slapd.service not enabled/failed after upgrade from SLES 11 SP4 to SLES 15

This document (000019711) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES 15 SP2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES 15 SP1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES 15
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES 11 SP4

Situation

After upgrading from SLES 11 SP4 to SLES 15 the openldap server (slapd) is not running.
When checking for the slapd.service it is not enabled at all.

Other related services that do use the local LDAP server are also not starting or not working properly, like postfix, dhcpd, bind ,samba etc.

Resolution

Please follow the next steps very carefully.

1. Create the file /etc/openldap/slapd.conf.fixmodule with the following content :

modulepath /usr/lib64/openldap
moduleload back_mdb.la
moduleload back_hdb.la
moduleload back_bdb.la

2. import the settings to slapd.d config structure

cd /etc/openldap
slaptest -f slapd.conf.fixmodule -F slapd.d

3. check if the directory /var/run/slapd exists and change the access rights and remove the old pid/args files as needed :

chgrp ldap /var/run/slapd
chmod g+w /var/run/slapd
rm /var/run/slapd/.*

4. enable and start slapd

systemctl enable slapd.service
systemctl start slapd.service

5. create a file /etc/openldap/fix-statefiles.ldif to modify the location of pid and args files

dn: cn=config
changetype: modify
replace: olcArgsFile
olcArgsFile: /run/slapd/slapd.args
-
replace: olcPidFile
olcPidFile: /run/slapd/slapd.pid

6. apply the changes

ldapmodify -Y external -H ldapi:// -f fix-statefiles.ldif

7. restart slapd

systemctl restart slapd.service

8. verify slapd is running

systemctl status slapd.service

Cause

The newer slapd is build with the database backends as loadable modules, however the slapd from SLES11 SP4 had the databases built in.

As such a change to the configuration is needed to load the database modules after the migration. In addition, the location for the PID and ARGS file has changed on newer SLES version from /var to /run while the old location is still configured and needs to be changed to the new location.

Disclaimer

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