1SLAPD.BACKENDS(5) File Formats Manual SLAPD.BACKENDS(5)
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6 slapd.backends - backends for slapd, the stand-alone LDAP daemon
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9 The slapd(8) daemon can use a variety of different backends for serving
10 LDAP requests. Backends may be compiled statically into slapd, or when
11 module support is enabled, they may be dynamically loaded. Multiple in‐
12 stances of a backend can be configured, to serve separate databases
13 from the same slapd server.
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16 Configuration options for each backend are documented separately in the
17 corresponding slapd-<backend>[22m(5) manual pages.
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19 bdb This was the recommended primary backend through OpenLDAP 2.3,
20 but it has since been superseded by the mdb backend. It takes
21 care to configure it properly. It uses the transactional data‐
22 base interface of the Oracle Berkeley DB (BDB) package to store
23 data.
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25 config This backend is used to manage the configuration of slapd at
26 run-time. Unlike other backends, only a single instance of the
27 config backend may be defined. It also instantiates itself auto‐
28 matically, so it is always present even if not explicitly de‐
29 fined in the slapd.conf(5) file.
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31 dnssrv This backend is experimental. It serves up referrals based upon
32 SRV resource records held in the Domain Name System.
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34 hdb This was the recommended primary backend through OpenLDAP 2.4.40
35 but it has since been superseded by the mdb backend. It takes
36 care to configure it properly. hdb is a variant of the bdb
37 backend that uses a hierarchical database layout. This layout
38 stores entry DNs more efficiently than the bdb backend, using
39 less space and requiring less work to create, delete, and rename
40 entries. It is also one of the few backends to support subtree
41 renames.
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43 ldap This backend acts as a proxy to forward incoming requests to an‐
44 other LDAP server.
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46 ldif This database uses the filesystem to build the tree structure of
47 the database, using plain ascii files to store data. Its usage
48 should be limited to very simple databases, where performance is
49 not a requirement. This backend also supports subtree renames.
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51 mdb This is the recommended primary backend, superseding hdb. This
52 backend uses OpenLDAP's own MDB transactional database library.
53 It is extremely compact and extremely efficient, delivering much
54 higher performance than the Berkeley DB backends while using
55 significantly less memory. Also, unlike Berkeley DB, MDB is
56 crash proof, and requires no special tuning or maintenance.
57 This backend also supports subtree renames.
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59 meta This backend performs basic LDAP proxying with respect to a set
60 of remote LDAP servers. It is an enhancement of the ldap back‐
61 end.
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63 monitor
64 This backend provides information about the running status of
65 the slapd daemon. Only a single instance of the monitor backend
66 may be defined.
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68 ndb This backend is experimental. It uses the transactional data‐
69 base interface of the MySQL Cluster Engine (NDB) to store data.
70 Note that Oracle, which now owns MySQL, has withdrawn support
71 for NDB and this backend is unlikely to be developed any fur‐
72 ther.
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74 null Operations in this backend succeed but do nothing.
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76 passwd This backend is provided for demonstration purposes only. It
77 serves up user account information from the system passwd(5)
78 file.
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80 perl This backend embeds a perl(1) interpreter into slapd. It runs
81 Perl subroutines to implement LDAP operations.
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83 relay This backend is experimental. It redirects LDAP operations to
84 another database in the same server, based on the naming context
85 of the request. Its use requires the rwm overlay (see
86 slapo-rwm(5) for details) to rewrite the naming context of the
87 request. It is primarily intended to implement virtual views on
88 databases that actually store data.
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90 shell This backend executes external programs to implement LDAP opera‐
91 tions. It is primarily intended to be used in prototypes.
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93 sql This backend is experimental. It services LDAP requests from an
94 SQL database.
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97 /etc/openldap/slapd.conf
98 default slapd configuration file
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100 /etc/openldap/slapd.d
101 default slapd configuration directory
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104 ldap(3), slapd-bdb(5), slapd-config(5), slapd-dnssrv(5), slapd-hdb(5),
105 slapd-ldap(5), slapd-ldif(5), slapd-mdb(5), slapd-meta(5), slapd-moni‐
106 tor(5), slapd-ndb(5), slapd-null(5), slapd-passwd(5), slapd-perl(5),
107 slapd-relay(5), slapd-shell(5), slapd-sql(5), slapd.conf(5),
108 slapd.overlays(5), slapd(8). "OpenLDAP Administrator's Guide"
109 (http://www.OpenLDAP.org/doc/admin/)
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112 OpenLDAP Software is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project
113 <http://www.openldap.org/>. OpenLDAP Software is derived from the Uni‐
114 versity of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release.
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118OpenLDAP 2.4.57 2021/01/18 SLAPD.BACKENDS(5)