Solved: index_param failed

[schaly_wolf-agathon@t-online.de (Wolf-Agathon Schaly)]

Group

I had, as I could see more listmembers as well, the annying issue with
the failed message indicated by the subject. My LDAP is a tiny one but
had _tonns_ of the failed messages.

The solution that was mentioned - missing index - didn't solve my issue.
Even I found an article on the web written by Dieter Kluenther (BTW:
Thank you Dieter for your exellent book) mentioning that the
uniqueMember is not indexable. 

So far so good. The 'index_param failed' did not show up under 2.1.13
with the absolut same LDIF but under all 2.2.xx version I've worked with
or had compiled/installed.

Further lets look at the entire line - index_param failed was not the
full story. The full line of error message is 

<= bdb_equality_candidates: (uniqueMember) index_param failed (18)

That made me think ... Where in goods name came the "equality candidat"
from and why is that damn system looking for uniqueMember. I looked at
my LDIF - no non unique definition. 
But only for all "human beings" ... hmmm and some "non human" accounts
like mailman and dovecot. 



What is the solution:
At the end it is logic and easy - but you have to know. 

If you have an entry in you passwd/shadow AND your OpenLDAP database
you'll see this kind of messages. You simply need to delete either one
account in LDAP or your passwd.
BEWARE: DO NOT DELETE root from passwd but from LDAP - just in case your
LDAP is currupt, you'll never be able to login you your system. 


HTH 
Wolf-Agathon