[openldap] / doc / guide / admin / replication.sdf

# $OpenLDAP$
# Copyright 1999-2017 The OpenLDAP Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
# COPYING RESTRICTIONS APPLY, see COPYRIGHT.

H1: Replication

Replicated directories are a fundamental requirement for delivering a 
resilient enterprise deployment.

{{PRD:OpenLDAP}} has various configuration options for creating a replicated 
directory. In previous releases, replication was discussed in terms of
a {{master}} server and some number of {{slave}} servers. A master
accepted directory updates from other clients, and a slave only
accepted updates from a (single) master. The replication structure
was rigidly defined and any particular database could only fulfill
a single role, either master or slave.

As OpenLDAP now supports a wide variety of replication topologies, these
terms have been deprecated in favor of {{provider}} and
{{consumer}}: A provider replicates directory updates to consumers; 
consumers receive replication updates from providers. Unlike the
rigidly defined master/slave relationships, provider/consumer roles
are quite fluid: replication updates received in a consumer can be
further propagated by that consumer to other servers, so a consumer
can also act simultaneously as a provider. Also, a consumer need not
be an actual LDAP server; it may be just an LDAP client.

The following sections will describe the replication technology and
discuss the various replication options that are available.

H2: Replication Technology

H3: LDAP Sync Replication

The {{TERM:LDAP Sync}} Replication engine, {{TERM:syncrepl}} for
short, is a consumer-side replication engine that enables the
consumer {{TERM:LDAP}} server to maintain a shadow copy of a
{{TERM:DIT}} fragment. A syncrepl engine resides at the consumer
and executes as one of the {{slapd}}(8) threads. It creates and maintains a
consumer replica by connecting to the replication provider to perform
the initial DIT content load followed either by periodic content
polling or by timely updates upon content changes.

Syncrepl uses the LDAP Content Synchronization protocol (or LDAP Sync for
short) as the replica synchronization protocol.  LDAP Sync provides
a stateful replication which supports both pull-based and push-based
synchronization and does not mandate the use of a history store.
In pull-based replication the consumer periodically
polls the provider for updates. In push-based replication the consumer
listens for updates that are sent by the provider in realtime. Since the
protocol does not require a history store, the provider does not need to
maintain any log of updates it has received (Note
that the syncrepl engine is extensible and additional replication
protocols may be supported in the future.).

Syncrepl keeps track of the status of the replication content by
maintaining and exchanging synchronization cookies. Because the
syncrepl consumer and provider maintain their content status, the
consumer can poll the provider content to perform incremental
synchronization by asking for the entries required to make the
consumer replica up-to-date with the provider content. Syncrepl
also enables convenient management of replicas by maintaining replica
status.  The consumer replica can be constructed from a consumer-side
or a provider-side backup at any synchronization status. Syncrepl
can automatically resynchronize the consumer replica up-to-date
with the current provider content.

Syncrepl supports both pull-based and push-based synchronization.
In its basic refreshOnly synchronization mode, the provider uses
pull-based synchronization where the consumer servers need not be
tracked and no history information is maintained.  The information
required for the provider to process periodic polling requests is
contained in the synchronization cookie of the request itself.  To
optimize the pull-based synchronization, syncrepl utilizes the
present phase of the LDAP Sync protocol as well as its delete phase,
instead of falling back on frequent full reloads. To further optimize
the pull-based synchronization, the provider can maintain a per-scope
session log as a history store. In its refreshAndPersist mode of
synchronization, the provider uses a push-based synchronization.
The provider keeps track of the consumer servers that have requested
a persistent search and sends them necessary updates as the provider
replication content gets modified.

With syncrepl, a consumer server can create a replica without
changing the provider's configurations and without restarting the
provider server, if the consumer server has appropriate access
privileges for the DIT fragment to be replicated. The consumer
server can stop the replication also without the need for provider-side
changes and restart.

Syncrepl supports partial, sparse, and fractional replications.  The shadow
DIT fragment is defined by a general search criteria consisting of
base, scope, filter, and attribute list.  The replica content is
also subject to the access privileges of the bind identity of the
syncrepl replication connection.


H4: The LDAP Content Synchronization Protocol

The LDAP Sync protocol allows a client to maintain a synchronized
copy of a DIT fragment. The LDAP Sync operation is defined as a set
of controls and other protocol elements which extend the LDAP search
operation. This section introduces the LDAP Content Sync protocol
only briefly.  For more information, refer to {{REF:RFC4533}}.

The LDAP Sync protocol supports both polling and listening for changes
by defining two respective synchronization operations:
{{refreshOnly}} and {{refreshAndPersist}}.  Polling is implemented
by the {{refreshOnly}} operation. The consumer
polls the provider using an LDAP Search request with an LDAP Sync
control attached. The consumer copy is synchronized
to the provider copy at the time of polling using the information
returned in the search.  The provider finishes the
search operation by returning {{SearchResultDone}} at the end of
the search operation as in the normal search.  Listening is
implemented by the {{refreshAndPersist}} operation. As the name
implies, it begins with a search, like refreshOnly. Instead of
finishing the search after returning all entries currently matching
the search criteria, the synchronization search remains persistent
in the provider. Subsequent updates to the synchronization content
in the provider cause additional entry updates to be sent to the
consumer.

The {{refreshOnly}} operation and the refresh stage of the
{{refreshAndPersist}} operation can be performed with a present
phase or a delete phase.

