Install OpenLDAP Server on CentOS 8

This section provides a tutorial example on how to build and install OpenLDAP server from source code. But release 2.4.9 seems to have problems on CentOS 8 systems.

How To Install OpenLDAP Server on CentOS 8? As of January 2021, OpenLDAP Server still has no pre-build binary packages for CentOS 8 systems. So if you want to run OpenLDAP Server on your CentOS computer, you have to built it from source code yourself.

1. Confirm that there is no openldap-servers package for CentOS 8.

(Log in to CentOS 8)
herong$ sudo dnf install openldap-servers

No match for argument: openldap-servers
Error: Unable to find a match: openldap-servers

2. Install required packages to build OpenLDAP Server from source code.

herong$ sudo dnf install wget vim cyrus-sasl-devel \
  libtool-ltdl-devel openssl-devel libdb-devel make libtool \
  autoconf  tar gcc perl perl-devel

Install  18 Packages
Upgrade  31 Packages

3. Create a "ldap" user to run "ldapd" service.

herong$ sudo useradd -r -M -d /var/lib/openldap -u 55 \
  -s /usr/sbin/nologin ldap

4. Download the latest OpenLDAP server source code.

herong$ wget ftp://ftp.openldap.org/pub/OpenLDAP\
  /openldap-release/openldap-2.4.9.tgz

...
Length: 4440456 (4.2M) (unauthoritative)
...
(25.0 KB/s) - 'openldap-2.4.9.tgz' saved [4440456]

5. Configure the build process. I see 2 problems in the output.

herong$ tar xzf openldap-2.4.9.tgz

herong$ cd openldap-2.4.9

herong$ ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --disable-static \
  --enable-debug --with-tls=openssl --with-cyrus-sasl --enable-dynamic \
  --enable-crypt --enable-spasswd --enable-slapd --enable-modules \
  --enable-rlookups --enable-backends=mod --disable-ndb --disable-sql \
  --disable-shell --disable-bdb --disable-hdb --enable-overlays=mod

...
checking for sys/un.h... yes
checking openssl/ssl.h usability... yes
checking openssl/ssl.h presence... yes
checking for openssl/ssl.h... yes
checking for SSL_library_init in -lssl... no
checking for ssl3_accept in -lssl... no
configure: error: Could not locate TLS/SSL package

6. Search Internet for suggestions. I found a comment from Tom at https://openldap.org/lists/openldap-technical/201612/msg00014.html.

So, as a followup to anyone else who may hit this issue,
OpenLDAP 2.4.44 won't build (without a set of patches) using
OpenSSL 1.1.0c. I downloaded the older OpenSSL 1.0.2j and
everything built fine. Hopefully the patches that allow OpenSSL 1.1.0
will be rolled into OpenLDAP 2.4.45 but it may be longer as there seem
to be a number of OpenSSL API changes.

7. Try it again witout "--with-tls=openssl". I see no problems.

herong$ ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --disable-static \
  --enable-debug --with-cyrus-sasl --enable-dynamic \
  --enable-crypt --enable-spasswd --enable-slapd --enable-modules \
  --enable-rlookups --enable-backends=mod --disable-ndb --disable-sql \
  --disable-shell --disable-bdb --disable-hdb --enable-overlays=mod

...
config.status: executing default commands
Making servers/slapd/backends.c
    Add config ...
    Add ldif ...
Making servers/slapd/overlays/statover.c
Please run "make depend" to build dependencies

8. Continue with the build process. I see another error.

herong$ make depend
...
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/herong/openldap-2.4.9/doc/man'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/herong/openldap-2.4.9/doc'

herong$ make
...
cc -g -O2 -I../../include -I../../include -c -o setproctitle.o setproctitle.c
cc -g -O2 -I../../include -I../../include -c -o getpeereid.o getpeereid.c
getpeereid.c: In function 'lutil_getpeereid':
getpeereid.c:64:15: error: storage size of 'peercred' isn't known
  struct ucred peercred;
               ^~~~~~~~
make[2]: *** [<builtin>: getpeereid.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/herong/openldap-2.4.9/libraries/liblutil'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:295: all-common] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/herong/openldap-2.4.9/libraries'
make: *** [Makefile:311: all-common] Error 1

Ok. Release 2.4.9 seems to be too new. I should try an older version.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction to Linux Systems

 Cockpit - Web Portal for Administrator

 Process Management

 Files and Directories

 Users and Groups

 File Systems

 Block Devices and Partitions

 LVM (Logical Volume Manager)

 Installing CentOS

 SELinux - Security-Enhanced Linux

 Network Connection on CentOS

 Internet Networking Tools

 SSH Protocol and ssh/scp Commands

 Software Package Manager on CentOS - DNF and YUM

 vsftpd - Very Secure FTP Daemon

 Postfix - Mail Transport Agent (MTA)

 Dovecot - IMAP and POP3 Server

 Email Client Tools - Mail User Agents (MUA)

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

 What Is LDAP

 What Is OpenLDAP

 Install OpenLDAP Server on CentOS

 Configure OpenLDAP Server on CentOS

 Use OpenLDAP Client Tools

 Delete or Modify LDAP Entries

 LDIF File Format

 Hierarchical Structure of LDAP Entries

Install OpenLDAP Server on CentOS 8

 Configure Mozilla Thunderbird to Use LDAP

 LDAP Attributes Mapping in Mozilla Thunderbird

 Configure Apple iPhone to Use LDAP

 Administrative Tasks

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB