Linux Networking Cookbook

12.5. Adding More Users to Your Directory

Problem

You're ready to start stuffing more users into your OpenLDAP directory. How do you do this?

Solution

Make sure your OpenLDAP server is running. Next, create an LDIF file containing your new user entries, then use ldapadd to export them into your OpenLDAP directory.

We're going to expand our directory structure a bit, because right now it's just a plain old one-level directory. We want to be organized and not just dump everything into the top level, so we're going to add a people Organizational Unit (OU). Our directory now looks like Figure 12-4.

Figure 12-4. Adding one new OU with users

You can see our admin user hanging out there all alone. (It's lonely at the top.)

This example users.ldif file adds the new OU and two human users. Mind your whitespace! Comments must be on separate lines, there must be one space after each colon, and a blank line separates entries:

 ##/etc/ldap/ldif/users.ldif dn: ou=people,dc=alrac,dc=net ou: people description: All people in organisation objectClass: organizationalUnit dn: uid=cschroder,ou=people,dc=alrac,dc=net objectClass: inetOrgPerson cn: Carla Schroder sn: Schroder uid: cschroder userPassword: password telephoneNumber: 444-222-3333 homePhone: 555-111-2222 mail: [e-mail] mail: [e-mail] description: indescribable dn: uid=thanson,ou=people,dc=alrac,dc=net objectClass: inetOrgPerson cn: ...