Skip to content

Commit abb534b

Browse files
lfranckeclaude
andcommitted
Clarify the openldap-tls SecretClass uses autoTls vs k8sSearch for real servers
The tutorial-openldap stack creates openldap-tls as an autoTls/autoGenerate SecretClass: the Secret Operator owns the CA and uses it both to issue OpenLDAP's server cert and to verify it. Contrast this with a real LDAP server, where you only have the server's CA cert and use the k8sSearch backend instead. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
1 parent 56bd8ba commit abb534b

1 file changed

Lines changed: 5 additions & 2 deletions

File tree

modules/tutorials/pages/authentication_with_openldap.adoc

Lines changed: 5 additions & 2 deletions
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -126,9 +126,12 @@ include::example$ldap-auth/ldap-authenticationclass.yaml[]
126126
// include::example$ldap-auth/30-install-openldap.sh[tag=apply-ldap-authenticationclass]
127127

128128
The AuthenticationClass connects to LDAP over TLS (port `1636`) and verifies the server's certificate against the CA provided by the `openldap-tls` SecretClass.
129-
You did not have to create that SecretClass: the `tutorial-openldap` stack installed it for you, together with the CA certificate that OpenLDAP's TLS certificate was signed with.
129+
You did not have to create that SecretClass: the `tutorial-openldap` stack created it for you.
130+
It uses the `autoTls` backend with `autoGenerate: true`, so the Secret Operator generates its own certificate authority and uses it both to issue OpenLDAP's server certificate and to let the products verify that certificate.
131+
This works because the Secret Operator owns the CA, including its private key, from end to end.
130132

131-
When you connect to a *real* LDAP server, this SecretClass does not exist yet and you have to create it yourself from your LDAP server's CA certificate.
133+
Connecting to a *real* LDAP server is different: you do not control the server's certificate and usually only have its CA certificate, not the CA's private key.
134+
In that case you create the SecretClass yourself using the `k8sSearch` backend, which simply makes the existing CA certificate available to the products.
132135
A SecretClass used only for server verification needs nothing but the CA certificate; it does not need a key.
133136
See xref:concepts:tls-server-verification.adoc[] for a complete, copy-pasteable example.
134137

0 commit comments

Comments
 (0)