I think you should read the manual again. That is not a DB_CONFIG. That looks like a slapd config file, in ldif format. -----Original Message----- From: Lepoutre Lionel <leplio(a)gmail.com&gt; Sent: Friday, 17 July 2009 10:19 PM To: openldap-software(a)openldap.org Subject: [Openldap 2.4.16] Unable to use DB_CONFIG Hello, I am trying to use the DB_CONFIG file as it seems to be the good way to configure my hdb database. My LDAP start without any DB_CONFIG, but when I put a DB_CONFIG file I have an error: "unrecognized name-value pair: dn:" Here is an extract of my files (I have changed my personal information by MY...) - slapd.conf: ------------------------------------ database        hdb suffix          "MY_LDAP_SUFFIX" rootdn          "MY_ROOT_DN" rootpw          MY_ROOT_PASS directory       /opt/local/openldap/var/openldap-data - DB_CONFIG: ----------------------------------- # global configuration settings dn: cn=config objectClass: olcGlobal cn: config # schema definitions dn: cn=schema,cn=config objectClass: olcSchemaConfig cn: schema dn: cn=core,cn=schema,cn=config objectClass: olcSchemaConfig cn: core #backend definitions dn: olcBackend=hdb,cn=config objectClass: olcBackendConfig olcBackend: hdb # database definitions dn: olcDatabase=hdb,cn=config objectClass: olcDatabaseConfig olcDatabase: hdb olcSuffix: MY_LDAP_SUFFIX .... It seems to be because of the first line of my DB_CONFIG file but I have copied it from the documentation (http://www.openldap.org/doc/admin24/slapdconf2.html). Did I miss something? Is it not the good file for such configuration? Any help is welcome and sorry if it is a stupid question. Lionel