Configuration of new eDirectory instance fails as non-root user: "Missing modules configuration file"

This is a normal root-installation of eDirectory. Attempts to configure a new instance as a NON-ROOT user fail during execution of 'ndsconfig add' with the following error: 

Checking if server is ready to service requests... Command socket error: No such file or directory. ErrorCode=2

n4u_send_command failed with error code=-1

Server down. Please check /home/testuser/edir/log/ndsd.log for details.

Error: ndsconfig return value = 12.

Missing modules configuration file or error opening module configuration file /etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/ndsmodules.conf

Modify the umask of /etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/ndsmodules.conf to 133:

# chmod 133 /etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/ndsmodules.conf

By default the ndsmodules.conf file should have a umask of 133 (rw-r--r--). A 3rd party application modified the umask to 177 (rw-------), removing global read rights. This prevented access to the eDirectory conf directory to anyone but the root user, which caused the new instance configuration to fail.