OpenLDAP Install CentOS 8 - Shell-Bash

This guide will walk you through the installation of OpenLDAP on CentOS 8 using Shell-Bash. OpenLDAP is an open-source implementation of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) that is used for managing user authentication, authorization, and other directory-related services.

Prerequisites

Before starting the installation process, you should have:

• A fresh CentOS 8 server
• A user account with sudo privileges

Step 1 - Install OpenLDAP

To install OpenLDAP on CentOS 8, use the following command:

sudo dnf install openldap-servers openldap-clients

This will install OpenLDAP server and client packages on your CentOS 8 machine.

Step 2 - Configure OpenLDAP

Once the installation is completed, you need to configure OpenLDAP by editing its configuration file slapd.conf. You can find this file in the /etc/openldap directory.

sudo vi /etc/openldap/slapd.conf

This file contains the settings for OpenLDAP server. You need to set the following parameters:

• suffix: The base DN for your LDAP directory.
• rootdn: The root DN for your LDAP directory.
• rootpw: The root password for your LDAP directory.

For example, if you want your LDAP directory to be named example.com, you can set the suffix as follows:

suffix "dc=example,dc=com"

You also need to set the root DN and password:

rootdn "cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com"
rootpw {SSHA}<your-encrypted-password>

Note that you need to generate an encrypted password to secure your root password. You can use the following command to generate an encrypted password:

sudo slappasswd -s <your-password>

After you have made the necessary changes, save and close the file.

Step 3 - Start OpenLDAP

Now start OpenLDAP service with the command:

sudo systemctl start slapd

To verify that the service is running properly, check its status:

sudo systemctl status slapd

The output should show that the service is active and running.

Step 4 - Validate OpenLDAP

To validate that OpenLDAP is working, you can use the ldapsearch command to search for a record in your LDAP directory. For example, to search for the rootdn user, use the following command:

sudo ldapsearch -x -b 'dc=example,dc=com' -D 'cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com' -W cn=admin

This will prompt you for the rootpw that you set in the slapd.conf file. If the search returns a result, then you have successfully installed and configured OpenLDAP on CentOS 8.

Conclusion

In this guide, we have shown you how to install and configure OpenLDAP on CentOS 8 using Shell-Bash. With OpenLDAP installed, you can now manage your LDAP directory to authenticate and authorize users and services in your network.