slapo-pcache(5) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY | CAVEATS | FILES | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | COLOPHON

SLAPO-PCACHE(5)            File Formats Manual            SLAPO-PCACHE(5)

NAME         top

       slapo-pcache - proxy cache overlay to slapd

SYNOPSIS         top

       ETCDIR/slapd.conf

DESCRIPTION         top

       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 contained in a cached request, it is
       answered from the proxy cache.  Otherwise, 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 removing 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 particularly 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
              backend. 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 replacement 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 correspond to a cacheable
              template (specified by the pcacheTemplate directive) and
              the number of entries returned is less than <entry_limit>.
              Consistency check is performed every <cc_period> duration
              (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 <numattrsets>-1. These indices are used by the
              pcacheTemplate directive to define cacheable templates.  A
              set of attributes cannot be empty.  A set of attributes can
              contain the special attributes "*" (all user attributes),
              "+" (all operational attributes) or both; in the latter
              case, any other attribute is redundant and should be
              avoided for clarity.  A set of attributes 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.  The "undef" keyword
              cannot be used with the slapd-mdb(5) backend as it requires
              all schema elements be fully defined.

       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 allows 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 performed.

       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 returned 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 entries 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 values 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
              corresponding template
              "(&(objectClass=posixAccount)(uid=))" should be used here.
              When converted to a regular template e.g.
              "(&(objectClass=)(uid=))" this template and the
              <attrset_index> must match an already defined
              pcacheTemplate clause. The "time to refresh" <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 authentication 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 stacking 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 databases and
              thus returned after massaging the first time, and before
              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
              directive pcacheAttrset;

              all attribute sets SHOULD be referenced by (at least) one
              pcacheTemplate 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
              maxsize   1073741824

       Any valid directives for the chosen database type may be used.
       Indexing should be used as appropriate for the queries being
       handled. In addition, an equality index on the pcacheQueryid
       attribute should be configured, to assist in the removal of
       expired query data.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY         top

       The configuration keywords have been renamed and the older form is
       deprecated. 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         top

       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 inconsistencies 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 template, it needs the definition of
       the objectClasses of the entries it is supposed to cache.  It is
       the responsibility of the proxy administrator to keep the proxy
       schema lined up with that of the proxied server.

       Another potential (and subtle) inconsistency may occur when data
       is retrieved with different identities and specific per-identity
       access control 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 remote 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 assertion 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         top

       ETCDIR/slapd.conf
              default slapd configuration file

SEE ALSO         top

       slapd.conf(5), slapd-config(5), slapd-ldap(5), slapd-meta(5),
       slapd-sql(5), slapd(8).

AUTHOR         top

       Originally implemented by Apurva Kumar as an extension to back-
       meta; turned into an overlay by Howard Chu.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the OpenLDAP (an open source implementation
       of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.openldap.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, see ⟨http://www.openldap.org/its/⟩.  This page was
       obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://git.openldap.org/openldap/openldap.git⟩ on 2025-02-02.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2025-01-06.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

OpenLDAP LDVERSION             RELEASEDATE                SLAPO-PCACHE(5)

Pages that refer to this page: slapd-asyncmeta(5)slapd-ldap(5)slapd-meta(5)slapd.overlays(5)slapd-sql(5)