How to Set Up and Configure OpenLDAP in a Docker Container with PhpLDAPadmin

If you are looking to set up an LDAP server and need an easy way to manage it, installing OpenLDAP with phpLDAPadmin using Docker can make your life a lot easier.

LDAP or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is a protocol that allows users to access and maintain directory information services over the internet. It's used by many organizations for authentication, authorization, and other tasks.

1-Install Docker on your machine if you haven't already. You can download Docker from their website.

2-Create a new directory on your machine where you want to store the configuration files for your LDAP server.

3-Inside the newly created directory, create a new file called docker-compose.yml.

3-Copy the following code into the docker-compose.yml file.

version: '3.7'
services:
  openldap:
    image: osixia/openldap:latest
    container_name: openldap
    hostname: openldap
    ports: 
      - "389:389"
      - "636:636"
    volumes:
      - ./data/certificates:/container/service/slapd/assets/certs
      - ./data/slapd/database:/var/lib/ldap
      - ./data/slapd/config:/etc/ldap/slapd.d
    environment: 
      - LDAP_ORGANISATION=alibnr
      - LDAP_DOMAIN=alibnr.com
      - LDAP_ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
      - LDAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin_pass
      - LDAP_CONFIG_PASSWORD=config_pass
      - "LDAP_BASE_DN=dc=alibnr,dc=com"
      - LDAP_TLS_CRT_FILENAME=server.crt
      - LDAP_TLS_KEY_FILENAME=server.key
      - LDAP_TLS_CA_CRT_FILENAME=alibnr.com.ca.crt
      - LDAP_READONLY_USER=true
      - LDAP_READONLY_USER_USERNAME=user-ro
      - LDAP_READONLY_USER_PASSWORD=ro_pass
    networks:
      - openldap

  phpldapadmin:
    image: osixia/phpldapadmin:latest
    container_name: phpldapadmin
    hostname: phpldapadmin
    ports: 
      - "80:80"
    environment: 
      - PHPLDAPADMIN_LDAP_HOSTS=openldap
      - PHPLDAPADMIN_HTTPS=false
    depends_on:
      - openldap
    networks:
      - openldap

networks:
  openldap:
    driver: bridge

5-Save the file and run the following command in the terminal inside the directory where you created the docker-compose.yml file.

docker-compose up -d

This will start the OpenLDAP and phpLDAPadmin containers in the background.

6-Once the containers are up and running, you can access the phpLDAPadmin web interface by opening a web browser and entering the following URL.

http://localhost

7-To log in, enter cn=admin,dc=alibnr,dc=com as the username and admin_pass as the password.

8-After logging in, you can start managing your LDAP server using the phpLDAPadmin interface.

That's it! You now have a fully functional and easy-to-manage LDAP server using Docker and phpLDAPadmin.