How to troubleshoot duplicate attributeType issue in ldap schema file during slapd service start/restart ?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1
  • Open LDAP 2.4

Issue

  • How to troubleshoot duplicate attributeType issue in ldap schema file during slapd service start/restart ?
  • Following error is observed after adding new custom schema file "rh-mail.schema" and starting slapd service
[root@ldapserver ~]# /etc/init.d/slapd start
Checking configuration files for slapd:     [FAILED]
/etc/openldap/schema/rh-mail.schema: line 54 attributetype: Inconsistent duplicate attributeType: "mailHost"
slaptest: bad configuration file!

Resolution

Here are the steps to identify duplicate atrribute.

  1. Go to openldap schema directory
# cd /etc/openldap/schema

2. Command to identify schema files which contains duplicate attribute.

# grep -w <attributeName> *.schema           

Example: 

# grep -w mailHost *.schema

Note: For this issue the entry was available in both misc.schema and rh-mail.schema

3. Identify the objectClass name which will be used to add the "mailHost" attributeType in the database.

Example:

inetMailPerson

4. Identify the schema file which contains the objectClass.

# grep -w <objectClass name> *.schema 

Example:

# grep -w inetMailPerson *.schema

5. Remove/comment the duplicate attributeType entry from the schema file which does not have the objectClass defined.

Example: 

misc.schema

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