SLAPO-PCACHE(5) File Formats Manual SLAPO-PCACHE(5)
NAME
slapo-pcache - proxy cache overlay to slapd
SYNOPSIS
/etc/ldap/slapd.conf
DESCRIPTION
The pcache overlay to slapd(8) allows caching of LDAP search requests
(queries) in a local database. For an incoming query, the proxy cache
determines its corresponding template. If the template was specified as
cacheable using the pcacheTemplate directive and the request is con-
tained in a cached request, it is answered from the proxy cache. Oth-
erwise, the search is performed as usual and cacheable search results
are saved in the cache for use in future queries.
A template is defined by a filter string and an index identifying a set
of attributes. The template string for a query can be obtained by re-
moving assertion values from the RFC 4515 representation of its search
filter. A query belongs to a template if its template string and set of
projected attributes correspond to a cacheable template. Examples of
template strings are (mail=), (|(sn=)(cn=)), (&(sn=)(givenName=)).
The config directives that are specific to the pcache overlay can be
prefixed by pcache-, to avoid conflicts with directives specific to the
underlying database or to other stacked overlays. This may be particu-
larly useful for those directives that refer to the backend used for
local storage. The following cache specific directives can be used to
configure the proxy cache:
overlay pcache
This directive adds the proxy cache overlay to the current back-
end. The proxy cache overlay may be used with any backend but is
intended for use with the ldap, meta, and sql backends. Please
note that the underlying backend must have a configured rootdn.
pcache <database> <max_entries> <numattrsets> <entry_limit> <cc_period>
The directive enables proxy caching in the current backend and
sets general cache parameters. A <database> backend will be used
internally to maintain the cached entries. The chosen database
will need to be configured as well, as shown below. Cache re-
placement is invoked when the cache size grows to <max_entries>
entries and continues till the cache size drops below this size.
<numattrsets> should be equal to the number of following
pcacheAttrset directives. Queries are cached only if they corre-
spond to a cacheable template (specified by the pcacheTemplate
directive) and the number of entries returned is less than <en-
try_limit>. Consistency check is performed every <cc_period> du-
ration (specified in secs). In each cycle queries with expired
"time to live(TTL)" are removed. A sample cache configuration
is:
pcache mdb 10000 1 50 100
pcacheAttrset <index> <attrs...>
Used to associate a set of attributes <attrs..> with an <index>.
Each attribute set is associated with an integer from 0 to <nu-
mattrsets>-1. These indices are used by the pcacheTemplate di-
rective to define cacheable templates. A set of attributes can-
not be empty. A set of attributes can contain the special at-
tributes "*" (all user attributes), "+" (all operational at-
tributes) or both; in the latter case, any other attribute is
redundant and should be avoided for clarity. A set of at-
tributes can contain "1.1" as the only attribute; in this case,
only the presence of the entries is cached. Attributes prefixed
by "undef:" need not be present in the schema.
pcacheMaxQueries <queries>
Specify the maximum number of queries to cache. The default is
10000.
pcacheValidate { TRUE | FALSE }
Check whether the results of a query being cached can actually
be returned from the cache by the proxy DSA. When enabled, the
entries being returned while caching the results of a query are
checked to ensure consistency with the schema known to the proxy
DSA. In case of failure, the query is not cached. By default,
the check is off.
pcacheOffline { TRUE | FALSE }
Set the cache to offline mode. While offline, the consistency
checker will be stopped and no expirations will occur. This al-
lows the cache contents to be used indefinitely while the proxy
is cut off from network access to the remote DSA. The default
is FALSE, i.e. consistency checks and expirations will be per-
formed.
pcachePersist { TRUE | FALSE }
Specify whether the cached queries should be saved across
restarts of the caching proxy, to provide hot startup of the
cache. Only non-expired queries are reloaded. The default is
FALSE.
CAVEAT: of course, the configuration of the proxy cache must not
change across restarts; the pcache overlay does not perform any
consistency checks in this sense. In detail, this option should
be disabled unless the existing pcacheAttrset and pcacheTemplate
directives are not changed neither in order nor in contents. If
new sets and templates are added, or if other details of the
pcache overlay configuration changed, this feature should not be
affected.
pcacheTemplate <template_string> <attrset_index> <ttl> [<negttl>
[<limitttl> [<ttr>]]]
Specifies a cacheable template and "time to live" <ttl> of
queries belonging to the template. An optional <negttl> can be
used to specify that negative results (i.e., queries that re-
turned zero entries) should also be cached for the specified
amount of time. Negative results are not cached by default
(<negttl> set to 0). An optional <limitttl> can be used to
specify that results hitting a sizelimit should also be cached
for the specified amount of time. Results hitting a sizelimit
are not cached by default (<limitttl> set to 0). An optional
<ttr> "time to refresh" can be used to specify that cached en-
tries should be automatically refreshed after a certain time.
