With this method, you use the LDAP client of your choice (e.g., the ldapadd(1)) to add entries, just like you would once the database is created. You should be sure to set the following options in the configuration file before starting slapd(8).
suffix <dn>
As described in the General Database Directives section, this option defines which entries are to be held by this database. You should set this to the DN of the root of the subtree you are trying to create. For example:
suffix "dc=example,dc=com"
You should be sure to specify a directory where the index files should be created:
directory <directory>
For example:
directory /usr/local/var/openldap-data
You need to create this directory with appropriate permissions such that slapd can write to it.
You need to configure slapd so that you can connect to it as a directory user with permission to add entries. You can configure the directory to support a special super-user or root user just for this purpose. This is done through the following two options in the database definition:
rootdn <dn>
rootpw <passwd>
For example:
rootdn "cn=Manager,dc=example,dc=com"
rootpw secret
These options specify a DN and password that can be used to authenticate as the super-user entry of the database (i.e., the entry allowed to do anything). The DN and password specified here will always work, regardless of whether the entry named actually exists or has the password given. This solves the chicken-and-egg problem of how to authenticate and add entries before any entries yet exist.
Finally, you should make sure that the database definition contains the index definitions you want:
index {<attrlist> | default} [pres,eq,approx,sub,none]
For example, to index the cn, sn, uid and objectclass attributes, the following index directives could be used:
index cn,sn,uid pres,eq,approx,sub
index objectClass eq
This would create presence, equality, approximate, and substring indices for the cn, sn, and uid attributes and an equality index for the objectClass attribute. Note that not all index types are available with all attribute types. See The slapd Configuration File section for more information on this option.
Once you have configured things to your liking, start up slapd, connect with your LDAP client, and start adding entries. For example, to add an organization entry and an organizational role entry using the ldapadd tool, you could create an LDIF file called entries.ldif with the contents:
# Organization for Example Corporation
dn: dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: dcObject
objectClass: organization
dc: example
o: Example Corporation
description: The Example Corporation
# Organizational Role for Directory Manager
dn: cn=Manager,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalRole
cn: Manager
description: Directory Manager
and then use a command like this to actually create the entry:
ldapadd -f entries.ldif -x -D "cn=Manager,dc=example,dc=com" -w secret
The above command assumes settings provided in the above examples.
