[Fedora-directory-users] ldapmodify to add OU failed, and led to "ldap_search: Operations error"

[ken]

ldapmodify to add OU failed, and led to "ldap_search: Operations 
error"

I set up a directory and am feeling my way towards making it 
live by doing one thing at a time. I successfully added quite a 
large number of users using ldapmodify, and could retrieve them 
with ldapsearch and db2ldif.

Then I tried to add some new OUs in order to copy a subset of 
the OU hierarchy we have on Windows. But when I ran the 
ldapmodify it failed.

 From that moment on, every ldapsearch I tried resulted in:
   ldap_search: Operations error

I stopped and restarted the ldap daemon and  now every search I 
try produces:
   ldap_search: No such object

The database looks as if it is empty

What did I do wrong?  Can a botched modify so easily wipe out 
what is already there? Or are they secretly hiding somewhere? Is 
there a utility that can show me what is actually in the 
database even if I don't know what its root name is? (I thought 
db2ldif might do that and it shows nothing now)

I know I can wipe this database entirely (it looks like I 
already have!) and re-install. BUT I want to know what I did 
wrong so I don't do it again. The LDIFs to be imported into the 
directory will come from a program I wrote (it gathers 
information from various sources such as an SQL database, WAD, 
/etc/passwd...) and I really don't want to risk repeating my 
mistake in batch runs at 2am after we've gone live and coming in 
to find no-one can use the directory.


Any clues?

Examples of what I did:

Command used to import LDIF to define an OU

========================
ldapmodify -a -B "dc=bbk,dc=ac,dc=uk" -D "cn=directory manager" 
   -w [PWD]
========================

the LDIF that was used:

========================
dn: ou=students,ou=people,dc=bbk,dc=ac,dc=uk
objectClass: top
objectClass: organizationalunit
ou: students
========================

Error log from ldapmodify:

==========================================
[09/Jun/2008:19:54:47 +0100] - WARNING: Import is running with 
    nsslapd-db-private-import-mem on; No other process is 
allowed to access the database
[09/Jun/2008:19:54:47 +0100] - Bulk import: begin import on 
'dc=bbk,dc=ac,dc=uk'.
[09/Jun/2008:19:54:56 +0100] - import userRoot: WARNING: 
Skipping entry "ou=students,ou=people,dc=bbk,dc=ac,dc=uk" which 
has no parent, ending at line 0 of file "(bulk import)"
[09/Jun/2008:19:55:05 +0100] - import userRoot: Workers 
finished; cleaning up...
[09/Jun/2008:19:55:05 +0100] - import userRoot: Workers cleaned up.
[09/Jun/2008:19:55:05 +0100] - import userRoot: Indexing 
complete.  Post-processing...
[09/Jun/2008:19:55:05 +0100] - Nothing to do to build ancestorid 
index
[09/Jun/2008:19:55:05 +0100] - import userRoot: Flushing caches...
[09/Jun/2008:19:55:05 +0100] - import userRoot: Closing files...
[09/Jun/2008:19:55:05 +0100] - import userRoot: Import complete. 
  Processed 1 entries (1 were skipped) in 18 seconds. (0.06 
entries/sec)
[09/Jun/2008:19:55:05 +0100] - Bulk import completed successfully.
==========================================

There was no error message on the screen, but the log says the 
object "has no parent". Though as far as I can tell it has the 
same parent as the user entries I added successfully, such as:

========================
# ldapsearch -b 'dc=bbk,dc=ac,dc=uk' -D "cn=directory manager" 
-w [PWD] '(objectclass=person)'
version: 1
dn: cn=xlean99,ou=people,dc=bbk,dc=ac,dc=uk
cn: xlean99
description: A mythical person to test LDAP with
objectClass: person
objectClass: top
sn: Lean
========================

Which was in there but is no longer.

But now I see things like:

========================
[ken@~]$  /usr/lib/mozldap/ldapsearch -b 'dc=bbk,dc=ac,dc=uk' -D 
"cn=uxxxxxx" '(cn=uxxxxxx)'
ldap_search: No such object

[ken@~]$ ldapsearch -b 'dc=bbk,dc=ac,dc=uk' -D "cn=directory 
manager" -w [PWD] '(objectclass=person)'
ldap_search: No such object

[ken@~]$ ldapsearch  -b 'dc=bbk,dc=ac,dc=uk' '(objectclass=*)'
ldap_search: No such object
========================

And most worryingly of all:

========================
[ken@~]$ ldapsearch -b "" -s base -D "cn=directory manager" -w 
[PWD] '(objectclass=*)' namingContext
version: 1
dn:
[ken@~]$
========================

:-(

It's not a permissions problem because this works:

========================
ldapsearch -b o=netscaperoot "objectclass=*" cn
========================

This also still works:

========================
[]# /usr/lib/dirsrv/slapd-ldap1/db2ldif -n NetscapeRoot -a 
/tmp/stuff2.ldif
Exported ldif file: /tmp/stuff2.ldif
ldiffile: /tmp/stuff2.ldif
[11/Jun/2008:14:03:47 +0100] - export NetscapeRoot: Processed 95 
entries (100%).
[11/Jun/2008:14:03:47 +0100] - All database threads now stopped
========================

But this produces nothing:

========================
[]# /usr/lib/dirsrv/slapd-ldap1/db2ldif -n UserRoot -a 
/tmp/stuffU.ldif
Exported ldif file: /tmp/stuffU.ldif
ldiffile: /tmp/stuffU.ldif
[11/Jun/2008:14:38:23 +0100] - All database threads now stopped
[]# more /tmp/stuffU.ldif
version: 1
========================