Re: referrals, do they work in 1.2.11

["Kurt D. Zeilenga" <Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>]

At 10:17 AM 10/12/00 -0400, Downs, John wrote:
>We are having no luck getting referrals to work in OpenLDAP 1.2.11.
>Does it work?

Other than the known limitations (see list for details)
of U-Mich LDAPv2+ referrals, they work just fine.

>        Is there a special trick to getting it to work.

No special tricks... other than proper configuration.  See
the U-Mich guide here for details.
  http://www.openldap.org/faq/index.cgi?file=106

>I have the  referral
>line set in the slapd.conf
>file. When I try to query that server for a non-existent DN it promptly
>returns "object no found"
>and shows no sign of following the referral.

The default referral (slapd.conf/referral) is should be returned
to the client if the requested DN is under any of the configured
suffixes (naming contexts).  That is, the default referral holds
the a reference to the superior service.  Note that the server
doesn't "follow" the referral itself, it returns the referral to
the client so the client can follow it.

Subordinate referrals are held in the directory (as referral
entries) and these will be returned to the client only(*) as
search continuations  [* this is one of the above mentioned
limitations].

>Is there a relationship between searchbasedn and
>referrals? What is it?

Yes.   If the requested search base is not below any of the
services suffixes, the default (superior) referral is returned
if provided in slapd.conf else noSuchObject.  If the requested
search base is below a service suffix but is not held by the
backend, noSuchObject is returned.  If the requested search base
is below a service suffix, but is held by the backend, all
referrals within scope are returned.  These are referred to as
"search continuations" or "search references".