how to edit cn=config

[Scott Classen <sclassen@lbl.gov>]

Hello openldap community,

I am using openldap 2.4.6 (recently migrated directly from 2.3.37). I  
am using this for a very small community of users. I will have maybe  
50-60 users.

I have recently converted from using slapd.conf to using the slapd.d  
backend ldap database for configuring my openldap server. I am,  
however, unclear on the proper method to make changes to my  
configuration. When using slapd.conf it was fairly straight forward:  
edit the file with vi and restart slapd.

When using slapd.d should I directly edit the various LDIF files  
within the slapd.d/cn=config folder? This doesn't really seem like  
the proper way to do things so I haven't done this.

I'm fairly certain that I should make ldapmodify style LDIF files,  
but that can be a bit cumbersome for quick configuration changes. So  
I've started experimenting with various ldap GUI interfaces  
(phpldapadmin and JXplorer), thinking that they might display the  
entire cn=config databse in a human-readable form, but neither  
returns information about cn=config. Indeed a simple ldapsearch  
doesn't return any information either.

ldapsearch -x -D "uid=bigcheese,dc=my,dc=domain" -W "cn=config"

I know that my slapd.d backend is working because I've renamed the  
slapd.conf file so it is no longer recognized by slapd.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

ps I've read both the version 2.3 and 2.4 Administrator's Guide  
several times.