Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Tue, 19 Aug 2014 15:14:11 +0200
From:      Harald Schmalzbauer <h.schmalzbauer@omnilan.de>
To:        Peter Wemm <peter@wemm.org>
Cc:        "O. Hartmann" <ohartman@zedat.fu-berlin.de>, freebsd-current@freebsd.org, "Eggert, Lars" <lars@netapp.com>, "current@freebsd.org" <current@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: nscd not caching
Message-ID:  <53F34DA3.70609@omnilan.de>
In-Reply-To: <2295097.hWnAh3kd1o@overcee.wemm.org>
References:  <FA0C5D1E-780A-4B01-8513-5A4B77DA051D@netapp.com> <D86D34C6-B5E8-4141-BD9F-FF88B056DF6B@netapp.com> <20140817152202.6ec8e374.ohartman@zedat.fu-berlin.de> <2295097.hWnAh3kd1o@overcee.wemm.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156)
--------------enigE7E1CB56669F1BB3277EFBDA
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

 Bez=FCglich Peter Wemm's Nachricht vom 17.08.2014 19:18 (localtime):
> On Sunday 17 August 2014 15:22:02 O. Hartmann wrote:
>> Am Sun, 17 Aug 2014 13:09:10 +0000
>>
>> "Eggert, Lars" <lars@netapp.com> schrieb:
>>> Nobody using nscd? Really?
>> I can only speak for myself and I stopped using nscd since the support=
 is
>> crap.
>>
>> A while ago (t > 1 1/2 years) I realised within a OpenLDAP environment=
, that
>> when nscd is running, sometimes the system simple "forgets" about root=
 -
>> this is painful while installing/updating ports and getting interrupte=
d
>> with a weird error "unknown user root".
>>
>> nscd is supposed to be used in large environments where the cost for a=
 user
>> lookup, like in OpenLDAP, is worse. But obviously FreeBSD isn't used i=
n
>> that large environments with OpenLDAP and I'm wondering what the purpo=
se of
>> nscd is.
> The other problem is that net/nss_ldap and security/pam_ldap have kind =
of been=20
> left behind for performance and robustness.  People who use this seriou=
sy tend=20
> to discover net/nss-pam-ldapd fairly quickly which has its own caching =
proxy=20
> and eliminates the need for nscd.
>
> With nss_ldap and pam_ldap, the openldap client libraries and startup c=
ost is=20
> linked into every single binary that uses it.
>
> WIth pam-nss-ldapd, it's a simple unix domain socket (with peercred=20
> authentication) and no heavy-weight libraries in the consumers. The pro=
xy on=20
> the other end of the socket keeps a ldap connection open (with an idle =

> timeout).  The whole thing was vastly more robust and efficient.
>
> At least that's what we found in the freebsd.org cluster.  nss-pam-ldap=
d was=20
> two or three orders of magnitude more usable and got rid of nscd in the=
=20
> process.
>
> For us, nscd "worked", but it just didn't save much effort because it w=
as a=20
> per-uid cache.  ie: if "jkh" had just caused a ldap search, and "peter"=
=20
> repeated it, it had to be done again from scratch.
>
> The downside for nss-pam-ldapd was that it uses a non-extensible wire p=
rotocol=20
> and didn't have room for bsd-style login classes.

This exactly refelcts my experiences too, which is why I'm wondering if
net/nss-pam-ldapd is a serious base candidate.
When nscd showed up (arround 7.0-Release if I remember correctly), it
was a big and highly appreciated improovement for me, reducing
interactivity lags of gnome e.g. by at least a factor of 4 for usual
desktop user tasks when user database was LDAP driven.
At that time there were rumors that FreeBSD needs LDAP user-database
support, but with the glitches of net/nss_ldap, it seemed that there's
no ready-to-implement solution at that time.
Things changed completely with net/nss-pam-ldapd. Haven't had any
negative experiences with single-LDAP backend networks. Haven't had big
environments yet either, but I think it's time to think about
base-LDAP-support again. net/nss-pam-ldapd is GPL licensed, so I guess
it won't get into base, but it was a great template, is it?

-Harry




--------------enigE7E1CB56669F1BB3277EFBDA
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc"
Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc"

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.18 (FreeBSD)

iEYEARECAAYFAlPzTakACgkQLDqVQ9VXb8i0JwCfUfiyTU004LZSbl88QSwOsjNy
9vgAoKwtVqIdEMdnMVWDlMrHsmqdUyna
=EDYp
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--------------enigE7E1CB56669F1BB3277EFBDA--



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?53F34DA3.70609>