MQAUSX LDAP on Linux x86 & Linux x64

February 1, 2012 Roger Lacroix

When MQAUSX first supported LDAP authentication, Capitalware used Novell’s LDAP Libraries for C for AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Linux x86, Linux x64 (x86 64-bit) and Windows. Several years ago, for AIX, HP-UX and Solaris platforms, we switched to the native/included client LDAP libraries that are available for each OS (Operating System).

This week, a weird bug was discovered in the native/included OpenLDAP Client on Linux for zSeries. OpenLDAP has deprecated ldap_init() function in favor of ldap_initialize() function. Even though ldap_init() function is still supported by OpenLDAP, the client LDAP library crashes when it is used on Linux for zSeries. Therefore, I am going to switch the ldap call from ldap_init() to ldap_initialize() on all platforms that use OpenLDAP.

MQAUSX LDAP is supported on 4 Linux distributions: x86, x64, Power and zSeries. But of course there are always wrinkles: MQAUSX LDAP uses 2 different LDAP clients on the various Linux distributions.

  • Linux x86 and Linux x64 use Novell’s LDAP Libraries for C
  • Linux on Power and Linux on zSeries use the native/included OpenLDAP

So, to be consistent on all Linux distributions, MQAUSX LDAP will only use OpenLDAP in all future releases.

So, what does this mean for customers?

  1. Starting with v1.5.2.7, MQAUSX will no longer include Novell’s LDAP Libraries for Linux x86 or Linux x64
  2. If you wish to use MQAUSX LDAP (v1.5.2.7 or higher) on Linux x86 or Linux x64 then the “openldap-clients” package must be installed on your Linux server. There is a high probability that this package is already installed on your Linux server. A quick way to check is to issue the following Linux command:
rpm -q -a | grep -i ldap

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

This entry was posted in Capitalware, IBM MQ, Linux, MQ Authenticate User Security Exit, Security.

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