.TH SLAPO-DDS 5 "RELEASEDATE" "OpenLDAP LDVERSION"
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.SH NAME
slapo\-dds \- Dynamic Directory Services overlay to slapd
.SH SYNOPSIS
ETCDIR/slapd.conf
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B dds
overlay to
.BR slapd (8)
implements dynamic objects as per RFC 2589.
The name 
.B dds
stands for
Dynamic Directory Services.
It allows one to define dynamic objects, characterized by the
.B dynamicObject
objectClass.

Dynamic objects have a limited lifetime, determined by a time-to-live
(TTL) that can be refreshed by means of a specific
.B refresh
extended operation.
This operation allows one to set the Client Refresh Period (CRP),
namely the period between refreshes that is required to preserve the
dynamic object from expiration.
The expiration time is computed by adding the requested TTL to the 
current time.
When dynamic objects reach the end of their lifetime without being
further refreshed, they are automatically deleted.
There is no guarantee of immediate deletion, so clients should not count
on it.

Dynamic objects can have subordinates, provided these also are dynamic
objects.
RFC 2589 does not specify what the behavior of a dynamic directory
service should be when a dynamic object with (dynamic) subordinates
expires.
In this implementation, the lifetime of dynamic objects with subordinates
is prolonged until all the dynamic subordinates expire.


This 
.BR slapd.conf (5)
directive adds the 
.B dds
overlay to the current database:

.TP
.B overlay dds

.LP
The database must have a
.B rootdn
specified, otherwise, the
.B dds
overlay will not be able to delete expired objects. The 
.B dds
overlay may be used with any backend that implements the 
.BR add ,
.BR modify ,
.BR search ,
and
.BR delete
operations.
Since its use may result in many internal entry lookups, adds
and deletes, it should be best used in conjunction with backends
that have reasonably good write performances.

.LP 
The config directives that are specific to the
.B dds
overlay are prefixed by
.BR dds\- ,
to avoid potential conflicts with directives specific to the underlying 
database or to other stacked overlays.

.TP
.B dds\-max\-ttl <time>
Specifies the max TTL value.
This is also the default TTL newly created
dynamic objects receive, unless
.B dds\-default\-ttl
is set.
When the client with a refresh extended operation requests a TTL higher
than it, sizeLimitExceeded is returned.
This value must be between 86400 (1 day, the default) and 31557600
(1 year plus 6 hours, as per RFC 2589).

.TP
.B dds\-min\-ttl <time>
Specifies the min TTL value; clients requesting a lower TTL by means
of the refresh extended operation actually obtain this value as CRP.
If set to 0 (the default), no lower limit is set.

.TP
.B dds\-default\-ttl <time>
Specifies the default TTL value that newly created dynamic objects get.
If set to 0 (the default), the
.B dds\-max\-ttl
is used.

.TP
.B dds\-interval <time>
Specifies the interval between expiration checks; defaults to 1 hour.

.TP
.B dds\-tolerance <time>
Specifies an extra time that is added to the timer that actually wakes up
the thread that will delete an expired dynamic object.
So the nominal lifetime of the entry is that specified in the
.B entryTtl
attribute, but its lifetime will actually be
.BR "entryTtl + tolerance" .
Note that there is no guarantee that the lifetime of a dynamic object
will be
.I exactly
the requested TTL; due to implementation details, it may be longer, which 
is allowed by RFC 2589.
By default, tolerance is 0.

.TP
.B dds\-max\-dynamicObjects <num>
Specifies the maximum number of dynamic objects that can simultaneously exist
within a naming context.
This allows one to limit the amount of resources (mostly in terms of
run-queue size) that are used by dynamic objects.
By default, no limit is set.

.TP
.B dds\-state {TRUE|false}
Specifies if the Dynamic Directory Services feature is enabled or not.
By default it is; however, a proxy does not need to keep track of dynamic
objects itself, it only needs to inform the frontend that support for
dynamic objects is available.

.SH ACCESS CONTROL
The
.B dds
overlay restricts the refresh operation by requiring 
.B manage
access to the 
.B entryTtl
attribute (see
.BR slapd.access (5)
for details about the 
.B manage
access privilege).
Since the
.B entryTtl
is an operational, NO-USER-MODIFICATION attribute, no direct write access
to it is possible.
So the 
.B dds
overlay turns refresh extended operation into an internal modification to
the value of the
.B entryTtl
attribute with the
.B relax
control set.

RFC 2589 recommends that anonymous clients should not be allowed to refresh
a dynamic object.
This can be implemented by appropriately crafting access control to obtain 
the desired effect.

Example: restrict refresh to authenticated clients

.RS
.nf
access to attrs=entryTtl
	by users manage
	by * read

.fi
.RE
Example: restrict refresh to the creator of the dynamic object

.RS
.nf
access to attrs=entryTtl
	by dnattr=creatorsName manage
	by * read

.fi
.RE
Another suggested usage of dynamic objects is to implement dynamic meetings;
in this case, all the participants to the meeting are allowed to refresh 
the meeting object, but only the creator can delete it (otherwise it will
be deleted when the TTL expires)

Example: assuming \fIparticipant\fP is a valid DN-valued attribute, 
allow users to start a meeting and to join it; restrict refresh 
to the participants; restrict delete to the creator

.RS
.nf
access to dn.base="cn=Meetings"
		attrs=children
	by users write

access to dn.onelevel="cn=Meetings"
		attrs=entry
	by dnattr=creatorsName write
	by * read

access to dn.onelevel="cn=Meetings"
		attrs=participant
	by dnattr=creatorsName write
	by users selfwrite
	by * read

access to dn.onelevel="cn=Meetings"
		attrs=entryTtl
	by dnattr=participant manage
	by * read

.fi
.RE

.SH REPLICATION
This implementation of RFC 2589 provides a restricted interpretation of how
dynamic objects replicate.  Only the provider takes care of handling dynamic
object expiration, while consumers simply see the dynamic object as a plain
object.

When replicating these objects, one needs to explicitly exclude the 
.B dynamicObject
class and the
.B entryTtl
attribute.
This implementation of RFC 2589 introduces a new operational attribute,
.BR entryExpireTimestamp ,
that contains the expiration timestamp.  This must be excluded from 
replication as well.

The quick and dirty solution is to set 
.B schemacheck=off
in the syncrepl configuration
and, optionally, exclude the operational attributes from replication, using

.RS
.nf
syncrepl ...
	exattrs=entryTtl,entryExpireTimestamp
.fi
.RE

In any case the overlay must be either statically built in or run-time loaded 
by the consumer, so that it is aware of the 
.B entryExpireTimestamp
operational attribute; however, it must not be configured in the shadow 
database.
Currently, there is no means to remove the 
.B dynamicObject
class from the entry; this may be seen as a feature, since it allows one to see
the dynamic properties of the object.

.SH FILES
.TP
ETCDIR/slapd.conf
default slapd configuration file
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR slapd.conf (5),
.BR slapd\-config (5),
.BR slapd (8).
.SH AUTHOR
Implemented by Pierangelo Masarati.