OpenLDAP platform

Production-oriented OpenLDAP deployment recipes, packaged per target platform. Same directory tree, same overlays, same companion CLI — pick the runtime that matches your infrastructure.

Layouts

Target	Path	Modes
Docker Compose	docker/	standalone · HA active-passive (MirrorMode) · HA active-active (N-way multi-master)
Kubernetes (Helm chart)	kubernetes/	standalone · mirror · multi-master (+ full-auto HPA scaling) · +cross-cluster mesh · +read-only replica pool

Both layouts share the same LDIF bootstrap, the same overlays (memberof, refint, ppolicy, dynlist, accesslog, syncprov) and the same openldap-cli admin surface.

Feature parity

Behaviours common to both platforms:

• OpenLDAP on the minimal cleanstart/openldap image
• Delta-syncrepl HA (accesslog + syncprov)
• Least-privilege ACLs per OU, SSHA-hashed passwords, TLS/LDAPS
• Idempotent bootstrap + cert renewal (Docker: cron; Kubernetes: CronJob)
• Full admin surface via openldap-cli (users, groups, ppolicy, ACLs, overlays, tree-grants, backup, diagnostics)
• Prometheus monitoring via openldap_prometheus_exporter
• POSIX schema toggle for SSH / UNIX login
• Backup + accesslog purge automation

Kubernetes-only additions:

• Six declarative blocks reconciled on every helm upgrade — users, groups, policies, ACLs, tree-grants, overlays — one post-install/upgrade sync Job each
• Full-auto horizontal scaling in multi-master: HPA v2 (CPU/mem/Prometheus-adapter metrics) + chart-native cron scale windows (scaleSchedule), with an in-cluster scale-watcher Deployment that rebuilds cn=config peer topology on every scale event — no manual kubectl rollout restart
• Periodic config acl lint CronJob to flag shadowed / no-op olcAccess rules
• Per-user password Secret backend (nothing sensitive in values.yaml)
• Three TLS backends: cert-manager, in-cluster job (self-signed + auto-renew + rolling restart), or user-provided
• Ingress via ingress-nginx SSL passthrough or Gateway API TLSRoute
• Read-only replica pool for read-heavy fan-out
• NetworkPolicy + auto-PDB + PSA-restricted-ready hardening
• GitOps-ready reference manifests (Argo CD + Flux) + cross-cluster HA runbook

Companion tooling

• openldap-cli — single static Go binary. Day-to-day admin (users, groups, ppolicy, backup, diagnostics). Called by Docker admins directly and by the Kubernetes chart's sync Jobs.
• openldap_prometheus_exporter — Prometheus scraper for cn=Monitor. Docker: sidecar container; Kubernetes: sidecar in the StatefulSet + ServiceMonitor + baseline PrometheusRule.

Quick start

Docker Compose

cd docker/standalone
bash certs.sh          # optional: generate TLS material
bash setup.sh          # bootstrap + start

HA modes ship a 3-VM Vagrant test cluster (docker/ha-active-*/tests/). Full docs: docker/README.md.

Kubernetes

helm upgrade --install ldap kubernetes/charts/openldap-platform \
  --namespace ldap --create-namespace

Retrieve the auto-generated admin credentials:

kubectl -n ldap get secret ldap-openldap-admin \
  -o jsonpath='{.data.admin-password}' | base64 -d ; echo

Full docs: kubernetes/README.md. Operator handbook: kubernetes/docs/ (recipes, troubleshooting, sizing, backup/DR, migrate-from-docker, scaling, ...). GitOps + cross-cluster HA: kubernetes/gitops/ and kubernetes/docs/cross-cluster.md.

Repository layout

openldap-platform/
├── docker/                         # Docker Compose recipes (standalone + 2 HA modes)
│   ├── README.md                   # comprehensive per-mode ops handbook
│   ├── base-ldifs/                 # shared bootstrap LDIFs (OUs, admin, policies)
│   ├── standalone/                 # 1 slapd container
│   ├── ha-active-passive/          # 2 masters (MirrorMode) + consumers + HAProxy
│   └── ha-active-active/           # N masters (multi-master) + HAProxy
└── kubernetes/                     # Helm chart + operator handbook + test rig
    ├── README.md                   # feature-complete chart overview
    ├── Makefile                    # docs / docs-check / lint / dep-update
    ├── charts/openldap-platform/   # umbrella (openldap + phpldapadmin + SSP)
    ├── docs/                       # operator handbook (recipes, troubleshooting, cross-cluster, scaling, …)
    ├── gitops/                     # Argo CD + Flux reference manifests
    └── tests/cross-cluster/        # 2-VM Vagrant + minikube rig for cross-cluster HA

License

See LICENSE.