SLAPO-SYNCPROV(5)

📦
version 2.7.2 · 24 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 SLAPO-SYNCPROV 💖

okay bestie, so this one is a File Formats Manual page — the slapo-syncprov one, aka the Sync Provider overlay to slapd. yes it's a mouthful, it's fine, we're getting through it together 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

slapo-syncprov — Sync Provider overlay to slapd. that's the whole name. she's short, she's powerful, she runs the whole replication situation 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

/etc/openldap/slapd.conf

yep. that's it. the whole synopsis is a file. we love a minimal queen. 🌸

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so the Sync Provider overlay is the one that does the provider-side heavy lifting for LDAP Content Synchronization (RFC4533) and also for syncrepl replication support. she's the one handing out the updates, not the one receiving them. main character energy fr fr 👑

and here's the iconic part — this overlay can be used with any backend as long as that backend keeps entryCSN and entryUUID attributes for its entries. she's not picky. she's versatile. ✨

she also creates a contextCSN attribute in the root entry of the database. like, she just makes it. you're welcome. 🎀

now, the contextCSN gets updated for every single write operation performed against the database. every one. but — and this is the smart part — to reduce database contention, the contextCSN is only updated in memory. 😌

so the tea is: the value gets written to the database on server shutdown, read into memory on startup, and maintained in memory after that. Checkpoints can be configured to write the contextCSN into the underlying database so you minimize recovery time after an unclean shutdown. (unclean shutdowns are giving 💀, so yeah, checkpoints are your friend.)

IMPORTANT BESTIE: on databases that support inequality indexing, it is highly recommended to set an eq index on the entryCSN attribute when using this overlay. highly recommended. don't skip this. ngl this is the kind of thing people skip and then they're in the group chat asking why everything is slow. 🙈

✨ CONFIGURATION ✨

these slapd.conf options apply to the Sync Provider overlay. they should appear after the overlay directive. (order matters, bestie, we respect the order 💖)

  • syncprov-checkpoint <ops> <minutes> — after a write operation has succeeded, write the contextCSN to the underlying database if <ops> write operations have happened, or if more than <minutes> time has passed since the last checkpoint. Checkpointing is disabled by default — so if you want it, you gotta ask for it. 🦋
  • syncprov-sessionlog <ops> — configures an in-memory session log for recording info about write operations made on the database. <ops> specifies the number of operations recorded in the log. All write operations (except Adds) get recorded in the log. and heads up — when you're using the session log, it's helpful to set an eq index on the entryUUID attribute in the underlying database. ✨
  • syncprov-sessionlog-source <dn> — okay, first thing: this should not be set when syncprov-sessionlog is set, and vice versa. they're mutually exclusive, they do not share the aux cord. 🚫

when accesslog for this database is configured and is logging at this suffix, it can be used as the session log source instead of the in-memory session log mentioned above. and the glow-up here? this log has the advantage of not starting afresh every time the server is restarted. iconic, honestly. 👑

  • syncprov-nopresent TRUE | FALSE — specifies that the Present phase of refreshing should be skipped. 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). default is FALSE. 💅
  • syncprov-reloadhint TRUE | FALSE — specifies that the overlay should honor the reloadHint flag in the Sync Control. it must be set TRUE when using the accesslog overlay for delta-based syncrepl replication support. default is FALSE. 🔥

✨ FILES ✨

  • /etc/openldap/slapd.conf — the default slapd configuration file. the one and only. 🌈

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

slapd.conf(5), slapd-config(5), slapo-accesslog(5). and also the OpenLDAP Administrator's Guide — go read it, she's thorough. 📚

✨ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ✨

OpenLDAP Software is developed and maintained by The OpenLDAP Project <http://www.openldap.org/>. and fun fact bestie — OpenLDAP Software is derived from the University of Michigan LDAP 3.3 Release. history!! 🎀

and that's the whole page, no notes 💖 this was OpenLDAP 2.7.2, dated 2026/10/21, and honestly? she ate. periodt. 🫶✨💅

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