In the present phase, the provider sends the consumer the entries updated
within the search scope since the last synchronization. The provider
sends all requested attributes, be they changed or not, of the updated
entries.  For each unchanged entry which remains in the scope, the
provider sends a present message consisting only of the name of the
entry and the synchronization control representing state present.
The present message does not contain any attributes of the entry.
After the consumer receives all update and present entries, it can
reliably determine the new consumer copy by adding the entries added
to the provider, by replacing the entries modified at the provider, and
by deleting entries in the consumer copy which have not been updated
nor specified as being present at the provider.

The transmission of the updated entries in the delete phase is the
same as in the present phase. The provider sends all the requested
attributes of the entries updated within the search scope since the
last synchronization to the consumer. In the delete phase, however,
the provider sends a delete message for each entry deleted from the
search scope, instead of sending present messages.  The delete
message consists only of the name of the entry and the synchronization
control representing state delete.  The new consumer copy can be
determined by adding, modifying, and removing entries according to
the synchronization control attached to the {{SearchResultEntry}}
message.

In the case that the LDAP Sync provider maintains a history store and
can determine which entries are scoped out of the consumer copy since
the last synchronization time, the provider can use the delete phase.
If the provider does not maintain any history store, cannot determine
the scoped-out entries from the history store, or the history store
does not cover the outdated synchronization state of the consumer,
the provider should use the present phase.  The use of the present
phase is much more efficient than a full content reload in terms
of the synchronization traffic.  To reduce the synchronization
traffic further, the LDAP Sync protocol also provides several
optimizations such as the transmission of the normalized {{EX:entryUUID}}s
and the transmission of multiple {{EX:entryUUIDs}} in a single
{{syncIdSet}} message.

At the end of the {{refreshOnly}} synchronization, the provider sends
a synchronization cookie to the consumer as a state indicator of the
consumer copy after the synchronization is completed.  The consumer
will present the received cookie when it requests the next incremental
synchronization to the provider.

When {{refreshAndPersist}} synchronization is used, the provider sends
a synchronization cookie at the end of the refresh stage by sending
a Sync Info message with refreshDone=TRUE.  It also sends a
synchronization cookie by attaching it to {{SearchResultEntry}}
messages generated in the persist stage of the synchronization search. During
the persist stage, the provider can also send a Sync Info message
containing the synchronization cookie at any time the provider wants
to update the consumer-side state indicator.

In the LDAP Sync protocol, entries are uniquely identified by the
{{EX:entryUUID}} attribute value. It can function as a reliable
identifier of the entry. The DN of the entry, on the other hand,
can be changed over time and hence cannot be considered as the
reliable identifier.  The {{EX:entryUUID}} is attached to each
{{SearchResultEntry}} or {{SearchResultReference}} as a part of the
synchronization control.

H4: Syncrepl Details

The syncrepl engine utilizes both the {{refreshOnly}} and the
{{refreshAndPersist}} operations of the LDAP Sync protocol.  If a
syncrepl specification is included in a database definition,
{{slapd}}(8) launches a syncrepl engine as a {{slapd}}(8) thread
and schedules its execution. If the {{refreshOnly}} operation is
specified, the syncrepl engine will be rescheduled at the interval
time after a synchronization operation is completed.  If the
{{refreshAndPersist}} operation is specified, the engine will remain
active and process the persistent synchronization messages from the
provider.

The syncrepl engine utilizes both the present phase and the delete
phase of the refresh synchronization. It is possible to configure
a session log in the provider which stores the
{{EX:entryUUID}}s of a finite number of entries deleted from a
database. Multiple replicas share the same session log. The syncrepl
engine uses the
delete phase if the session log is present and the state of the
consumer server is recent enough that no session log entries are
truncated after the last synchronization of the client.  The syncrepl
engine uses the present phase if no session log is configured for
the replication content or if the consumer replica is too outdated
to be covered by the session log.  The current design of the session
log store is memory based, so the information contained in the
session log is not persistent over multiple provider invocations.
It is not currently supported to access the session log store by
using LDAP operations. It is also not currently supported to impose
access control to the session log.

As a further optimization, even in the case the synchronization
search is not associated with any session log, no entries will be
transmitted to the consumer server when there has been no update
in the replication context.

The syncrepl engine, which is a consumer-side replication engine,
can work with any backends. The LDAP Sync provider can be configured
as an overlay on any backend, but works best with the {{back-bdb}},
{{back-hdb}}, or {{back-mdb}} backends.

The LDAP Sync provider maintains a {{EX:contextCSN}} for each
database as the current synchronization state indicator of the
provider content.  It is the largest {{EX:entryCSN}} in the provider
context such that no transactions for an entry having smaller
{{EX:entryCSN}} value remains outstanding.  The {{EX:contextCSN}}
could not just be set to the largest issued {{EX:entryCSN}} because
{{EX:entryCSN}} is obtained before a transaction starts and
transactions are not committed in the issue order.

The provider stores the {{EX:contextCSN}} of a context in the
{{EX:contextCSN}} attribute of the context suffix entry. The attribute
is not written to the database after every update operation though;
instead it is maintained primarily in memory. At database start
time the provider reads the last saved {{EX:contextCSN}} into memory
and uses the in-memory copy exclusively thereafter. By default,
changes to the {{EX:contextCSN}} as a result of database updates
will not be written to the database until the server is cleanly
shut down. A checkpoint facility exists to cause the {{EX:contextCSN}} to
be written out more frequently if desired.

