Changing Attributes While the Server Is Online

In previous versions of Directory Server, attributes such as the all IDs threshold and the data directory paths that correspond to the dsconf command properties db-env-path, db-log-path, and db-path required the server to be offline when the attribute value was changed. You can now change the values of such attributes while the instance is online.

Although the values can be changed online, changes for some attributes might not take effect until after the instance has been restarted. In addition, some changes require manual intervention before restarting. For example, you can change the data directory path settings with the server online, but before you restart the server to put the change into effect, you must perform the following procedure.

To Change the Data Directory Path With the Server Online

Before You Begin

The reference manual pages indicate that after you change the server db-env-path, db-log-path, or the suffix db-path, you must perform an export to LDIF, and then import from LDIF. Alternatively, you can move the data files. If, however, any of the steps in the following procedure do not complete successfully, or if the new configuration does not coincide exactly with the layout resulting from the steps of this procedure, you must reinitialize the server or restore from backup.

1. Back up your server, or make sure that you can reinitialize the server from another instance.

2. Create the new file system directory with the same ownership and permissions as the old file system directory.

   Make sure the new directory resides in a file system with enough free space to hold the data.

3. Stop the server.

   If the server is not stopped cleanly, you must reinitialize the server or restore from backup.

4. Move, do not copy, the files from the old file system directory to the new file system directory.

   Parameter	db-env-path	db-log-path	db-path
   Files to move	instance-dir/db/_db.* instance-dir/db/DBVERSION	instance-dir/db/log.*	instance-dir/db/backend-dir/*

5. If the old directory is now empty, or contains only empty directories, delete the old directory.

6. Restart the server.