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Message Bus Hangs and NSS and LDAP

Overview

When configuring my nice shiny Scientific Linux v5.x box to authenticate via a remote LDAP server, it hangs on boot when trying to start the message bus. Why?

LDAP Config Details

/etc/nsswitch.conf:

  passwd:  files ldap
  shadow:  files ldap
  group:   files ldap

Workaround/Solution

Change the LDAP config so that nss_ldap.so's connections/queries to the remote LDAP server give up after a few seconds. To do this, put some lines in /etc/ldap.conf — which "nss_ldap" picks up:

  bind_policy soft
  bind_timelimit 5

  timelimit 5
      # ...don't recall if this one is actually needed...

Unanswered Question

Why is there an LDAP lookup in the first place, from the message bus? According to the LDAP admin, the queries are related to the dbus username — the required attributes are in (the local file) /etc/passwd, which, according to the nsswitch.conf configuration, should be consulted before LDAP.