Note that at startup time, if the provider is unable to read a
{{EX:contextCSN}} from the suffix entry, it will scan the entire
database to determine the value, and this scan may take quite a
long time on a large database. When a {{EX:contextCSN}} value is
read, the database will still be scanned for any {{EX:entryCSN}}
values greater than it, to make sure the {{EX:contextCSN}} value
truly reflects the greatest committed {{EX:entryCSN}} in the database.
On databases which support inequality indexing, setting an eq index
on the {{EX:entryCSN}} attribute and configuring {{contextCSN}}
checkpoints will greatly speed up this scanning step.

If no {{EX:contextCSN}} can be determined by reading and scanning
the database, a new value will be generated. Also, if scanning the
database yielded a greater {{EX:entryCSN}} than was previously
recorded in the suffix entry's {{EX:contextCSN}} attribute, a
checkpoint will be immediately written with the new value.

The consumer also stores its replica state, which is the provider's
{{EX:contextCSN}} received as a synchronization cookie, in the
{{EX:contextCSN}} attribute of the suffix entry.  The replica state
maintained by a consumer server is used as the synchronization state
indicator when it performs subsequent incremental synchronization
with the provider server. It is also used as a provider-side
synchronization state indicator when it functions as a secondary
provider server in a cascading replication configuration.  Since
the consumer and provider state information are maintained in the
same location within their respective databases, any consumer can
be promoted to a provider (and vice versa) without any special
actions.

Because a general search filter can be used in the syncrepl
specification, some entries in the context may be omitted from the
synchronization content.  The syncrepl engine creates a glue entry
to fill in the holes in the replica context if any part of the
replica content is subordinate to the holes. The glue entries will
not be returned in the search result unless {{ManageDsaIT}} control
is provided.

Also as a consequence of the search filter used in the syncrepl
specification, it is possible for a modification to remove an entry
from the replication scope even though the entry has not been deleted
on the provider. Logically the entry must be deleted on the consumer
but in {{refreshOnly}} mode the provider cannot detect and propagate
this change without the use of the session log on the provider.

For configuration, please see the {{SECT:Syncrepl}} section.


H2: Deployment Alternatives

While the LDAP Sync specification only defines a narrow scope for replication,
the OpenLDAP implementation is extremely flexible and supports a variety of
operating modes to handle other scenarios not explicitly addressed in the spec.


H3: Delta-syncrepl replication

* Disadvantages of LDAP Sync replication:

LDAP Sync replication is an object-based replication mechanism. 
When any attribute value in a replicated object is changed on the provider, 
each consumer fetches and processes the complete changed object, including
{{B:both the changed and unchanged attribute values}} during replication.
One advantage of this approach is that when multiple changes occur to
a single object, the precise sequence of those changes need not be preserved;
only the final state of the entry is significant. But this approach
may have drawbacks when the usage pattern involves single changes to
multiple objects.

For example, suppose you have a database consisting of 102,400 objects of 1 KB 
each. Further, suppose you routinely run a batch job to change the value of 
a single two-byte attribute value that appears in each of the 102,400 objects 
on the master. Not counting LDAP and TCP/IP protocol overhead, each time you 
run this job each consumer will transfer and process {{B:100 MB}} of data to
process {{B:200KB of changes!}}

99.98% of the data that is transmitted and processed in a case like this will 
be redundant, since it represents values that did not change. This is a waste 
of valuable transmission and processing bandwidth and can cause an unacceptable 
replication backlog to develop. While this situation is extreme, it serves to 
demonstrate a very real problem that is encountered in some LDAP deployments.


* Where Delta-syncrepl comes in:

Delta-syncrepl, a changelog-based variant of syncrepl, is designed to address 
situations like the one described above. Delta-syncrepl works by maintaining a 
changelog of a selectable depth in a separate database on the provider. The replication consumer 
checks the changelog for the changes it needs and, as long as 
the changelog contains the needed changes, the consumer fetches the changes
from the changelog and applies them to its database. If, however, a replica 
is too far out of sync (or completely empty), conventional syncrepl is used to 
bring it up to date and replication then switches back to the delta-syncrepl
mode.

Note: since the database state is stored in both the changelog DB and the
main DB on the provider, it is important to backup/restore both the changelog
DB and the main DB using slapcat/slapadd when restoring a DB or copying
it to another machine.

For configuration, please see the {{SECT:Delta-syncrepl}} section.


H3: N-Way Multi-Master replication

Multi-Master replication is a replication technique using Syncrepl to replicate 
data to multiple provider ("Master") Directory servers. 

H4: Valid Arguments for Multi-Master replication

* If any provider fails, other providers will continue to accept updates
* Avoids a single point of failure
* Providers can be located in several physical sites i.e. distributed across
the network/globe.
* Good for Automatic failover/High Availability

H4: Invalid Arguments for Multi-Master replication

(These are often claimed to be advantages of Multi-Master replication but
those claims are false):

* It has {{B:NOTHING}} to do with load balancing
* Providers {{B:must}} propagate writes to {{B:all}} the other servers, which 
means the network traffic and write load spreads across all 
of the servers the same as for single-master.
* Server utilization and performance are at best identical for
Multi-Master and Single-Master replication; at worst Single-Master is
superior because indexing can be tuned differently to optimize for the
different usage patterns between the provider and the consumers.