Entries will only be refreshed while they have not expired, so
the <ttl> should be larger than the <ttr> for this option to be
useful. Entries are not refreshed by default (<ttr> set to 0).
pcacheBind <filter_template> <attrset_index> <ttr> <scope> <base>
Specifies a template for caching Simple Bind credentials based
on an already defined pcacheTemplate. The <filter_template> is
similar to a <template_string> except that it may have some val-
ues present. Its purpose is to allow the overlay to generate
filters similar to what other applications do when they do a
Search immediately before a Bind. E.g., if a client like
nss_ldap is configured to search for a user with the filter
"(&(objectClass=posixAccount)(uid=<username>))" then the corre-
sponding template "(&(objectClass=posixAccount)(uid=))" should
be used here. When converted to a regular template e.g. "(&(ob-
jectClass=)(uid=))" this template and the <attrset_index> must
match an already defined pcacheTemplate clause. The "time to re-
fresh" <ttr> determines the time interval after which the cached
credentials may be refreshed. The first Bind request that occurs
after that time will trigger the refresh attempt. Refreshes are
not performed when the overlay is Offline. There is no "time to
live" parameter for the Bind credentials; the credentials will
expire according to the pcacheTemplate ttl. The <scope> and
<base> should match the search scope and base used by the au-
thentication clients. The cached credentials are not stored in
cleartext, they are hashed using the default password hash. By
default Bind caching is not enabled.
pcachePosition { head | tail }
Specifies whether the response callback should be placed at the
tail (the default) or at the head (actually, wherever the stack-
ing sequence would make it appear) of the callback list. This
affects how the overlay interacts with other overlays, since the
proxycache overlay should be executed as early as possible (and
thus configured as late as possible), to get a chance to return
the cached results; however, if executed early at response, it
would cache entries that may be later "massaged" by other data-
bases and thus returned after massaging the first time, and be-
fore massaging when cached.
There are some constraints:
all values must be positive;
<entry_limit> must be less than or equal to <max_entries>;
<numattrsets> attribute sets SHOULD be defined by using the di-
rective pcacheAttrset;
all attribute sets SHOULD be referenced by (at least) one pca-
cheTemplate directive;
The following adds a template with filter string (&(sn=)(givenName=))
and attributes mail, postaladdress, telephonenumber and a TTL of 1
hour.
pcacheAttrset 0 mail postaladdress telephonenumber
pcacheTemplate (&(sn=)(givenName=)) 0 3600
Directives for configuring the underlying database must also be given,
as shown here:
directory /var/tmp/cache
cachesize 100
Any valid directives for the chosen database type may be used. Indexing
should be used as appropriate for the queries being handled. In addi-
tion, an equality index on the pcacheQueryid attribute should be con-
figured, to assist in the removal of expired query data.
BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY
The configuration keywords have been renamed and the older form is dep-
recated. These older keywords are still recognized but may disappear in
future releases.
proxycache
use pcache
proxyattrset
use pcacheAttrset
proxycachequeries
use pcacheMaxQueries
proxycheckcacheability
use pcacheValidate
proxysavequeries
use pcachePersist
proxytemplate
use pcacheTemplate
response-callback
use pcachePosition
CAVEATS
Caching data is prone to inconsistencies because updates on the remote
server will not be reflected in the response of the cache at least (and
at most) for the duration of the pcacheTemplate TTL. These inconsis-
tencies can be minimized by careful use of the TTR.
The proxy cache overlay requires a full result set of data to properly
function. Therefore it will strip out the paged results control if it
is requested by the client.
The remote server should expose the objectClass attribute because the
underlying database that actually caches the entries may need it for
optimal local processing of the queries.
The proxy server should contain all the schema information required for
caching. Significantly, it needs the schema of attributes used in the
query templates. If the objectClass attribute is used in a query tem-
plate, it needs the definition of the objectClasses of the entries it
is supposed to cache. It is the responsibility of the proxy adminis-
trator to keep the proxy schema lined up with that of the proxied
server.
Another potential (and subtle) inconsistency may occur when data is re-
trieved with different identities and specific per-identity access con-
trol is enforced by the remote server. If data was retrieved with an
identity that collected only partial results because of access rules
enforcement on the remote server, other users with different access
privileges on the remote server will get different results from the re-
mote server and from the cache. If those users have higher access
privileges on the remote server, they will get from the cache only a
subset of the results they would get directly from the remote server;
but if they have lower access privileges, they will get from the cache
a superset of the results they would get directly from the remote
server. Either occurrence may or may not be acceptable, based on the
security policy of the cache and of the remote server. It is important
to note that in this case the proxy is violating the security of the
remote server by disclosing to an identity data that was collected by
another identity. For this reason, it is suggested that, when using
back-ldap, proxy caching be used in conjunction with the identity as-
sertion feature of slapd-ldap(5) (see the idassert-bind and the
idassert-authz statements), so that remote server interrogation occurs
with a vanilla identity that has some relatively high search and read
access privileges, and the "real" access control is delegated to the
proxy's ACLs. Beware that since only the cached fraction of the real
datum is available to the cache, it may not be possible to enforce the
same access rules that are defined on the remote server. When security
is a concern, cached proxy access must be carefully tailored.
FILES
/etc/ldap/slapd.conf
default slapd configuration file
SEE ALSO
slapd.conf(5), slapd-config(5), slapd-ldap(5), slapd-meta(5),
slapd-sql(5), slapd(8).
AUTHOR
Originally implemented by Apurva Kumar as an extension to back-meta;
turned into an overlay by Howard Chu.
OpenLDAP 2.5.13+dfsg-5 2022/07/14 SLAPO-PCACHE(5)
Generated by dwww version 1.15 on Mon Sep 1 21:41:09 CEST 2025.