The createTimestamp and entryUUID of an LDAP group are seen to have changed

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3

Situation

After creation of an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) group and looking at the attributes of that group using for example "slapcat -l", it is noticed that the "createTimestamp" and "entryUUID" have changed.

Resolution

The behaviour is expected; not creating empty LDAP groups will prevent this.

Cause

This only happens if a LDAP group is created without any users or if all users are removed from an existing LDAP group. Currently the LDAP group objectclass, "groupOfNames", does not allow creating LDAP groups without any members since "member" is a required attribute of "groupOfNames".

Additional Information

YaST works around the problem by creating empty groups with a different objectclass, "namedObject". When then adding a member or members to the LDAP group, the group is recreated with the proper "groupOfName" objectclass which is when the "createTimestamp" and "entryUUID" change.

The group is re-created due to the fact that the LDAP standards forbid changing the structural objectclass of an LDAP object.

Disclaimer

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