H4: Arguments against Multi-Master replication

* Breaks the data consistency guarantees of the directory model
* {{URL:http://www.openldap.org/faq/data/cache/1240.html}}
* If connectivity with a provider is lost because of a network partition, then 
"automatic failover" can just compound the problem
* Typically, a particular machine cannot distinguish between losing contact
 with a peer because that peer crashed, or because the network link has failed
* If a network is partitioned and multiple clients start writing to each of the 
"masters" then reconciliation will be a pain; it may be best to simply deny 
writes to the clients that are partitioned from the single provider


For configuration, please see the {{SECT:N-Way Multi-Master}} section below

H3: MirrorMode replication

MirrorMode is a hybrid configuration that provides all of the consistency
guarantees of single-master replication, while also providing the high
availability of multi-master. In MirrorMode two providers are set up to
replicate from each other (as a multi-master configuration), but an
external frontend is employed to direct all writes to only one of
the two servers. The second provider will only be used for writes if
the first provider crashes, at which point the frontend will switch to
directing all writes to the second provider. When a crashed provider is
repaired and restarted it will automatically catch up to any changes
on the running provider and resync.

H4: Arguments for MirrorMode

* Provides a high-availability (HA) solution for directory writes (replicas handle reads)
* As long as one provider is operational, writes can safely be accepted
* Provider nodes replicate from each other, so they are always up to date and
can be ready to take over (hot standby)
* Syncrepl also allows the provider nodes to re-synchronize after any downtime


H4: Arguments against MirrorMode

* MirrorMode is not what is termed as a Multi-Master solution. This is because 
writes have to go to just one of the mirror nodes at a time
* MirrorMode can be termed as Active-Active Hot-Standby, therefore an external 
server (slapd in proxy mode) or device (hardware load balancer)
is needed to manage which provider is currently active
* Backups are managed slightly differently
- If backing up the Berkeley database itself and periodically backing up the 
transaction log files, then the same member of the mirror pair needs to be 
used to collect logfiles until the next database backup is taken 

For configuration, please see the {{SECT:MirrorMode}} section below


H3: Syncrepl Proxy Mode

While the LDAP Sync protocol supports both pull- and push-based replication,
the push mode (refreshAndPersist) must still be initiated from the consumer
before the provider can begin pushing changes. In some network configurations,
particularly where firewalls restrict the direction in which connections
can be made, a provider-initiated push mode may be needed. 

This mode can be configured with the aid of the LDAP Backend
({{SECT: Backends}} and {{slapd-ldap(8)}}). Instead of running the
syncrepl engine on the actual consumer, a slapd-ldap proxy is set up
near (or collocated with) the provider that points to the consumer,
and the syncrepl engine runs on the proxy.

For configuration, please see the {{SECT:Syncrepl Proxy}} section.

H4: Replacing Slurpd

The old {{slurpd}} mechanism only operated in provider-initiated
push mode.  Slurpd replication was deprecated in favor of Syncrepl
replication and has been completely removed from OpenLDAP 2.4.

The slurpd daemon was the original replication mechanism inherited from 
UMich's LDAP and operated in push mode: the master pushed changes to the 
slaves. It was replaced for many reasons, in brief:

 * It was not reliable
 ** It was extremely sensitive to the ordering of records in the replog
 ** It could easily go out of sync, at which point manual intervention was 
   required to resync the slave database with the master directory
 ** It wasn't very tolerant of unavailable servers. If a slave went down 
   for a long time, the replog could grow to a size that was too large for 
   slurpd to process
 * It only worked in push mode
 * It required stopping and restarting the master to add new slaves
 * It only supported single master replication

Syncrepl has none of those weaknesses:

 * Syncrepl is self-synchronizing; you can start with a consumer database
   in any state from totally empty to fully synced and it will automatically
   do the right thing to achieve and maintain synchronization
 ** It is completely insensitive to the order in which changes occur
 ** It guarantees convergence between the consumer and the provider
    content without manual intervention
 ** It can resynchronize regardless of how long a consumer stays out
    of contact with the provider
 * Syncrepl can operate in either direction
 * Consumers can be added at any time without touching anything on the
   provider
 * Multi-master replication is supported


H2: Configuring the different replication types

H3: Syncrepl

H4: Syncrepl configuration

Because syncrepl is a consumer-side replication engine, the syncrepl
specification is defined in {{slapd.conf}}(5) of the consumer
server, not in the provider server's configuration file.  The initial
loading of the replica content can be performed either by starting
the syncrepl engine with no synchronization cookie or by populating
the consumer replica by loading an {{TERM:LDIF}} file dumped as a
backup at the provider.

When loading from a backup, it is not required to perform the initial
loading from the up-to-date backup of the provider content. The
syncrepl engine will automatically synchronize the initial consumer
replica to the current provider content. As a result, it is not
required to stop the provider server in order to avoid the replica
inconsistency caused by the updates to the provider content during
the content backup and loading process.

When replicating a large scale directory, especially in a bandwidth
constrained environment, it is advised to load the consumer replica
from a backup instead of performing a full initial load using
syncrepl.


H4: Set up the provider slapd

The provider is implemented as an overlay, so the overlay itself
must first be configured in {{slapd.conf}}(5) before it can be
used. The provider has two primary configuration directives and
two secondary directives for when delta-syncrepl is being used.
Because the LDAP Sync search is subject to access control, proper
access control privileges should be set up for the replicated
content.

The two primary options to configure are the checkpoint and
sessionlog behaviors.

The {{EX:contextCSN}} checkpoint is configured by the

>       syncprov-checkpoint <ops> <minutes>

directive. Checkpoints are only tested after successful write
operations. If {{<ops>}} operations or more than {{<minutes>}}
time has passed since the last checkpoint, a new checkpoint is
performed. Checkpointing is disabled by default.

The session log is configured by the

>       syncprov-sessionlog <ops>

directive, where {{<ops>}} is the maximum number of session log
entries the session log can record. All write operations (except Adds)
are recorded in the log.

