I recently deleted about 25k entries in a specific OU. Since, the memory usage of the slapd process has consistently stayed at 70%-75% cpu usage: Is this normal behavior? Is there a way to purge the database files?
Yes, this is normal. Like most database software, when you delete data, it writes it with empty space so that it can re-use it when you create new data. If believe that data is forever gone, I suggest slapcat then slapadd to resize the DB.
You don't say what OpenLDAP version or replication method you are using, so the rest of your question about syncing is rather difficult to have an opinion on.
--Quanah -- Quanah Gibson-Mount Sr. Member of Technical Staff Zimbra, Inc A Division of VMware, Inc. -------------------- Zimbra :: the leader in open source messaging and collaboration