OLC ppolicy

[Jeremy Trammell - DLA <jtrammell@deeplearninganalytics.com>]

Greetings,

I'm trying to set up a very simple LDAP server using OpenLDAP (via OLC) 
and it seems hopeless.  The sticking point is ppolicy.  I have followed 
several online guides 
(http://www.ryanfrantz.com/posts/openldap-implementing-the-password-policy-overlay/, 
https://www.oostergo.net/node/85, to name a few), all of which seem to 
essentially detail the same procedure, and have met with no success.  
Whilst following those instructions, I receive no error messages.  All 
commands complete successfully and do not indicate failures of any 
kind.  Looking at the cn=config and target DITs, all data seems to have 
been imported as expected.  Despite that fact, passwd follows a "mystery 
policy" which bears no resemblance to the policy that I have specified, 
and ldappasswd follows "no policy at all you can do whatever you want".  
Is there some way for me to empirically determine what these commands 
are doing, and why my policy does nothing?  Thanks in advance...

cn=module{0},cn=config
> objectClass: olcModuleList
> cn: module{0}
> olcModuleLoad: {0}ppolicy.la
> olcModuleLoad: {1}back_hdb
> olcModuleLoad: {2}ppolicy
> olcModulePath: /usr/lib/ldap
olcDatabase={1}hdb,cn=config
> objectClass: olcDatabaseConfig
> objectClass: olcHdbConfig
> olcDatabase: {1}hdb
> olcDbDirectory: /var/lib/ldap
> olcAccess: {0}to attrs=userPassword,shadowLastChange by self write by 
> anonymous auth by dn="cn=admin,dc=dla" write by * none
> olcAccess: {1}to dn.base="" by * read
> olcAccess: {2}to * by self write by dn="cn=admin,dc=dla" write by * read
> olcDbCheckpoint: 512 30
> olcDbConfig: {0}set_cachesize 0 2097152 0
> olcDbConfig: {1}set_lk_max_objects 1500
> olcDbConfig: {2}set_lk_max_locks 1500
> olcDbConfig: {3}set_lk_max_lockers 1500
> olcDbIndex: objectClass eq
> olcLastMod: TRUE
> olcSuffix: dc=dla
olcOverlay={0}ppolicy,olcDatabase={1}hdb,cn=config
> objectClass: olcOverlayConfig
> objectClass: olcPPolicyConfig
> olcOverlay: {0}ppolicy
> olcPPolicyDefault: cn=passwordDefault,ou=policies,dc=dla
> olcPPolicyForwardUpdates: FALSE
> olcPPolicyHashCleartext: TRUE
> olcPPolicyUseLockout: FALSE
cn=passwordDefault,ou=policies,dc=dla
> objectClass: person
> objectClass: pwdPolicy
> objectClass: pwdPolicyChecker
> objectClass: top
> cn: passwordDefault
> pwdAttribute: 2.5.4.35
> sn: passwordDefault
> pwdMinLength: 12