Note that using the session log requires searching on the {{entryUUID}}
attribute. Setting an eq index on this attribute will greatly benefit
the performance of the session log on the provider.

The reloadhint option is configured by the

>       syncprov-reloadhint <TRUE|FALSE>

directive. It must be set TRUE when using the accesslog overlay for
delta-based syncrepl replication support. The default is FALSE.

The nonpresent option should only be configured if the overlay is
being placed on top of a log database, such as when used with
delta-syncrepl.

The nonpresent option is configured by the

>       syncprov-nopresent <TRUE|FALSE>

directive. This value should only be set TRUE for a syncprov instance
on top of a log database (such as one managed by the accesslog overlay).
The default is FALSE.

A more complete example of the {{slapd.conf}}(5) content is thus:

>       database mdb
>       maxsize 1073741824
>       suffix dc=Example,dc=com
>       rootdn dc=Example,dc=com
>       directory /var/ldap/db
>       index objectclass,entryCSN,entryUUID eq
>
>       overlay syncprov
>       syncprov-checkpoint 100 10
>       syncprov-sessionlog 100


H4: Set up the consumer slapd

The syncrepl replication is specified in the database section of
{{slapd.conf}}(5) for the replica context. The syncrepl engine
is backend independent and the directive can be defined with any
database type.

>       database mdb
>       maxsize 1073741824
>       suffix dc=Example,dc=com
>       rootdn dc=Example,dc=com
>       directory /var/ldap/db
>       index objectclass,entryCSN,entryUUID eq
>
>       syncrepl rid=123
>               provider=ldap://provider.example.com:389
>               type=refreshOnly
>               interval=01:00:00:00
>               searchbase="dc=example,dc=com"
>               filter="(objectClass=organizationalPerson)"
>               scope=sub
>               attrs="cn,sn,ou,telephoneNumber,title,l"
>               schemachecking=off
>               bindmethod=simple
>               binddn="cn=syncuser,dc=example,dc=com"
>               credentials=secret

In this example, the consumer will connect to the provider {{slapd}}(8)
at port 389 of {{FILE:ldap://provider.example.com}} to perform a
polling ({{refreshOnly}}) mode of synchronization once a day.  It
will bind as {{EX:cn=syncuser,dc=example,dc=com}} using simple
authentication with password "secret".  Note that the access control
privilege of {{EX:cn=syncuser,dc=example,dc=com}} should be set
appropriately in the provider to retrieve the desired replication
content. Also the search limits must be high enough on the provider
to allow the syncuser to retrieve a complete copy of the requested
content.  The consumer uses the rootdn to write to its database so
it always has full permissions to write all content.

The synchronization search in the above example will search for the
entries whose objectClass is organizationalPerson in the entire
subtree rooted at {{EX:dc=example,dc=com}}. The requested attributes
are {{EX:cn}}, {{EX:sn}}, {{EX:ou}}, {{EX:telephoneNumber}},
{{EX:title}}, and {{EX:l}}. The schema checking is turned off, so
that the consumer {{slapd}}(8) will not enforce entry schema
checking when it processes updates from the provider {{slapd}}(8).

For more detailed information on the syncrepl directive, see the
{{SECT:syncrepl}} section of {{SECT:The slapd Configuration File}}
chapter of this admin guide.


H4: Start the provider and the consumer slapd

The provider {{slapd}}(8) is not required to be restarted.
{{contextCSN}} is automatically generated as needed: it might be
originally contained in the {{TERM:LDIF}} file, generated by
{{slapadd}} (8), generated upon changes in the context, or generated
when the first LDAP Sync search arrives at the provider.  If an
LDIF file is being loaded which did not previously contain the
{{contextCSN}}, the {{-w}} option should be used with {{slapadd}}
(8) to cause it to be generated. This will allow the server to
startup a little quicker the first time it runs.

When starting a consumer {{slapd}}(8), it is possible to provide
a synchronization cookie as the {{-c cookie}} command line option
in order to start the synchronization from a specific state.  The
cookie is a comma separated list of name=value pairs. Currently
supported syncrepl cookie fields are {{csn=<csn>}} and {{rid=<rid>}}.
{{<csn>}} represents the current synchronization state of the
consumer replica.  {{<rid>}} identifies a consumer replica locally
within the consumer server. It is used to relate the cookie to the
syncrepl definition in {{slapd.conf}}(5) which has the matching
replica identifier.  The {{<rid>}} must have no more than 3 decimal
digits.  The command line cookie overrides the synchronization
cookie stored in the consumer replica database.


H3: Delta-syncrepl

H4: Delta-syncrepl Provider configuration

Setting up delta-syncrepl requires configuration changes on both the master and 
replica servers:

