Reopening this as a doc bug.
emmanuel.duru@atosorigin.com writes:
I'm sorry, but I am mainly working on Windows, and the use of man pages is not that easy on Windows (or you would say Windows people are not used to read man pages).
The man pages are online too: http://www.openldap.org/software/man.cgi
Anyway, you could mention it in the admin guide.
I agree. "What to do"-issue, belongs in the Guide.
Though the manpages could be updated too, so a user who does't know to look for it has a better chance of learning it. Does this look right, as an addition under the "database" keyword in slapd.conf(5)?
"LDAP operations normally access only one database. However databases that provide related naming contexts ("suffixes") may be glued together with the /subordinate/ keyword. Some other features such as access controls and the /translucent/ overlay can also involve multiple databases."
BTW, the Guide's chapter 16 does say
"... A better approach would be to use explicitly defined local and proxy databases in /subordinate/ configurations to provide a seamless view of the Distributed Directory."
but it doesn't mention that this refers to the "subordinate" keyword - if it does. The rest of the "subordinates" in the guide do not.