LDAP server gone -> impossible to login locally!

[Dmitriy Kirhlarov]

John Marshall wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Sep 2009, 11:53 +0000, O. Hartmann wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I run into trouble with FreeBSD and LDAP on a regular basis!
>>
>> Sometimes it is necessary to log in onto a bunch of servers with no LDAP 
>> service responding, due to service, crash, eletrically disconnetion, 
>> whatever. The problem is: I can't.
>> Using all prerequisits from ports (pam_ldap/nss_ldap/ldap as most 
>> recent) my /etc/nsswitch.conf looks like this as it has been the most 
>> reasonable (and only working!) solution for the past 2 years:
>>
>> passwd: ldap [unavail=continue notfound=continue] files [success=return 
>> notfound=return]
>>
>> The same for group. Intention is to have root- or wheel-group access of 
>> local managed service users without timeouts due to irresponsible LDAP 
>> servers. But it does not work!
>> If the LDAP service is not available, FreeBSD 8.0/AMD64-RC1 (most recent 
>> source/build) does nothing for approx. 120 seconds and sometimes much 
>> longer when trying to login as root from console. In some cases, the 
>> same box under the very same conditions refuses login due to a timeout, 
>> very strange.
>>
>> After a couple of time and lots of questiosn, the above showed 
>> nsswitch.conf entries were evaluated as those which should work, but 
>> exchanging 'ldap' and 'files' results in a never-can-login-situation, 
>> when LDAP isn't responsible.
>>
>> Is there a way to shorten the timeouts and if yes, where to look for? 2 
>> minutes for a login within services sessions is too much, a waste of 
>> time. Our network is very fast, so 30 seconds should be enough ...
> 
> I've only recently started playing with LDAP but it sounds to me like
> you probably have one of the 'hard' options set for the reconnect policy
> in your nss_ldap.conf file.  I use 'bind_policy soft' so that if the
> LDAP server isn't available we fail over to the next nsswitch service
> immediately.
> 
> I don't think further discussion of this thread belongs on the
> freebsd-current list.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 

bind_policy soft
is a bad solution. When you have network lags, you have chance to get 
flapping connection error.

http://www.liquidx.net/blog/2006/04/03/nss_ldap-undocumented-nss_reconnect_tries/
nss_reconnect_sleeptime 0
nss_reconnect_maxsleeptime 1
nss_reconnect_maxconntries 1

WBR