>     # Give the replica DN unlimited read access.  This ACL needs to be
>     # merged with other ACL statements, and/or moved within the scope
>     # of a database.  The "by * break" portion causes evaluation of
>     # subsequent rules.  See slapd.access(5) for details.
>     access to *
>        by dn.base="cn=replicator,dc=symas,dc=com" read
>        by * break
>     
>     # Set the module path location
>     modulepath /opt/symas/lib/openldap
>     
>     # Load the hdb backend
>     moduleload back_hdb.la
>     
>     # Load the accesslog overlay
>     moduleload accesslog.la
>     
>     #Load the syncprov overlay
>     moduleload syncprov.la
>     
>     # Accesslog database definitions
>     database hdb
>     suffix cn=accesslog
>     directory /db/accesslog
>     rootdn cn=accesslog
>     index default eq
>     index entryCSN,objectClass,reqEnd,reqResult,reqStart
>     
>     overlay syncprov
>     syncprov-nopresent TRUE
>     syncprov-reloadhint TRUE
>     
>     # Let the replica DN have limitless searches
>     limits dn.exact="cn=replicator,dc=symas,dc=com" time.soft=unlimited time.hard=unlimited size.soft=unlimited size.hard=unlimited
>     
>     # Primary database definitions
>     database hdb
>     suffix "dc=symas,dc=com"
>     rootdn "cn=manager,dc=symas,dc=com"
>     
>     ## Whatever other configuration options are desired
>     
>     # syncprov specific indexing
>     index entryCSN eq
>     index entryUUID eq
>     
>     # syncrepl Provider for primary db
>     overlay syncprov
>     syncprov-checkpoint 1000 60
>     
>     # accesslog overlay definitions for primary db
>     overlay accesslog
>     logdb cn=accesslog
>     logops writes
>     logsuccess TRUE
>     # scan the accesslog DB every day, and purge entries older than 7 days
>     logpurge 07+00:00 01+00:00
>     
>     # Let the replica DN have limitless searches
>     limits dn.exact="cn=replicator,dc=symas,dc=com" time.soft=unlimited time.hard=unlimited size.soft=unlimited size.hard=unlimited

For more information, always consult the relevant man pages ({{slapo-accesslog}}(5) and {{slapd.conf}}(5))


H4: Delta-syncrepl Consumer configuration

>     # Replica database configuration
>     database hdb
>     suffix "dc=symas,dc=com"
>     rootdn "cn=manager,dc=symas,dc=com"
>     
>     ## Whatever other configuration bits for the replica, like indexing
>     ## that you want
>     
>     # syncrepl specific indices
>     index entryUUID eq
>     
>     # syncrepl directives
>     syncrepl  rid=0
>               provider=ldap://ldapmaster.symas.com:389
>               bindmethod=simple
>               binddn="cn=replicator,dc=symas,dc=com"
>               credentials=secret
>               searchbase="dc=symas,dc=com"
>               logbase="cn=accesslog"
>               logfilter="(&(objectClass=auditWriteObject)(reqResult=0))"
>               schemachecking=on
>               type=refreshAndPersist
>               retry="60 +"
>               syncdata=accesslog
>     
>     # Refer updates to the master
>     updateref               ldap://ldapmaster.symas.com


The above configuration assumes that you have a replicator identity defined 
in your database that can be used to bind to the provider. In addition, 
all of the databases (primary, replica, and the accesslog 
storage database) should also have properly tuned {{DB_CONFIG}} files that meet 
your needs.


H3: N-Way Multi-Master

For the following example we will be using 3 Master nodes. Keeping in line with
{{B:test050-syncrepl-multimaster}} of the OpenLDAP test suite, we will be configuring
{{slapd(8)}} via {{B:cn=config}}

This sets up the config database:

>     dn: cn=config
>     objectClass: olcGlobal
>     cn: config
>     olcServerID: 1
>     
>     dn: olcDatabase={0}config,cn=config
>     objectClass: olcDatabaseConfig
>     olcDatabase: {0}config
>     olcRootPW: secret

second and third servers will have a different olcServerID obviously:

>     dn: cn=config
>     objectClass: olcGlobal
>     cn: config
>     olcServerID: 2
>     
>     dn: olcDatabase={0}config,cn=config
>     objectClass: olcDatabaseConfig
>     olcDatabase: {0}config
>     olcRootPW: secret

This sets up syncrepl as a provider (since these are all masters):

>     dn: cn=module,cn=config
>     objectClass: olcModuleList
>     cn: module
>     olcModulePath: /usr/local/libexec/openldap
>     olcModuleLoad: syncprov.la

Now we setup the first Master Node (replace $URI1, $URI2 and $URI3 etc. with your actual ldap urls):

>     dn: cn=config
>     changetype: modify
>     replace: olcServerID
>     olcServerID: 1 $URI1
>     olcServerID: 2 $URI2
>     olcServerID: 3 $URI3
>     
>     dn: olcOverlay=syncprov,olcDatabase={0}config,cn=config
>     changetype: add
>     objectClass: olcOverlayConfig
>     objectClass: olcSyncProvConfig
>     olcOverlay: syncprov
>     
>     dn: olcDatabase={0}config,cn=config
>     changetype: modify
>     add: olcSyncRepl
>     olcSyncRepl: rid=001 provider=$URI1 binddn="cn=config" bindmethod=simple
>       credentials=secret searchbase="cn=config" type=refreshAndPersist
>       retry="5 5 300 5" timeout=1
>     olcSyncRepl: rid=002 provider=$URI2 binddn="cn=config" bindmethod=simple
>       credentials=secret searchbase="cn=config" type=refreshAndPersist
>       retry="5 5 300 5" timeout=1
>     olcSyncRepl: rid=003 provider=$URI3 binddn="cn=config" bindmethod=simple
>       credentials=secret searchbase="cn=config" type=refreshAndPersist
>       retry="5 5 300 5" timeout=1
>     -
>     add: olcMirrorMode
>     olcMirrorMode: TRUE

Now start up the Master and a consumer/s, also add the above LDIF to the first consumer, second consumer etc. It will then replicate {{B:cn=config}}. You now have N-Way Multimaster on the config database.

