Cookbook

Here in this cookbook, you’ll find some recipes for various use case of ldap2pg.

If you struggle to find a way to setup ldap2pg for your needs, please file an issue so that we can update Cookbook with new recipes! Your contribution is welcome!

Configure `pg_hba.conf` with LDAP¶

ldap2pg does NOT configure PostgreSQL for you. You should carefully read PostgreSQL LDAP documentation for this point. Having PostgreSQL properly configured before writing ldap2pg.yaml is a good start. Here is the steps to setup PostgreSQL with LDAP in the best order:

Write the LDAP search and test it with ldapsearch(1). This way, you can also check how you connect to your LDAP directory.
In PostgreSQL cluster, manually create a single role having its password in LDAP directory.
Edit pg_hba.conf following PostgreSQL LDAP documentation until you can effectively login with the single role and the password from LDAP.

Once you have LDAP authentication configured in PostgreSQL cluster, you can move to automate role creation from the LDAP directory using ldap2pg:

Write a simple ldap2pg.yaml with only one LDAP search just to setup ldap2pg connection parameters for PostgreSQL and LDAP connection. ldap2pg always run in dry mode by default, so you can safely loop ldap2pg execution until you get it right.
Then, complete ldap2pg.yaml to fit your needs following ldap2pg documentation. Run ldap2pg for real and check that ldap2pg maintain your single test role, and that you can still connect to the cluster with it.
Finally, you must decide when and how you want to trigger synchronization: a regular cron tab ? An ansible task ? Manually ? Other ? Ensure ldap2pg execution is frequent, on purpose and notified.

Search LDAP Directory¶

The first step is to search your LDAP server with ldapsearch(1), the CLI tool from OpenLDAP. Like this:

$ ldapsearch -H ldaps://ldap.ldap2pg.docker -U testsasl -W -b dc=ldap,dc=ldap2pg,dc=docker
Enter LDAP Password:
SASL/DIGEST-MD5 authentication started
SASL username: testsasl
SASL SSF: 128
SASL data security layer installed.
# extended LDIF
#
# LDAPv3
...
# search result
search: 4
result: 0 Success

# numResponses: 16
# numEntries: 15
$

Now save the settings in ldaprc:

LDAPURI ldaps://ldap.ldap2pg.docker
LDAPSASL_AUTHCID testsasl

And in environment: LDAPPASSWORD=secret

Next, update your ldapsearch(1) to properly match role entries in LDAP server:

$ ldapsearch -H ldaps://ldap.ldap2pg.docker -U testsasl -W -b cn=dba,ou=groups,dc=ldap,dc=ldap2pg,dc=docker '' member
...
# dba, groups, ldap.ldap2pg.docker
dn: cn=dba,ou=groups,dc=ldap,dc=ldap2pg,dc=docker
member: cn=Alan,ou=people,dc=ldap,dc=ldap2pg,dc=docker
member: cn=albert,ou=people,dc=ldap,dc=ldap2pg,dc=docker
member: cn=ALICE,ou=people,dc=ldap,dc=ldap2pg,dc=docker

# search result
search: 4
result: 0 Success

...
$

Now translate the query in ldap2pg.yaml and associate a role mapping to produce roles from each values of each entries returned by the LDAP search:

- ldapsearch:
    base: cn=dba,ou=groups,dc=ldap,dc=ldap2pg,dc=docker
  role:
    name: '{member.cn}'
    options: LOGIN SUPERUSER

Test it:

$ ldap2pg
...
Querying LDAP cn=dba,ou=groups,dc=ldap,dc=ldap2pg,dc=docker...
Would create alan.
Would create albert.
Would update options of alice.
...
Comparison complete.
$

Read further on how to control role creation from LDAP entry in Configuration. Once you’re satisfied with the comparison output, go real with --real.

Using LDAP High-Availability¶

ldap2pg supports LDAP HA out of the box just like any openldap client. Use a space separated list of URI to tells all servers.

$ LDAPURI="ldaps://ldap1 ldaps://ldap2" ldap2pg

See [ldap.conf(5)] for further details.

Running as non-superuser¶

Since Postgres provide a CREATEROLE role option, you can manage roles without superuser privileges. Security-wise, it’s a good idea to manage roles without super privileges.

ldap2pg supports this case. However, you must be careful about the limitations. Let’s call the non-super role creating other roles creator.

You can’t manage some roles options like SUPERUSER, BYPASSRLS and REPLICATION. Thus you wont be able to detect spurious superusers.
Ensure creator can revoke all grants of managed users.

Removing All Roles¶

If ever you want to clean all roles in a PostgreSQL cluster, ldap2pg could be helpful. You must explicitly define an empty rules.

$ echo 'rules: []' | ldap2pg --config - --real
...
Empty synchronization map. All roles will be dropped!
...

In this example, default blacklist applies. ldap2pg never drop its connection role.

ldap2pg as Docker container¶

Already familiar with Docker and willing to save the setup time? You’re at the right place.

To run the container simply use the command:

$ docker run --rm dalibo/ldap2pg --help

The Docker image of ldap2pg use the same configuration options as explained in the cli and ldap2pg.yml sections. You can mount the ldap2pg.yml configuration file.

$ docker run --rm -v ${PWD}/ldap2pg.yml:/workspace/ldap2pg.yml dalibo/ldap2pg

You can also export some environmnent variables with the -e option:

$ docker run --rm -v ${PWD}/ldap2pg.yml:/workspace/ldap2pg.yml -e PGDSN=postgres://postgres@localhost:5432/ -e LDAPURI=ldaps://localhost -e LDAPBINDDN=cn=you,dc=entreprise,dc=fr -e LDAPPASSWORD=pasglop dalibo/ldap2pg

Make sure your container can resolve the hostname your pointing to. If you use some internal name resolution be sure to add the –dns= option to your command pointing to your internal DNS server. More info