NDSD startup failed: multiple values found in, failed to parse, configuration file

  • 7018156
  • 14-Oct-2016
  • 19-Dec-2017

Environment

NetIQ eDirectory 9.0.2
NetIQ eDirectory 8.8 SP8 Patch 9

Situation

eDirectory (NDSD) will not start.
eDirectory fails to load after patching and server reboot.

A message similar to the following is seen on the console during startup where xxxxxxxxxx equals a line parameter in the nds.conf file.

Starting NetIQ eDirectory server...
Multiple values for xxxxxxxxxx found in configuration file.
Failed to parse configuration file. ndsd will not start up.
NetIQ eDirectory server startup failed.
For more information view the following log file : /var/opt/novell/eDirectory/log/ndsd.log

Resolution

This has been fixed in:
- eDirectory 8.8 SP8 Patch 11
- eDirectory 9.0.4

These patches can be found on https://download.microfocus.com/patch/finder/



To manually resolve this issue on earlier versions, please follow the steps below.

In the past there have been some reports of NDSD not loading due to duplicate parameters defined in the eDirectory configuration file: nds.conf.  Troubleshooting this specific failure of NDSD to load can be difficult and time consuming since no logging can be performed.. 

In the above mentioned eDirectory patches and higher ndscheck has been changed to pre-parse the nds.conf file on startup.  If a duplicate is found ndsd will not load and the duplicate value name will be displayed on the console for correction.


Example:

Executing customized settings before starting the NetIQ eDirectory server...
Starting NetIQ eDirectory server...
Multiple values for http.server.clear-port found in configuration file.
Failed to parse configuration file. ndsd will not start up.
NetIQ eDirectory server startup failed.
For more information view the following log file : /var/opt/novell/eDirectory/log/ndsd.log

In the above example nds.conf file has two entries for https.server.cached-cert-dn both with different values.  Once the nds.conf file was edited and the incorrect\duplicate entry was removed, eDirectory will start normally.