. Administration port [9830]: ## Press ENTER ============================================================================== The interactive phase is complete. The script will now set up your servers. Enter No or go Back if you want to change something. Are you ready to set up your servers? [yes]: ## Press ENTER Creating directory server . . . Your new DS instance 'server' was successfully created. Creating the configuration directory server . . . Beginning Admin Server creation . . . Creating Admin Server files and directories . . . Updating adm.conf . . . Updating admpw . . . Registering admin server with the configuration directory server . . . Updating adm.conf with information from configuration directory server . . . Updating the configuration for the httpd engine . . . Starting admin server . . . The admin server was successfully started. Admin server was successfully created, configured, and started. Exiting . . . Log file is '/tmp/setup46mxl0.log'
That's it. LDAP server has been installed and configured.
Test LDAP server
After configuring LDAP server, run the following command to verify whether it's working or not.
To do so, run:
ldapsearch -x -b "dc=ostechnix,dc=lan"
Sample output:
# extended LDIF # # LDAPv3 # base <dc=ostechnix,dc=lan> with scope subtree # filter: (objectclass=*) # requesting: ALL # # ostechnix.lan dn: dc=ostechnix,dc=lan objectClass: top objectClass: domain dc: ostechnix # Directory Administrators, ostechnix.lan dn: cn=Directory Administrators,dc=ostechnix,dc=lan objectClass: top objectClass: groupofuniquenames cn: Directory Administrators uniqueMember: cn=Directory Manager # Groups, ostechnix.lan dn: ou=Groups,dc=ostechnix,dc=lan objectClass: top objectClass: organizationalunit ou: Groups # People, ostechnix.lan dn: ou=People,dc=ostechnix,dc=lan objectClass: top objectClass: organizationalunit ou: People # Special Users, ostechnix.lan dn: ou=Special Users,dc=ostechnix,dc=lan objectClass: top objectClass: organizationalUnit ou: Special Users description: Special Administrative Accounts # Accounting Managers, Groups, ostechnix.lan dn: cn=Accounting Managers,ou=Groups,dc=ostechnix,dc=lan objectClass: top objectClass: groupOfUniqueNames cn: Accounting Managers ou: groups description: People who can manage accounting entries uniqueMember: cn=Directory Manager # HR Managers, Groups, ostechnix.lan dn: cn=HR Managers,ou=Groups,dc=ostechnix,dc=lan objectClass: top objectClass: groupOfUniqueNames cn: HR Managers ou: groups description: People who can manage HR entries uniqueMember: cn=Directory Manager # QA Managers, Groups, ostechnix.lan dn: cn=QA Managers,ou=Groups,dc=ostechnix,dc=lan objectClass: top objectClass: groupOfUniqueNames cn: QA Managers ou: groups description: People who can manage QA entries uniqueMember: cn=Directory Manager # PD Managers, Groups, ostechnix.lan dn: cn=PD Managers,ou=Groups,dc=ostechnix,dc=lan objectClass: top objectClass: groupOfUniqueNames cn: PD Managers ou: groups description: People who can manage engineer entries uniqueMember: cn=Directory Manager # search result search: 2 result: 0 Success # numResponses: 10 # numEntries: 9
If you get search: 2 anywhere in the above result, congratulations! 389 directory server is working!!
Starting and Stopping 389-ds services
Enable directory server and directory admin services automatically on every reboot:
systemctl enable dirsrv.target
systemctl enable dirsrv-admin
Start directory server's service:
systemctl start dirsrv.target
Or
start-dirsrv
Stop directory server's service:
systemctl stop dirsrv.target
Or
stop-dirsrv
Start directory admin:
systemctl start dirsrv-admin
Or
start-ds-admin
Stop directory admin:
systemctl stop dirsrv-admin
Or
stop-ds-admin
Check the status of the services:
systemctl status dirsrv.target
systemctl status dirsrv-admin
Restart services:
systemctl restart dirsrv.target
systemctl restart dirsrv-admin
You can find all configuration files under /etc/dirsrv/ directory and all log files under /var/log/dirsrv/ directory.
At this stage, LDAP server is ready to use.
That's all for today. If you find this guide useful, share it to your social networks and support us.
Cheers!
Reference links:
6 comments
Hi,
thanks for the tutorial it was really helpful.Have you written any tutorial for setting up LDAP client and communicating between LDAP server and client?
please write article for ldap client configuration and how can i communicate with ldap server….. i have created ldap server by following your above article…
thanks in advance….
really you are doing good work…
thanks again you and your team…
Hello
Thank you for your tutorial.
I have a issue, when in the end of the setup-ds-admin.pl, i’ve got the following error :
Creating the configuration directory server…
Error : failed to open an LDAP connection to host ‘xxx.xxx.xxx’ port ‘389’ as user ‘cn=Directory Manager’. Error unknown.
Failed to create the configuration directory server
Exiting…
Any idea ?
I don’t see the problem but i may have forgot one thing
Thank you. After trying 3 different tutorials, this was the only one that go it working.
Dude, this was great! I’ve tried several others and they are work until you get to starting the ldap daemon it fails and noone has an answer for it.
Also could you do a tutorial on how to connect a client to the ldap server?
Thanks, Thanks, thanks.
Yes, It is on my to-do list. Will make one soon. Thanks for your positive feedback.