LDAP and Claws Mail

LDAP and Claws Mail HOWTO based on Kubuntu (7.10)

Exaple describes installation and configuration on Ubuntu 7.10 but should be valid for other distributions also. It covers:

• openldap installation and configuration
• claws-mail configuration to use with LDAP

REMOVING OLD INSTALLATION

• In case slapd is already installed, either go to point 4 or reinstall it with commands:

sudo apt-get purge slapd

sudo rm -rf /etc/ldap

(in case your LDAP configuration is not yet in use)

sudo rm -rf /var/run/slapd

(in case your LDAP database is not yet filled)

INSTALLATION

• Install slapd:

sudo apt-get install slapd

during installation ubuntu usually asks you for ldap admin password - use any - even empty - later we can change it anyway

CONFIGURATION

• make sure to shut down LDAP server after installation:

sudo /etc/init.d/slapd stop

• folder for storing data:

make directory where you LDAP will store data - by default it is /var/run/slapd bud I don't recommend it for backup purposes (in case your root partition is to be reinstalled - OS crashed or whatever - then LDAP db is also vanished - my proposal is to use i.e. directory /home/ldap

sudo mkdir /home/ldap

Because Ubuntu by default runs slapd daemon as user openldap (created automatically during slapd installation), then we must change the ownership of this directory:

sudo chown -R openldap:openldap /home/ldap

as an alternative is to change default behaviour of slapd in file /etc/default/slapd the line:

SLAPD_USER="openldap"

should be changed to:

SLAPD_USER=

and in this case slapd runs as root and changing ownership is not needed - in this HOWTO we change the ownership to avoid the mismatch with Ubuntu default settings

• main config file creation: /etc/ldap/slapd.conf

copy current config file:

sudo cp /etc/ldap/slapd.conf /etc/ldap/slapd.conf-org

create main password for ldap:

slappasswd -s "your_password"

where "your_password" is any string without quotes of course

as an output you get for example:

{SSHA}QqvOMErMXSJXRfLdmoIjMHEey129M5Qt

this is your password encrypted to be used later in config file

modify configuration file

sudo gedit (or kedit) /etc/ldap/slapd.conf

and put there (instead of everything what you find there):

include         /etc/ldap/schema/core.schema
include         /etc/ldap/schema/cosine.schema
include         /etc/ldap/schema/nis.schema
include         /etc/ldap/schema/inetorgperson.schema
schemacheck     on
pidfile         /var/run/slapd/slapd.pid
argsfile        /var/run/slapd/slapd.args
loglevel        0
modulepath	/usr/lib/ldap
moduleload	back_bdb
backend		bdb
checkpoint 512 30

database        bdb
suffix          "dc=nodomain"
rootdn          "cn=admin,dc=nodomain"
rootpw		here_output_of_your_password i.e. {SSHA}QqvOMErMXSJXRfLdmoIjMHEey129M5Qt
directory       "/home/ldap"
index           objectClass eq
lastmod         on

create database config file:

sudo gedit (or kedit) /home/ldap/DB_CONFIG 

set_cachesize 	0	2097152		0
set_lg_bsize	524288
set_lk_max_objects      5000
set_lk_max_locks        5000
set_lk_max_lockers	5000

these are default settings, not needed to be changed at this point

if you changde /home/ldap to be owned by openldap user then it must be repeated at this point at least for this created file:

sudo chown openldap:openldap /home/ldap/DB_CONFIG

STARTING LDAP

• start ldap to see if it is working:

sudo /etc/init.d/slapd start

and check if working:

ps -ef | grep slapd  | grep -v grep

if you see something like this:

openldap  8662     1  0 10:43 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/slapd -g openldap -u openldap

then this means it works (ldap server)

if not just start command:

sudo slapd -d 256 

and see any errors which may occure and ... try to find out problem by yourself (use google, or contact me)

FEEDING LDAP WITH INITIAL DATA

• now, ldap is working but empty, lets configure top of it:

gedit (or kedit) /tmp/1.ldif  

and put there:

dn: dc=nodomain
objectclass: dcObject
objectclass: organization
o: My Computer LDAP
dc: nodomain

dn: cn=admin,dc=nodomain
objectclass: organizationalRole
cn: admin

• now import it to ldap:

ldapadd -x -D "cn=admin,dc=nodomain" -W -f /tmp/1.ldif

it will ask you for your LDAP password

proper output should be:

Enter LDAP Password: 
adding new entry "dc=nodomain"

adding new entry "cn=admin,dc=nodomain"

in case of password mistake it will be:

ldap_bind: Invalid credentials (49)

don't repeat this command if sucessfully imported as it will fail second time saying:

adding new entry "dc=nodomain"
ldap_add: Already exists (68)

• now we can see if imported:

sudo slapcat 

proper output should be:

dn: dc=nodomain
objectClass: dcObject
objectClass: organization
o: My Computer LDAP
dc: nodomain
structuralObjectClass: organization
entryUUID: 35b05380-52e0-102c-8f25-0fc5f46797d9
creatorsName: cn=admin,dc=nodomain
createTimestamp: 20080109092257Z
entryCSN: 20080109092257Z#000000#00#000000
modifiersName: cn=admin,dc=nodomain
modifyTimestamp: 20080109092257Z

dn: cn=admin,dc=nodomain
objectClass: organizationalRole
cn: admin
structuralObjectClass: organizationalRole
entryUUID: 35b335f0-52e0-102c-8f26-0fc5f46797d9
creatorsName: cn=admin,dc=nodomain
createTimestamp: 20080109092257Z
entryCSN: 20080109092257Z#000001#00#000000
modifiersName: cn=admin,dc=nodomain
modifyTimestamp: 20080109092257Z

you should see 2 records (regardless if ldap is up or not - slapcat prints data from db - not using server deamon)

• adding real data:

create file /tmp/2.ldif and put in there:

gedit (or kedit) /tmp/1.ldif  

and put there:

dn: cn=Zygfryd Homonto ,dc=nodomain
cn: Zygfryd Homonto
sn: Zygfryd 
mail: zyghom@yahoo.co.uk
objectClass: top
objectClass: person
objectClass: organizationalPerson
objectClass: inetOrgPerson

now import it to ldap:

ldapadd -x -D "cn=admin,dc=nodomain" -W -f /tmp/2.ldif

proper output should be:

Enter LDAP Password: 
adding new entry "cn=Zygfryd Homonto ,dc=nodomain"