How-to Series: How to Quickly Setup OpenLDAP for Testing Purposes

Issue / Problem Statements

Like it or not, LDAP still plays heavy roles in most of the organizations as user store and authentication authority.
To setup a proper LDAP Server may require some LDAP knowledge and experience. So how to setup a LDAP in a quick (say <10mins) and easy way becomes obvious requirement.

Solution:

Highlights:

• Use Docker
• OpenLDAP
• With sample data (which can be customized of course) pre-loaded
• Provide sample `ldapsearch`

Steps:

1. Prepare users and group data, the *.ldif files

$ mkdir testdata

$ cat testdata/1-users.ldif
dn: ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
ou: people
description: All people in organisation
objectclass: organizationalunit

# admin1
dn: cn=admin1,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
sn: admin1
cn: admin1
uid: admin1
mail: admin1@bright.com
# secret
userPassword: {SSHA}RRN6AM9u0tpTEOn6oBcIt9X3BbFPKVk5

# admin2
dn: cn=admin2,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
sn: admin2
cn: admin2
uid: admin2
mail: admin2@bright.com
# secret
userPassword: {SSHA}RRN6AM9u0tpTEOn6oBcIt9X3BbFPKVk5

# developer
dn: cn=developer1,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
sn: developer1
cn: developer1
mail: developer1@bright.com
userPassword: {SSHA}RRN6AM9u0tpTEOn6oBcIt9X3BbFPKVk5

$ cat testdata/2-groups.ldif
dn: ou=groups,dc=bright,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: groups

dn: cn=admins,ou=groups,dc=bright,dc=com
objectClass: groupOfNames
cn: admins
member: cn=admin1,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
member: cn=admin2,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com

dn: cn=developers,ou=groups,dc=bright,dc=com
objectClass: groupOfNames
cn: developers
member: cn=admin1,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
member: cn=developer1,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com

2. Start It Up

$ docker run --name my-openldap-container \
    --env LDAP_ORGANISATION="Bright Inc" \
    --env LDAP_DOMAIN="bright.com" \
    --env LDAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD="secret" \
    --volume "$(pwd)"/testdata:/container/service/slapd/assets/config/bootstrap/ldif/custom \
    -p 10389:389 \
    --detach \
    osixia/openldap:1.2.2 --copy-service --loglevel debug

Now the LDAP service is exposed from container port 389 to local port 10389.

Note: to clean it up, use below command:

$ docker stop $(docker ps -aqf "name=my-openldap-container") && \
  docker rm $(docker ps -aqf "name=my-openldap-container")

3. Test It Out

$ ldapsearch -LLL -x \

    -H ldap://localhost:10389 \
    -D "cn=admin,dc=bright,dc=com" -w secret \
    -b 'dc=bright,dc=com' \
    dn
dn: dc=bright,dc=com
dn: cn=admin,dc=bright,dc=com
dn: ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
dn: cn=admin1,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
dn: cn=admin2,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
dn: cn=developer1,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com
dn: ou=groups,dc=bright,dc=com
dn: cn=admins,ou=groups,dc=bright,dc=com
dn: cn=developers,ou=groups,dc=bright,dc=com

$ ldapsearch -LLL -x \
    -H ldap://localhost:10389 \
    -D "cn=admin,dc=bright,dc=com" -w secret \
    -b 'dc=bright,dc=com' \
    '(&(objectClass=groupOfNames)(member=cn=admin2,ou=people,dc=bright,dc=com))' \
    cn
dn: cn=admins,ou=groups,dc=bright,dc=com
cn: admins

That's it. Hope it helps!