We still have to replicate the actual data, not just the config, so add to the master (all active and configured consumers/masters will pull down this config, as they are all syncing). Also, replace all {{${}}} variables with whatever is applicable to your setup:

>     dn: olcDatabase={1}$BACKEND,cn=config
>     objectClass: olcDatabaseConfig
>     objectClass: olc${BACKEND}Config
>     olcDatabase: {1}$BACKEND
>     olcSuffix: $BASEDN
>     olcDbDirectory: ./db
>     olcRootDN: $MANAGERDN
>     olcRootPW: $PASSWD
>     olcLimits: dn.exact="$MANAGERDN" time.soft=unlimited time.hard=unlimited size.soft=unlimited size.hard=unlimited
>     olcSyncRepl: rid=004 provider=$URI1 binddn="$MANAGERDN" bindmethod=simple
>       credentials=$PASSWD searchbase="$BASEDN" type=refreshOnly
>       interval=00:00:00:10 retry="5 5 300 5" timeout=1
>     olcSyncRepl: rid=005 provider=$URI2 binddn="$MANAGERDN" bindmethod=simple
>       credentials=$PASSWD searchbase="$BASEDN" type=refreshOnly
>       interval=00:00:00:10 retry="5 5 300 5" timeout=1
>     olcSyncRepl: rid=006 provider=$URI3 binddn="$MANAGERDN" bindmethod=simple
>       credentials=$PASSWD searchbase="$BASEDN" type=refreshOnly
>       interval=00:00:00:10 retry="5 5 300 5" timeout=1
>     olcMirrorMode: TRUE
>     
>     dn: olcOverlay=syncprov,olcDatabase={1}${BACKEND},cn=config
>     changetype: add
>     objectClass: olcOverlayConfig
>     objectClass: olcSyncProvConfig
>     olcOverlay: syncprov

Note: All of your servers' clocks must be tightly synchronized using
e.g. NTP {{http://www.ntp.org/}}, atomic clock, or some other reliable
time reference.

Note: As stated in {{slapd-config}}(5), URLs specified in {{olcSyncRepl}}
directives are the URLs of the servers from which to replicate. These
must exactly match the URLs {{slapd}} listens on ({{-h}} in {{SECT:Command-Line Options}}).
Otherwise slapd may attempt to replicate from itself, causing a loop.

H3: MirrorMode

MirrorMode configuration is actually very easy. If you have ever setup a normal
slapd syncrepl provider, then the only change is the following two directives:

>       mirrormode  on
>       serverID    1

Note: You need to make sure that the {{serverID}} of each mirror node is 
different and add it as a global configuration option.

H4: Mirror Node Configuration

The first step is to configure the syncrepl provider the same as in the 
{{SECT:Set up the provider slapd}} section.

Here's a specific cut down example using {{SECT:LDAP Sync Replication}} in
{{refreshAndPersist}} mode:

MirrorMode node 1:

>       # Global section
>       serverID    1
>       # database section
>       
>       # syncrepl directive    \r
>       syncrepl      rid=001\r
>                     provider=ldap://ldap-sid2.example.com\r
>                     bindmethod=simple\r
>                     binddn="cn=mirrormode,dc=example,dc=com"\r
>                     credentials=mirrormode\r
>                     searchbase="dc=example,dc=com"\r
>                     schemachecking=on\r
>                     type=refreshAndPersist\r
>                     retry="60 +"\r
>
>       mirrormode on

MirrorMode node 2:

>       # Global section
>       serverID    2
>       # database section
>       
>       # syncrepl directive\r
>       syncrepl      rid=001\r
>                     provider=ldap://ldap-sid1.example.com\r
>                     bindmethod=simple\r
>                     binddn="cn=mirrormode,dc=example,dc=com"\r
>                     credentials=mirrormode\r
>                     searchbase="dc=example,dc=com"\r
>                     schemachecking=on\r
>                     type=refreshAndPersist\r
>                     retry="60 +"\r
>       \r
>       mirrormode on

It's simple really; each MirrorMode node is setup {{B:exactly}} the same, except
that the {{serverID}} is unique, and each consumer is pointed to 
the other server.

H5: Failover Configuration

There are generally 2 choices for this; 1.  Hardware proxies/load-balancing or 
dedicated proxy software, 2. using a Back-LDAP proxy as a syncrepl provider

A typical enterprise example might be:

!import "dual_dc.png"; align="center"; title="MirrorMode Enterprise Configuration"
FT[align="Center"] Figure X.Y: MirrorMode in a Dual Data Center Configuration

H5: Normal Consumer Configuration

This is exactly the same as the {{SECT:Set up the consumer slapd}} section. It
can either setup in normal {{SECT:syncrepl replication}} mode, or in 
{{SECT:delta-syncrepl replication}} mode.

H4: MirrorMode Summary

You will now have a directory architecture that provides all of the 
consistency guarantees of single-master replication, while also providing the 
high availability of multi-master replication.


H3: Syncrepl Proxy

!import "push-based-complete.png"; align="center"; title="Syncrepl Proxy Mode"
FT[align="Center"] Figure X.Y: Replacing slurpd

The following example is for a self-contained push-based replication solution:

>       #######################################################################
>       # Standard OpenLDAP Master/Provider
>       #######################################################################
>       
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/core.schema
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/cosine.schema
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/nis.schema
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/inetorgperson.schema
>       
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/slapd.acl
>       
>       modulepath  /usr/local/libexec/openldap
>       moduleload  back_hdb.la
>       moduleload  syncprov.la
>       moduleload  back_monitor.la
>       moduleload  back_ldap.la
>       
>       pidfile     /usr/local/var/slapd.pid
>       argsfile    /usr/local/var/slapd.args
>       
>       loglevel    sync stats
>       
>       database    hdb
>       suffix      "dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>       directory   /usr/local/var/openldap-data
>       
>       checkpoint      1024 5
>       cachesize       10000
>       idlcachesize    10000
>       
>       index       objectClass eq
>       # rest of indexes
>       index       default     sub
>       
>       rootdn          "cn=admin,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>       rootpw          testing 
>       
>       # syncprov specific indexing
>       index entryCSN eq
>       index entryUUID eq
>       
>       # syncrepl Provider for primary db
>       overlay syncprov
>       syncprov-checkpoint 1000 60
>       
>       # Let the replica DN have limitless searches
>       limits dn.exact="cn=replicator,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com" time.soft=unlimited time.hard=unlimited size.soft=unlimited size.hard=unlimited
>       
>       database    monitor
>       
>       database    config
>       rootpw          testing
>       
>       ##############################################################################
>       # Consumer Proxy that pulls in data via Syncrepl and pushes out via slapd-ldap
>       ##############################################################################
>       
>       database        ldap
>       # ignore conflicts with other databases, as we need to push out to same suffix
>       hidden              on
>       suffix          "dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>       rootdn          "cn=slapd-ldap"
>       uri             ldap://localhost:9012/
>       
>       lastmod         on
>               
>       # We don't need any access to this DSA
>       restrict        all
>       
>       acl-bind        bindmethod=simple
>                       binddn="cn=replicator,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>                       credentials=testing
>       
>       syncrepl        rid=001
>                       provider=ldap://localhost:9011/
>                       binddn="cn=replicator,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>                       bindmethod=simple
>                       credentials=testing
>                       searchbase="dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>                       type=refreshAndPersist
>                       retry="5 5 300 5"
>       
>       overlay         syncprov

A replica configuration for this type of setup could be:

>       #######################################################################
>       # Standard OpenLDAP Slave without Syncrepl
>       #######################################################################
>       
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/core.schema
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/cosine.schema
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/nis.schema
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/inetorgperson.schema
>       
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/slapd.acl
>       
>       modulepath  /usr/local/libexec/openldap
>       moduleload  back_hdb.la
>       moduleload  syncprov.la
>       moduleload  back_monitor.la
>       moduleload  back_ldap.la
>       
>       pidfile     /usr/local/var/slapd.pid
>       argsfile    /usr/local/var/slapd.args
>       
>       loglevel    sync stats
>       
>       database    hdb
>       suffix      "dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>       directory   /usr/local/var/openldap-slave/data
>       
>       checkpoint      1024 5
>       cachesize       10000
>       idlcachesize    10000
>       
>       index       objectClass eq
>       # rest of indexes
>       index       default     sub
>       
>       rootdn          "cn=admin,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>       rootpw          testing 
>       
>       # Let the replica DN have limitless searches
>       limits dn.exact="cn=replicator,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com" time.soft=unlimited time.hard=unlimited size.soft=unlimited size.hard=unlimited
>       
>       updatedn "cn=replicator,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>       
>       # Refer updates to the master
>       updateref   ldap://localhost:9011
>       
>       database    monitor
>       
>       database    config
>       rootpw          testing

You can see we use the {{updatedn}} directive here and example ACLs ({{F:usr/local/etc/openldap/slapd.acl}}) for this could be:
        
>       # Give the replica DN unlimited read access.  This ACL may need to be
>       # merged with other ACL statements.
>       
>       access to *
>            by dn.base="cn=replicator,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com" write
>            by * break
>       
>       access to dn.base=""
>               by * read
>       
>       access to dn.base="cn=Subschema"
>               by * read
>       
>       access to dn.subtree="cn=Monitor"
>           by dn.exact="uid=admin,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com" write
>           by users read
>           by * none
>       
>       access to *
>               by self write
>               by * read 

In order to support more replicas, just add more {{database ldap}} sections and
increment the {{syncrepl rid}} number accordingly.

Note: You must populate the Master and Slave directories with the same data, 
unlike when using normal Syncrepl

If you do not have access to modify the master directory configuration you can
configure a standalone ldap proxy, which might look like:

!import "push-based-standalone.png"; align="center"; title="Syncrepl Standalone Proxy Mode"
FT[align="Center"] Figure X.Y: Replacing slurpd with a standalone version

The following configuration is an example of a standalone LDAP Proxy:

>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/core.schema
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/cosine.schema
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/nis.schema
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/schema/inetorgperson.schema
>       
>       include     /usr/local/etc/openldap/slapd.acl
>       
>       modulepath  /usr/local/libexec/openldap
>       moduleload  syncprov.la
>       moduleload  back_ldap.la
>       
>       ##############################################################################
>       # Consumer Proxy that pulls in data via Syncrepl and pushes out via slapd-ldap
>       ##############################################################################
>       
>       database        ldap
>       # ignore conflicts with other databases, as we need to push out to same suffix
>       hidden              on
>       suffix          "dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>       rootdn          "cn=slapd-ldap"
>       uri             ldap://localhost:9012/
>       
>       lastmod         on
>               
>       # We don't need any access to this DSA
>       restrict        all
>       
>       acl-bind        bindmethod=simple
>                       binddn="cn=replicator,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>                       credentials=testing
>       
>       syncrepl        rid=001
>                       provider=ldap://localhost:9011/
>                       binddn="cn=replicator,dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>                       bindmethod=simple
>                       credentials=testing
>                       searchbase="dc=suretecsystems,dc=com"
>                       type=refreshAndPersist
>                       retry="5 5 300 5"
>       
>       overlay         syncprov

As you can see, you can let your imagination go wild using Syncrepl and 
{{slapd-ldap(8)}} tailoring your replication to fit your specific network 
topology.