Linux Networking Cookbook

12.13. Backing Up and Restoring Your Directory

Problem

Is there a special way to back up and restore your OpenLDAP directory, or can you use standard Linux utilities like rsync?

Solution

You can copy your database files just like any other files, so go ahead and include them in your normal system backup. The directory option in slapd.conf defines the database directory. You should also use the two special OpenLDAP commands for backups and restores: slapcat and slapadd.

slapcat exports the contents of your database (which is defined in slapd.conf) into an LDIF-formatted file. If you have only one database, first stop your server, then run slapcat:

	# /etc/init.d/slapd stop (Debian)
	# /etc/init.d/ldap stop (Fedora)
	# slapcat -l backupfile.ldif

If you have more than one, you should dump them separately. Use the -b option to select them by suffix:

	# slapcat -b 'dc=alrac,dc=net' -l backupfile.ldif

Restoring your data is done with slapadd. First, delete or move the existing database files from /var/lib/ldap, or wherever you are keeping them, then run this command:

	# slapadd -l backupfile.ldif

Just like slapcat, use the -b option to select a specific database to restore to:

	# slapadd -b 'dc=alrac,dc=net' -l backupfile.ldif

Start up your OpenLDAP server, and you're back in business.

You may also use slapadd to build a brand-new database.

Want to automate your backups? Try this script:

 #!/bin/sh ##/usr/local/bin/ldap-backup.sh BACKUPDIR=/root/ldap.backup ROTATION=30 mkdir -p $BACKUPDIR /etc/init.d/slapd ...