LDAP directory population (was Re: kolab setup failed on Debian)

[Paul Boddie]

On Friday 13. June 2014 14.47.35 hede wrote:
> Am Fri, 13 Jun 2014 13:24:32 +0200 schrieb Michele Catalano 
<catamik at yahoo.it>:
> > The fact is that I get the following stop when setup-kolab
> > 
> > It seems 389 Directory Server has an existing instance configured. This
> > setup script does not intend to destroy or overwrite your data. Please
> > make sure /etc/dirsrv/ and /var/lib/dirsrv/ are clean so that this setup
> > does not have to worry.
> > 
> > What I can do? delete their content?
> 
> Yes, deleting the old instance is one solution. But maybe not your
> preferred one.

The most widely stated advice for setting up Kolab seems to have been that you 
should start from scratch with everything. Although everyone seems to use 
virtual machines for everything these days and will gladly spawn another to 
set up Kolab, it's a bit more awkward when you have to work within the 
constraints of an existing infrastructure.

> The automatic ldap routine in setup-kolab seems to require a fresh and
> clean 389-ds. You have to manually tweak your 386-ds for kolab, if there's
> already data in it.
> 
> I would try to find other topics referring to adding schemata and data to
> an ldap server via internet search and just try to do so. There should be
> a template lying around for setup-kolab which holds the needed data. But
> I'm not an ldap expert, so I don't want to say too much...

The LDAP setup is by far the toughest nut to crack in Kolab's setup system, at 
least for people like me with very little LDAP experience. Still, I 
implemented a degree of decoupling in my own branch of pykolab:

https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=756

Still, I don't think it would be too difficult to have Kolab observe an 
existing schema: it's just a question of configuration as far as I can see.

> One little hint: Maybe it's better to ask this question as a new thread to
> this list, without an in-reply-to header (i.e. no answer to this thread)
> and with a new subject explaining your needs, e.g. "adding kolab schemata
> and users to an existing 386 instance" or something like that.
> 
> ... because maybe all those 389 experts here just don't read further down
> this thread which starts with some other error. ;-)

OK, I've changed the subject to something more enticing for LDAP experts. ;-)

Paul