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Chapter 4. Searching Identity Management entries from the command line

The following sections describe how to use IPA commands, which helps you to find or show objects.

4.1. Overview of listing IdM entries

You can use the ipa *-find commands to help you to search for particular types of IdM entries.

To list all the find commands, use the following ipa help command:

$ ipa help commands | grep find

You may need to check if a particular user is included in the IdM database. You can then list all users with the following command:

$ ipa user-find

To list user groups whose specified attributes contain a keyword:

$ ipa group-find keyword

For example the ipa group-find admin command lists all groups whose names or descriptions include string admin:

----------------
3 groups matched
----------------
   Group name: admins
   Description: Account administrators group
   GID: 427200002

   Group name: editors
   Description: Limited admins who can edit other users
   GID: 427200002

   Group name: trust admins
   Description: Trusts administrators group

When searching user groups, you can also limit the search results to groups that contain a particular user:

$ ipa group-find --user=user_name

To search for groups that do not contain a particular user:

$ ipa group-find --no-user=user_name

4.2. Showing details for a particular entry

Use the ipa *-show command to display details about a particular IdM entry.

Procedure

  • To display details about a host named server.example.com:

    $ ipa host-show server.example.com
    
    Host name: server.example.com
    Principal name: host/server.example.com@EXAMPLE.COM
    ...

4.3. Adjusting the search size and time limit

Some queries, such as requesting a list of IdM users, can return a very large number of entries. By tuning these search operations, you can improve the overall server performance when running the ipa *-find commands, such as ipa user-find, and when displaying corresponding lists in the Web UI.

Search size limit

Defines the maximum number of entries returned for a request sent to the server from a client’s CLI or from a browser accessing the IdM Web UI.

Default: 100 entries.

Search time limit

Defines the maximum time (in seconds) that the server waits for searches to run. Once the search reaches this limit, the server stops the search and returns the entries discovered in that time.

Default: 2 seconds.

If you set the values to -1, IdM will not apply any limits when searching.

Important

Setting search size or time limits too high can negatively affect server performance.

4.3.1. Adjusting the search size and time limit in the command line

The following procedure describes adjusting search size and time limits in the command line:

  • Globally
  • For a specific entry

Procedure

  1. To display current search time and size limits in CLI, use the ipa config-show command:

    $ ipa config-show
    
    Search time limit: 2
    Search size limit: 100
  2. To adjust the limits globally for all queries, use the ipa config-mod command and add the --searchrecordslimit and --searchtimelimit options. For example:

    $ ipa config-mod --searchrecordslimit=500 --searchtimelimit=5
  3. To temporarily adjust the limits only for a specific query, add the --sizelimit or --timelimit options to the command. For example:
$ ipa user-find --sizelimit=200 --timelimit=120

4.3.2. Adjusting the search size and time limit in the Web UI

The following procedure describes adjusting global search size and time limits in the IdM Web UI.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the IdM Web UI.
  2. Click IPA Server.

    Screenshot of the IdM Web UI highlighting the "IPA Server" tab from the top menu

  3. On the IPA Server tab, click Configuration.
  4. Set the required values in the Search Options area.

    Default values are:

    • Search size limit: 100 entries
    • Search time limit: 2 seconds
  5. Click Save at the top of the page.

    Screenshot of the IdM Web UI highlighting the Save button which is below the "Configuration" title at the top of the Configuration page