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The information on this page represents the experience of an NBIA user and is provided as a case study that you may find useful. It not meant to apply to all users.

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Table of Contents

Install OpenLdap

  1. Install OpenLdap on Ubuntu.

    Note

    These instructions are based on Ubuntu 18.04.

  2. In a terminal window, issue the following commands:

    Code Block
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get upgrade
  3. In a terminal window, then issue the following command.

    Code Block
    sudo apt install slapd ldap-utils
  4. Modify the default Directory Information Tree (DIT) suffix by changing the DIT to fit your company's network needs. For example,  dc=<org name>, dc=org. To do so, issue the following command.

    Code Block
    sudo dpkg-reconfigure slapd
  5. Enter the administrator's password.
  6. Add initial data to the LDAP database from a file and create a single entry. In a terminal window, issue the following command.

    Code Block
    vi ldap_data.ldif
    
    dn: ou=People,dc=<org name>,dc=org
    objectClass: organizationalUnit
    ou: People
    dn: ou=Groups,dc=<org name>,dc=org
    objectClass: organizationalUnit
    ou: Groups
    
    dn: cn=DEPARTMENT,ou=Groups,dc=<org name>,dc=org
    objectClass: posixGroup
    cn: SUBGROUP
    gidNumber: 5000
    
    dn: uid=nciadevtest,ou=People,dc=<org name>,dc=org
    objectClass: inetOrgPerson
    objectClass: posixAccount
    objectClass: shadowAccount
    uid: nciadevtest
    sn: Last name
    givenName: First name
    cn: nciadevtest
    displayName: Name
    uidNumber: 10000
    gidNumber: 5000
    userPassword: password
    gecos: Whole Name
    loginShell: /bin/bash
    homeDirectory: USERDIRECTORY
    Note

    In this .ldif file, we created two organizationalUnit values, People and Groups.

  7. Add the entities for these OU values. One entity must be nciadevtest for NBIA. The uid and cn must be this name. NBIA uses cn to as the default authentication. Some software applications use uid to authenticate.

  8. Add the following entities to the LDAP server.

    Code Block
    ldapadd -x -D cn=admin,dc=smab,dc=org -W -f ldap_data.ldif
  9. Use this command to search the existing records. You can use the network loop IP address to test or use the real IP address.

    Code Block
    ldapsearch -x -LLL -h 127.0.0.1 -p 389 -D cn=admin,dc=<org name>,dc=org -w <password>-b dc=<org name>,dc=org 'uid=nciadevtest' cn givenName gidNumber 
    Result:
    dn: uid=nciadevtest,ou=People,dc=<org name>,dc=org
    givenName: First Name
    cn: nciadevtest
    gidNumber: 5000
    
    ldapsearch -x -LLL -h 69.71.4.10 -p 389 -D cn=admin,dc=<org name>,dc=org -w <password> -b dc=<org name>,dc=org 'cn=nciadevtest' uid givenName gidNumber
    Result:
    dn: uid=nciadevtest,ou=People,dc=<org name>,dc=org
    uid: nciadevtest
    givenName: First Name
    gidNumber: 5000
  10. Add the records. The LDAP server configuration looks similar to the following.

    Code Block
    Title Value
    Base DN <org name>,dc=org
    Bind Admin admin,dc=<org name>,dc=org
    Bind Password <password>
    User name for NBIA nciadevtest

...

Note

After installing the LDAP server, use an LDAP client such as Softerra LDAP administrator to make sure the LDAP server can be accessed. Sometimes the Linux firewall will block the LDAP server by default. If the LDAP can be accessed, it is easy for NBIA to access it.

Configuring the LDAP Administrator Client

You can add, modify, or remove records to or from the LDAP server in several ways.

...

You use the LDAP client to create, delete, and modify entities with this information. Otherwise, you only have the read permission.

Troubleshooting Note

OpenLdap can be installed on an Ubuntu Server. The phpldapadmin can also work. Use ldapsearch to search the user information. You may find that when you try to use the LDAP client to access this LDAP server, the connection times out with no response from the LDAP server even if all ports are enabled. The user did not find any solution for this issue.

When installing OpenLDAP on Ubuntu (Desktop version), all LDAP functions worked without any issues. Any LDAP client can access the remote LDAP server.

NBIA LDAP Settings

The following code is the contents of nbia.properties (Tomcat7.0/lib/nbia.properties).

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