Troubleshooting Ports with Custom eDirectory 8.8 Instances

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By Mada Sailaja

Digg This - Slashdot This Updated: 17 Jan 2007

Problem

Troubleshooting port conflicts with multiple instances of eDirectory servers can be difficult.

• Operating System: All Unix Platforms
• eDirectory version: eDirectory 8.8 or Later

"Multiple instances" is a new feature added in eDirectory 8.8 in order to:

• Leverage high-end hardware by configuring more than one instance of eDirectory
• Pilot your setup on a single host before investing in the required hardware

Problem Description

1. Install eDirectory 8.8 or later and then configure an instance with the default ports in the default locations:

Default ports:

Port Name	Port No
LDAP - TCP	389
LDAP -TLS	636
NCP	524
HTTP clear text	8028
HTTP secure	8030

Default locations:

Default file and folder	Location
Conf file	/etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/nds.conf
DIB folder	/var/opt/novell/eDirectory/data/dib

2. Configure an another new instance in custom location when the default instance server is down.

3. When the instance is configured in a custom location, it will take the default instance ports if the default instance is down.

4. The default instance will not come up as the ports of default instance has been alloted to custom location instance.

Solution

The solution for getting the default instance up and running is described below. Note: Consider 1389,1524,1636,18028 and 18030 as examples for the custom ports.

1. Change the LDAP ports of the custom location instance to 1389 and 1636, using ldapconfig get commands:

a. ldapconfig set 'LDAP TCP Port'=1389 -a <admin context> -w <password> -p <hostname>
b. ldapconfig set 'LDAP SSL Port'=1636 -a <admin context> -w <password> -p <hostname>

2. Stop ndsd, using the ndsmanage command as shown in the example below.

To stop the custom instance of ndsd,

bash-2.05# ndsmanage
Novell Utility to manage eDirectory instances - Version: 1.0

The following instances are configured by the root:

[1] /etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/nds.conf : .<Host name>.NOVELL.COOL-TREE. : <IPaddress>@524 : INACTIVE

[2] /custom_loc/nds.conf : .<Host name>.NOVELL.C-TIP. : <IPaddress>@1524 : ACTIVE

Enter [1 - 2] for more options, [c] for creating a new instance or [q] to quit: 2
[l] List the replicas on the server
[s] Start the instance
[k] Stop the instance
[t] Run ndstrace
[d] Deconfigure
[q] Quit
What do you want to do with this instance? [ Choose from above]: k
Executing customized settings before stopping the Novell eDirectory server...
Stopping Novell eDirectory server...

Done

3. Change the server parameters of the custom location instance, using the ndsconfig get command:

a. ndsconfig set 'n4u.server.interfaces=<IPaddress>@1524'
b. ndsconfig set 'http.server.interfaces=<IPaddress>@18028'
c. ndsconfig set 'http.server.interfaces=<IPaddress>@18028'

4. Change the HTTP clear and TLS parameters of the custom location instance to 18028 and 18030, using the ndsconfig get command:

a. ndsconfig set 'http.server.clear-port'=18030 b. ndsconfig set 'http.server.tls-port'=18030

5. Start ndsd using the ndsmanage command, as shown in the example below.

To start the custom instance of ndsd,

bash-2.05# ndsmanage
Novell Utility to manage eDirectory instances - Version: 1.0

The following are the instances configured by root:

[1] /etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/nds.conf :
.<Host name>.NOVELL.COOL-TREE. : <IPaddress>@524 : INACTIVE

[2] /custom_loc/nds.conf : .<Host name>.NOVELL.C-TIP. : <IPaddress>@1524 : INACTIVE

Enter [1 - 2] for more options, [c] for creating a new instance or [q] to quit: 2
[l] List the replicas on the server
[s] Start the instance
[k] Stop the instance
[t] Run ndstrace
[d] Deconfigure
[q] Quit
What do you want to do with this instance? [ Choose from above]: s
Executing customized settings before starting the Novell eDirectory server...
Starting Novell eDirectory server...
Done
Executing customized settings after starting the Novell eDirectory server...
Novell eDirectory LDAP Server is listening on the TCP port.
Novell eDirectory LDAP Server is listening on the TLS port.
bash-2.05#

6. Start the default instance ndsd, as above.

Now the default instance and custom instance both will come up, becasue the ports of the custom instance have been modified to different port numbers.

Verification

The final steps for verification are given below.

1. Perform ldapconfig get and ldapconfig check for the parameters below:

LDAP TCP Port=1389
LDAP SSL Port=1636

2. Perform ndsconfig get and ndsconfig check for the parameters below:

http.server.interfaces=<IPaddress>@18028
https.server.interfaces=<IPaddress>@18030
http.server.clear-port=18028
http.server.tls-port=18030

3. Follow the steps below to validate the status of the ports.

Protocol	Default instance port	Custom instance port
NCP	524	1524
HTTP	8028	18028
HTTP secure	8030	18030
LDAP-TCP	389	1389
LDAP-TLS	636	1636

NCP

[root@<Host name> conf]# netstat -na | grep 524|grep -i listen
tcp 0 0 <IPaddress>:524 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 <IPaddress>:1524 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN

HTTP

[root@<Host name> conf]# netstat -na | grep 8028|grep -i listen
tcp 0 0 <IPaddress>:18028 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 <IPaddress>:8028 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN

[root@<Host name> conf]# netstat -na | grep 8030|grep -i listen
tcp 0 0 <IPaddress>:18030 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 <IPaddress>:8030 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN

LDAP TCP and TLS

[root@<Host name> conf]# netstat -na | grep 389|grep -i listen
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:389 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:1389 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
[root@<Host name> conf]# netstat -na | grep 636|grep -i Listen
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:1636 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:636 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN

Conclusion

When the above verification steps give valid results, then the default instances will work without any issues.

To avoid port conflicts issue with multiple instances,

1. Check the port numbers that are already in use with ndsconfig get and ldapconfig get.
2. Make sure you don't enter already used port numbers when giving the port numbers as input.

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