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 2023-12-22.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2023-12-19.)  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)